Updates Lately

Cortisone shot

Back in March I had finally been able to get the cortisone shot in my SI joint. Read about that here. The bad news is that it didn’t work. I was SO frustrated. And honestly, it had actually made everything worse. Well the doctor I saw told me that the only other option was this procedure where you basically burn off the pain nerve endings near your spine. I made another appointment, went back in and after discussing it more with him it sounded like it was most definitely NOT the right choice for me. For a lot of reasons. One big one being that the procedure was usually done on much older people who had tremendous pain. Another issue was that it can make your low back weak, which I definitely do not need.

I asked if we could try a cortisone shot one more time. So that’s what we did. And I think it worked! It’s been several weeks now of no pain, occasional mild discomfort, but all in all a lot better. Now that I’ve had the shot twice, I wonder if the first one was done incorrectly. During the first procedure (it’s 3 shots in all -numbing, x-ray dye and then the cortisone shot) , it felt like the second shot hit a nerve in my butt. I remember jumping up on the table, it feeling really painful. And I wonder if it hit a nerve that just aggravated the area so badly it made me feel worse? All I know is that I did not have that experience this second time around.

I am in no way “cured” but doing better. I’ve been able to run a lot, no lingering issues. I am working on my PT moves and trying to focus on the areas to help my SI joint.

Low Carb

Recently I decided to give a low carb diet another go. NOT keto. That was too extreme. But I kept thinking to myself, maybe if I just do a modified low carb, that is not obsessively low like keto, maybe it could work better?

I know, I know. After months of realizing that ANY diet that severely restricts food groups is NOT healthy and writing a ton of posts about body positivity and making peace and not counting calories, etc etc…But I wanted to try.

Let me say, ugh.

First, I was trying to stay within 35-50 grams of net carbs a day. I was averaging around 45-55 max. I was eating a lot of healthy stuff. Not much processed “diet” food. I was doing ok. In a lot of ways this range of carbs is A LOT easier to do than keto (which is like 25 net carbs I think??). It’s not necessarily a long term fix, but it’s easier.

Second, when I am not trying to restrict carbs and just kind of eat normally, I average around 80-120g of carbs of day, depending on the day. I think that is much better, honestly.

Lastly, low carb is just really hard in general. It is true that once you start restricting something, that is ALL YOU THINK ABOUT. All I wanted to do was eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Or have a piece of garlic bread with my zoodles at dinner time. It was incredibly hard not to think about it.

Not only that, when I took a break over Mother’s Day Weekend I was noticing some binge-like habits emerging. RESTRICTION = BINGE.

I never eliminated entire food groups when I lost the weight the first time. And that worked for me really well. I was never obsessed about any one food group. I ate whatever I wanted, just in portion controlled servings and within the calorie range I set for myself. And once I lost the weight, that’s what I did, too. Overall, I think that’s the healthier choice.

I also noticed this time around that once I started counting my calories in the app again, I was getting obsessed. So I am stopping that again. Something I did notice when I was back to tracking: I didn’t REALLY need too. My meals were pretty good and didn’t need tracking. The only reason to track was to see my carb intake.

I am not sure what I am going to do going forward but I am definitely in the “I don’t need to track every bite” camp. It’s really not a healthy mindset.