Day 4 & 5 - Weekend blues

I got up early to go for my Saturday morning run.  Saturday is usually my long distance day, since it's usually the only day I get to run without a stroller.  I have been running 9 miles recently.  I knew when I woke up that my body wasn't going to be able to go that far.  I thought, I'd take it easy and hopefully allow my body to get over this flare.  My goal was to run 5 miles for the day.  While my run felt better than it did on last Tuesday, I couldn't make it 5 miles.  I was starting to limp from ankle pain and I hate to run with a limp, it just causes everything else to get out of alignment and then causes further injury.  The pain is so strange.  I was trying to describe it to my husband.  My body muscles just feel exhausted and weak, while my joints feel achy, its a lot like when you have the flu, but I don't feel sick.  During my last major flare I had to stop running, and I'm terrified that will happen again, but in the meantime, I will keep trying even if it feels harder and more painful than normal!  I truly believe that continuing to exercise is a major key in keeping my arthritis under control.  But, it is much harder for me mentally and physically to get out there and continue exercising when I feel awful.  I completely understand why so many people stop when they feel like this.

In an attempt to salvage my weekend workouts, I thought I'd get up early Sunday to ride my road bike.  My thoughts were that it would at least be a lot easier on my body, but I'd still get a decent cardio workout. I woke up Sunday with such a sore back and neck that I couldn't really imagine riding my bike.  I settled for walking the dogs and doing yoga.  Yoga is amazing when I'm flaring.  If you haven't tried it, you should.  It really makes me feel a lot better, at least for the rest of the day that I do it.  My good friend and I recently did her Yoga DVD together, "Power Yoga" by Ryan Kest.  It left me feeling so much better that I ordered it of Amazon the next day.  Ryan Kest is a little goofy and looks like he should be in an 80's boys band, but the workout is fabulous!

Saturday for lunch we ate out because we were out running around. I got to eat tostados from one of my favorite Mexican food places we have here.  It's called El Paisa.  I ordered the beef tostado without sour cream and cheese.  They are so delicious!

We went to a kid's birthday party Saturday night, they served pizza, so I didn't eat and waited until we left.  We had to grab something on the way home (it was almost 9), so we stopped at Chick-fil-a.  I ended up ordering grilled chicken nuggets and a fruit cup off the kids meal!  Someone please tell my why they didn't add some sort of grilled chicken strips to the adult menu when they made it "healthier" recently!  

Sunday morning, I made a big breakfast for my family.  Hashbrowns, sausage, and scrambled eggs with Smart balance light in place of butter (it uses flax oil and doesn't contain cow's milk), and almond milk in place of milk.  It was delicious!  I wish I could tell you we also had nice big bowls of healthy fruit, but we didn't.  We should have!  But we didn't.  I wish I could tell you I added healthy veggies to the eggs, but I didn't.  

The rest of the weekend, we just ate leftovers.  I usually try to use the weekend to clean the leftovers out of the fridge.  Now, I need to start menu planning for this week!