Mountain Biking Injuries Suck and Hurt!

Two weeks ago,  I made the huge rookie cycling mistake of making a sudden move on some large, sharp gravel.  Boy did I pay a serious price.  Badly jammed right thumb, serious abrasions on my left elbow and a 4" long cut and bruise the size of an ostrich egg on my left hip.


My brain already knew that riding a bike on gravel was about the same as driving a car on ice.  No sudden movements of any kind or something really bad can happen.  Since I'm still trying to recover from that lapse in judgement, I'm hoping that it wont ever happen again.

The injured right thumb made it impossible to operate my rear derailleur so I was off bike riding for a while... no idea how long  The thumb injury also made it impossible for me to do my Banish Fat Boost Metabolism Jillian Michaels DVD, push ups or anything else that I needed my whole right hand to do.  Tried my jump rope and some of the simple lower body exercises that I learned from the Jillian Michaels DVDs but the bruise on my hip would not tolerate that much directional movement.

Schwinn 238 Exercise Bike

Thank God for my recumbent bike.  Even though I wasn't out on the road, I could still manage to spin.  I was happy to discover that the recumbent crank would accept my clip in pedals off of my bike so I could more closely approximate riding my real bike.  It wasn't completely pain free... my hip would really hurt when I got off the bike and tried to walk around after the work out and it's not nearly as much fun as the real thing but at least I got to watch a few old favorite movies (Bringing Down The House and Princess Bride to name a few) and get in some serious pedal time.  I discovered I could still do all of my ab workouts, squats and discovered doing strait and side planks on my elbows (great core exercise).

Today's Visalus Shake

York Peppermint Patty

• 8oz. Silk Light Chocolate Soy Milk
• 2 scoops Visalus Vi-Shape shake mix
• 5-8 drops peppermint extract
• 1 Tbsp instant sugar free / fat free Chocolate pudding mix (powder)
• 1 Tsp Hershey Cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 1/2 - 1 cup of ice

Mix in blender.
Smooth, Creamy, Minty ... Super Decadent!

Weight out of control

I was afraid to get on the scale. Didn't want to know how bad it had gotten. I never thought I would be in the position of needing to "pay attention" to what I ate and motivate myself to get off my a$$ and exercise. My face looked so different that I didn't hardly recognize myself and I was having to buy bigger clothes.

The "skinny" photo (left) @ 147 lbs was when I was dancing on a regular basis in 2006. The "final straw" photo (right) @ 185 lbs was taken in May of 2011.

My dear friend, Dawn Boyter was highly motivated to drop some weight and get in shape for her only daughter's impending wedding. She started this challenge called the Body by Vi 90 day challenge in April of 2011 and by June she had lost 35 lbs and was full of life and energy. We attended STC Nationals together in San Antonio, TX in the middle of June and shared a suite. Dawn brought her Vi-Shape (Visalus shake mix) stuff with her and shared with my husband and I several mornings. I liked the shakes OK but still couldn't get motivated to make the necessary changes.