I took yesterday (Friday) off from work because my neck seized up overnight. In the morning I couldn’t move my head and wouldn’t dream of lifting things at work. So that meant I rested all day and I had to work today.

I made improvement, though. I finally have muscle relaxers and prescription cream for pain relief on my affected areas. I just have to hold out for Wednesday, my next chiro appointment.

But I took 10500 steps! I ate a little more today too, I had 18500 calories of good, wholesome food with a treat thrown in here and there. A smaller deficit is still okay, I’m just trying to do a little better each day while focusing on healing my back. Back injuries are no joke…even just walking along the river today I had to turn back and go home. The impact of each step aggravated more nerve pain and angry tingling along my spine. This is the first time I’ve ever had a back/shoulder/neck injury so I’m trying to learn a lot and not make things worse.

Between 10 years of competitive tennis and 15 years of competitive musicianship, I’ve had my fair share of pain and injuries. Tennis actually taught me how to prevent getting hurt for music. The number one rule is if it hurts, STOP. Musicians often can’t fathom that sentiment, as they have too much work to do, too many passages to perfect, too many pieces to learn, etc. I’ve been close to wrist injuries, hand injuries, and neck injuries but I was always smart enough to take a break, if even for a few days. To this day, I still have not sustained a music-related injury and I can’t say the same for the majority of my colleagues. But moving kegs and doing beer cooler acrobatics has me in a different situation.

I am very disappointed that I can’t be in the gym right now, I won’t lie. And it’s hard to keep my calories down to compensate when my job makes me ravenous. I honestly probably burn 3000-3500 calories at work easily. I think it’s lower now that I’m doing limited things at work. For example, it’s less painful for me to bring in one meal canister, even if it weighs 40lbs, and just hook it up twice during my maintenance process. If I bring in my more elaborate pumping equipment, it’s slightly less heavy but I’m reaching over the bar a dozen times more during setup and take down. And during pumping, I’m working on faucets and tavern heads while it runs, so I never have breaks. The canisters are static cleaning, so once I finish my faucets, I can just sit down, rest my back, and wait for the chemical to sit and do its job. At least I know that there is a way to do my job without hurting myself.

But I wanted to be dead lifting by now! My trainers gave me all this awesome information to strengthen my legs! My bench was increasing exponentially! My squat form was improving! It’s so hard to walk away when you’re on the brink of a breakthrough. I keep telling myself one of the main mantras for the healing process though: take more time off initially to heal properly and you’ll waste less time reinjuring yourself when trying to come back too soon.

With that said, I’m going to reapply some tiger balm and lidocaine cream, take another flexeril, and pass out with hopes of healthy improvement in the morning.

-Elle

Exercise

20 minutes walking outside

40 minutes walking in mall with friend

Nutrition

100 cal cookie

50 cal peanut butter

50 cal chai tea

320 cal soup

150 cal brownie from bakery account (work perks!)

350 cal salad no dressing

150 cal ginger infused iced tea

240 cal chicken nuggets

150 cal cocoa

280 cal 4 eggs, no butter or cheese

Total: 1850

Accomplishments

I budgeted for the rest of this month and next

I socialized

Work

8 hours

10,500 steps

Music

Dead, Phoebe Ryan

Me Too, Meghan Trainor

Ritual, Marshmello