Ab Challenge. Ouch!

So the struggle for better health continues...

An old friend of mine who now lives in San Antonio with his beautiful wife roped me into doing the 30 day Ab Challenge. This is a progressive calendar of sit-ups, crunches, leg raises and planks. Each day increases the number of reps until by the end of the 30 days you're doing 200 crunches, 125 sit-ups, 65 leg raises and 120s planks with a rest day on every 4th day. Today is a rest day. Thank God!! Day 7 was 35 sit-ups, 12 crunches, 12 leg raises, 25s planks. I broke it down into sets, but struggled to get 10 sit-ups in a row!! I'm used to doing crunches and have absolutely no worries about reaching 200, but I'm having trouble envisioning 50 sit-ups, never mind 125!! On the plus side though, you do not need to do them all in one go. You can break it up, as long as it's all in one day. Yay!

Anyway, I haven't been consistently taking my meds, for various reasons mostly related to social events (i.e. I cannot consume alcohol while taking the meds). They tend to knock me out about 45 minutes after taking them so I only take them when I know I can go straight to bed. This is a rarity in my life though.... Yesterday one of my best friends received an awesome job offer and wanted to celebrate so she planned a girly dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Now, I hate to be flaky, and I hate letting people down. I was exhausted and could feel the pain and numbness beginning to set in from the disk pushing on the nerve in my back. It started out subtle, but by the end of the work day, movement was becoming stiff. I figured, what the Hell, I can manage an hour or two at dinner. This girl has been there for me, she's super excited about this new opportunity and I don't get out much. So I brought lil sis along because she likes Mexican and the company on the hour long ride was nice.

By the time I got to the restaurant and sat down, I was on the verge of tears. I drive a stick shift. My entire back was on fire, pain was radiating down both legs and my fingertips were numb. Conversation was difficult, I could barely concentrate on what anyone was saying to me.

SIDE BAR: Our server gave me a ego-boost on checking my ID. It took a second for the age to register with him, but when it did his response was "No way! I don't believe that for a second". I can tell when they are just trying to sweeten me up, but his reaction was pretty genuine. Made me feel good :-)

Back to the story. My wine arrived, I figured it might help me relax a little. No. My chest started to hurt. I was pretty sure I was going to have a heart attack as the pressure was intense. My food arrived and eating was equally as difficult as conversing, but I pasted a smile on my face, ordered a stronger drink and did my best. I've delivered 3 children naturally. No pain relief. That was easier than sitting at dinner for a couple of hours last night! The walk to the car was slow, the drive home excruciating and even though it was almost 11pm and I knew I would wake up groggy, I took my meds. Firefighter stayed up and texted with me until I was finally knocked out into a drug-induced slumber.... I love him for that.

I woke up late this morning. Got to work on time. I'm stiff, groggy and dreading sitting in my chair all day, but it was so good to see my girl excited about where her life is going.

(And she's my only follower, so I get to say I love her to pieces and I'm so proud of her!!).

All I can say at this point is that the results had better be worth the effort. I've seen before and after pics of others who have tried it, so I'm encouraged that I will at least see some change. And I have the encouragement of Willy D to keep me going. I'm no quitter!