Good news/bad news

I met with the physical therapist this morning, & she had mixed news.

Let's start with the good news:

• I'm cleared to use the elliptical! (With the boot on)
• I have lots of muscle strength, especially in my hips. She said I was stronger than a lot of people she sees rehabbing after marathons. Yay!
• She gave me several exercises to help me maintain muscle strength while wearing the boot.
• My gym/physical therapy office has an underwater treadmill that I can use when I'm reading to start introducing low(er) impact running back in.

Annnnnnnd, for the bad news:

• She thinks it will be September until I'm running 5ish miles again. Let's just say that it took some self-control not to cry when she dropped that bomb. Basically, I'll be wearing the boot until July, then it will take a few weeks of lighter impact working out to get my full range of motion back. Plus 3-4 weeks of training to get back to 5 miles. She said maybe the end of August if I can really maintain leg strength by working out between now & then (pool + elliptical + strength only)
• She said that my calf muscle will atrophy due to the boot, and there's really no exercise they can give me to help with that due to the injury location. The calf will be my biggest barrier to running again & require the most post-boot work.

I'm going to shoot for the Girlfriends Half Marathon in Vancouver (October) as my official first half marathon. That's my goal, and I'm going to work hard to stay in shape, yet allow my body to heal. It's a fine balance. I also have my first meeting with a personal trainer today, to get a body fat assessment (can't wait ;-)) to ensure I'm not losing too much muscle tone, & to get some pool tips.

I needed to be up early for my physical therapy appointment, but there was a husband-inflicted snafu with the alarm that resulted in this scary look.

Outfit:

Details:

• Purple gathered top - Ann Taylor Loft (is it now just called "Loft"?)
• Amethyst necklace - Tiffany & Co
• Scary hair - courtesy of alarm snafu
• Weird marks on first picture - from the mirror
• Black skinny pants - Gap
• Black skinny leather belt - Jcrew
• Solo black patent shoe - Nordstrom (getting tired of this baby yet? I am!)
• Awesome black boot - courtesy of my doctor

I can't leave you with those scary visuals, so I'll throw in a few Las Vegas pictures!

Here's our gorgeous lunch location on our first day in Las Vegas - La Cave at the Wynn.

Me, finally soaking up the sunshine!

• Black dress - BCBG
• Silver necklace - Tiffany & Co
• Sunglasses - Coach
• Huge smile - courtesy of being on vacation!

Food:
Yesterday was not a banner eating day. If you're looking for healthy eating inspiration, you may want to skip this. If you want to see me keeping it real, read on. :-)

I can't decide what I'm doing that's making me queasy about 1-2x/month. Maybe it has to do with my multivitamin, or perhaps hormones from my IUD. Anyway, I try to avoid carbs, but that's about the only thing I can handle when my stomach goes nuts. Then I wasn't hungry again until 7:30, and didn't feel like having a full meal. Likely due to the cookie. Oops.

• Breakfast - coffee, fruit, sauteed spinach + egg on a bagel thin
• Snack - handful of nuts + a mini luna bar
• Lunch - variety of items from the hot bar at work. Pasta + hummus/pita + roasted potatoes + a mini sandwich.
• Snack - cookie
• Dinnerish snack - blueberries + carrots + a couple of bites of the protein balls I was making.

I made protein balls yesterday, loosely interpreted from a recipe I saw in a book. I'm going to give them a try today & if they are yummy, I'll post pictures & details.

Have you ever made your own protein bars? Any great recipes to share?