Saturday, May 7, 2016

Injuries suck!

So right now, my left heel has been hurting due to a heel spur, plantar fasciitis, or a little from both. I'm not supposed to be running on it. Oh man, it is SO HARD to not run in Kaia! My heart hurts (not literally) from having to power walk and not able to run with my tribe. Honestly, I can definitely run with them. The next day, my heel reminds me that I should not have.

My primary care doctor has prescribed my some physical therapy. It's helping quite a bit! I'm sure the resting part is also doing its job. But that's the hardest part of all of this - the resting part. I think if you've been in Kaia for any lengths of time, you're bound to have tried our high impact Kaia level. The hard part is controlling what I do, or don't do in this level. Sure, it seems to push you harder than all the other levels, but if you truly need to rest your body, why are you pushing it?!

This past week's Fit Tip was great! It talks about "being brave enough to slow down your movements and commit to focusing on the balance level of each exercise. Work on good form and full range of motion." This is exactly what I need to work on. For some reason, as a Kaia vet, we think our Kaia sisters will think less of us if we slow it down, like we're going to be less of an athlete if we do balance level. Sometimes, we need to break it down in order to build it back up. 

With speed, sometimes, we compromise form. It's not good - when FORM goes out the window, you know who shows up: INJURIES. So even if we have to bite down our pride, we should all practice getting back to balance form, executing perfect form, using those mirrors placed FOR US - in order to visualize if we are doing something correctly or just going through the motion, and lastly, listen to your Kaia coaches! Sometimes, as vets, we don't want to hear that we're not doing something in perfect form - that little voice in my head says, "Well damn! I've been here so long, I KNOW what I'm doing." I'm here to tell you that your coach might see something that you might not and we're not just walking around correcting form for 'shits and giggles'. With LOVE, we are here to help reduce injury, & reduce exercise downtime, so YOU don't get stuck having to walk/powerwalk like I have to.


Take it from me, slow it down, take it to Balance Level, and perfect that exercise before adding speed, weight or injuries!

Detox Week Tip

I was at work this past week and a patient's family member had brought in doughnuts and coffee to thank the staff, just as BRIK had started. I mean, literally, BRIK started hours before. We had orientation on Saturday and I worked Sunday night. I was really good though, and stayed away from eating any doughnuts and drinking any coffee as one of my absolute NO's is caffeine for this BRIK.

It was a mistake to take a photo of said doughnuts and coffee. It was on my brain ALL night long. And I work 12 hour shifts! Do me a favor: DO NOT do what I just did.

Reverse psychology works on a lot of people but if you're trying NOT to eat something and you tell yourself "NO - NEVER!" I feel like it makes me want that item more! Dangle this dangerous "dare" in front of me, and I don't know if I'm going to succeed, or setting myself up for failure. 

Nothing is ever 100%. I mean, by telling myself that I cannot have caffeine for the whole BRIK, I pretty much have coffee on my brain all the time. I'm not fond of doughnuts at all, but by putting it on the "NO list", I wanted that doughnut more! Don't put hard limits to your nutrition. It can only set you up for failure UNLESS you are VERY VERY DISCIPLINED (::cough:: Caren!)

So do me a favor and for Detox week, try LESSENING those dirty habits instead of banning them altogether. It might just be me, but I feel like diving into cutting everything out can be overwhelming and can set you up to fail pretty quickly. Ease yourself into this warm bath by choosing healthier food to crowd out the junk food. Slow and steady wins the race! Or in my case, not diving into a box of doughnuts when no one else is looking!