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These last few weeks have been tough. It seems as though every time I'm feeling good and ready to hit the gym hard, another problem pops up. It all started several weeks back when I developed a nagging pain in my forearm. Trying to push through it was a mistake and the pain went from only being a problem at the gym to a dull ache that was with me all day long. I gave myself a week off and the pain went away. Feeling good, I was back in the gym and pushing through the Insanity workouts. Like usual, the scale wasn't moving but it felt good to be exercising. I changed up my gym routine to allow me to take more advantage of Insanity and after a week, I found myself hurt again. I was in the gym, doing a bench press when I felt a bit unbalanced on the bench. Instead of putting the weigh on the rack and readjusting, I opted to shimmy over on my back, while still holding the weight. My left should wound up dipping off the bench and I felt a pulling sensation. I didn't think it was a big deal and continued my gym routine. Later that evening I started the second Fit Test for Insanity and the shoulder began to bother me during the warmup. I decided to just tough it out and push through. My shoulder began to ache after a series of Push-up Jacks but the Fit Test was coming to a close. The following day was a rest day, from the gym, and I expected to be back to normal for my Wednesday gym session. When my alarm sounded, the following morning, I reached to shut it off and was blinded by pain in my shoulder. All I could do was lie there, holding my arm tight to my body, waiting for the wave of pain to pass. I spent the remainder of the day yelping in pain when I instinctively reached for things without thinking. The way I felt, Insanity was completely out and the thought of going to the gym was laughable. I stepped back and decided to give myself a week off to recover. I would assess the situation the following week and see how I felt. When the following week rolled around I still had a small nagging pain in my shoulder. Rather than push too hard, too soon, I took that week off as well. That brings us to this past weekend. I was out Goose Hunting with a friend (which basically boiled down to laying in a ground blind for a few hours in 17 degree temperatures) on Saturday. When it came time to call it a day, I was freezing. In an attempt to warm up, I jogged around the Goose Decoys, cleaning up. Jogging through the corn stubble was probably bad idea, especially when completely cold, because I developed a pain in my heel (where the tendon connects to the heel). I spent the evening limping around but I expected to be back to normal the following day. Just like my shoulder, the pain went from mild to severe as I all but fell out of bed trying to stand up. I was determined to go to work and make it to the gym, so I pressed on. When I almost went head first down my front steps, I turned around and went back inside. I called out of work and dreaded the idea of missing even more time in the gym. While I could probably limp from station to station in the gym, it is a bad idea. I've had this type of pain in my heel before. I stepped in a hole while mowing my lawn a year ago. I went to the doctor and was told I probably had a small tear where the tendon meets the heel. My doctor went on to explain that it isn't an uncommon problem and that the best remedy was an ice bath. The idea was to fill a bucket with ice and water then dunk my foot in, moving it as much as possible, for as long as I could stand it. The problem with this is that it is just as painful as the injury. Fortunately, it helps a great deal. I've began the icing process and feel a bit better already. I'll probably be back in the gym on Wednesday (minus the Squats and Calf Raises that I'm supposed to do) but there is no way I'm going to be able to do Insanity by then. I may be forced to take yet another week off of the program. At that point, I might as well start back from the beginning. The bright side of all of this is that my weight has stayed pretty much the same. I'm going up and down the same 3-4 pounds that I was while working out. It doesn't seem like much of a victory to not have gained weight but I'll take anything I can get at this point. It has been difficult to stay positive over the past few weeks but the truth of the matter is, I'm still 35 pounds lighter than when I started 192 days ago. As they say, weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint.

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