Yesterday, I took a look at my 2013 Summer Bucket List and realized I was seriously slacking! It's the end of summer, kids are going back to school, the night's are getting cooler, and football games are on the horizon! And I still have a bunch of items on my Summer Bucket List to check off! Let's see what kind of progress I have made:
I was able to check a few items off my list back in July when I scheduled a weekend away at The Canyons in Park City. We discovered a new hike, rented bikes, and dined out al fresco on the patio. What a fun weekend! But since then, I haven't done too much! I did attend an outdoor concert with some friends. We saw Kenny Loggins at Red Butte Gardens, which was a great night!
My company has a night at the Salt Lake Bees, (our local Triple-A baseball team) which was last Saturday night. Summer + Baseball + Fireworks = FUN!
Not sure what I am looking at?
Anyway, we've also had dinner out on our patio quite a bit, as well as outdoor restaurants. My favorite thing in the summer! And I've gone to he Bountiful Farmer's Market, but not the Salt Lake Farmer's Market. Still so many items left to check off!
I think we will do an outdoor movie night soon, which may also involve making s'mores over the fire pit. Boating is out of the question, due to my ACDF surgery. Too much jarring for my neck, riding in a boat. Bummer. We may still get to a Drive In Movie, and the Utah State Fair is still about a month away. So, I guess I might get more than half of my list done! 🙂
Oh, and I did finally pick a summer theme song! Well, I actually picked two. I love them both, and they are both songs that we do in Zumba, and they make me happy and just feel like summer to me.
WOW! I can’t believe it’s already been twelve weeks since my ACDF Surgery in May! On the one hand it seems like it’s been longer than that, but when I look at how far I have come in a short time, it is crazy!
I mentiond that I had been in pain since last November, and it was hard to even imagine what being pain-free would feel like…..well, it feels pretty freaking FABULOUS! Although, I’m not 100% pain-free yet, I’m pretty close! And being able to get back to being active is the BEST part!
My x-ray from my first follow up appointment with the neurosurgeon, showing the plates and screws that now reside in my neck:
According to my neurosurgeon, my neck is stronger than ever now. The part that takes time, is the fusion part, which can take up to a year to complete. It involves making sure that my new discs (cadaver discs + my bone shavings) fust together with my spinal cord, etc. I will be going in for follow up x-rays every few months, in fact I go in tomorrow.
I’m hoping to be released to up my exercise a bit, which includes running more. I have been walking like crazy and slowly jogging a bit, while trying to keep my neck somewhat stable. No hard core running yet. I’m not able to go boating, or mountainbiking yet. Nor am I able to play golf, go on rollercoasters, etc. What I have been doing is “light” zumba (what is that?), yoga and walking. Baby steps! I’m just thrilled to be able to get those endorphines going a bit! It makes all the difference in the world to me!
I’ve had such wonderful support through all of this! My husband and daughter have been willing to go walking with me anytime I wanted and my Zumba friends all kept me and my family fed during the first few days of post surgery, as well as keeping me motivated to heal and get back to class. And to those that have sent emails/comments/messages to keep my spirits up…THANK YOU! I am very blessed!
One day at a time! It’s all good!
Happy Thursday friends! We are so close to Friday and the weekend!
Have you ever had a major surgery that put you out for weeks/months?
What is your favorite way to get fit in the summer months?
WOW! I can't believe it's already been twelve weeks since my ACDF Surgery in May! On the one hand it seems like it's been longer than that, but when I look at how far I have come in a short time, it is crazy!
I mentiond that I had been in pain since last November, and it was hard to even imagine what being pain-free would feel like…..well, it feels pretty freaking FABULOUS! Although, I'm not 100% pain-free yet, I'm pretty close! And being able to get back to being active is the BEST part!
My x-ray from my first follow up appointment with the neurosurgeon, showing the plates and screws that now reside in my neck:
According to my neurosurgeon, my neck is stronger than ever now. The part that takes time, is the fusion part, which can take up to a year to complete. It involves making sure that my new discs (cadaver discs + my bone shavings) fust together with my spinal cord, etc. I will be going in for follow up x-rays every few months, in fact I go in tomorrow.
I'm hoping to be released to up my exercise a bit, which includes running more. I have been walking like crazy and slowly jogging a bit, while trying to keep my neck somewhat stable. No hard core running yet. I'm not able to go boating, or mountainbiking yet. Nor am I able to play golf, go on rollercoasters, etc. What I have been doing is "light" zumba (what is that?), yoga and walking. Baby steps! I'm just thrilled to be able to get those endorphines going a bit! It makes all the difference in the world to me!
I've had such wonderful support through all of this! My husband and daughter have been willing to go walking with me anytime I wanted and my Zumba friends all kept me and my family fed during the first few days of post surgery, as well as keeping me motivated to heal and get back to class. And to those that have sent emails/comments/messages to keep my spirits up…THANK YOU! I am very blessed!
One day at a time! It's all good!
Happy Thursday friends! We are so close to Friday and the weekend!
Have you ever had a major surgery that put you out for weeks/months?
What is your favorite way to get fit in the summer months?
So, some of you may remember that I lost a little bit of weight and went on a quest to get fit. Then again, I have been so sporadic with my blog the last year, I probably don't have any readers out there anymore! :) Anyway, you can read about my quest to get fit HERE. Go ahead check it out…..at least take a look at the photo! YIKES! I still can't believe I posted that picture for the blog world to see!
So, back to my quest to get fit. I found Zumba and I fell in love with it. And then I started GPP, along with Zumba and life was good! Unfortunately, last November life threw me a curve ball, and I ended up having to have ACDF Surgery 3.5 weeks ago. My activity level has dropped dramatically since getting injured back in November. For the time being, all I am allowed to do is walk. Either outside or on the treadmill. I can also do the elliptical, but that's not really my thing. I found this great app called Walkmeter, to map my walk, track my distance, and track my calories burned. I know that it might not be perfectly accurate, but for right now, it is working for me and keeping me motivated!
My walks over the last week:
Pretty consistent, so far! I guess I need to get walking a bit further! Ha! Bottom line is, I am getting out there, counting the minutes, steps, walks, etc. until I am released to get back to Zumba and GPP!
I've got a high school reunion coming up in a few months as well! Gotta get on it!
Have you ever had an injury setback? Had to scale back workouts, or stop working out all together?
If so, I would love to hear your story! Maybe get some motivation from you!?!?!
Seriously, I cannot believe it is already June! I'm loving the warm weather though! Summer is here! Since I barely posted during the month of May, I thought I would just do a little recap with instagram photos. If you don't follow me on instagram, please do (I'm alimoll).
Anyway, the month started off with a visit home from my favorite son, Tyson!
A bunch of his friends were graduating from the University of Utah the first weekend in May, so he came home for 2.5 days for all of the festivities and parties! We had a great time hanging out with some pretty fabulous friends celebrating. It was great to have Tyson home, if only for a short time!
This photo was taken on a Saturday morning in May, a week and a half prior to my neck/back surgery . I woke up feeling so good! I actually got some sleep the night before and I wasn't in too much pain. I went for a nice long walk at Sugarhouse Park with some great friends and then out to lunch. It was nice to feel good enough to get some exercise in!
We celebrated Mother's Day by having my Mom over for dinner on the patio! A quick photo of the girls, including our Mal-Shi, Chloe!
The highlight of the month was being able to attend BLEND with my daughter Madison. We had such a great time! Even though I wasn't able to really participate 100% due to my back, it was fabulous to spend time with Madi and meet so many wonderful women! I came away from the retreat feeling so optomistic about my surgery and getting back to working out and being back to myself again! You can read about my Blend Retreat Recap HERE. I am so thankful that I met Janetha and found out about Blend!
We were also able to get the patio furniture out, and get some flowers and pots of flowers planted. I knew I wouldn't be able to do any work in the yard post surgery, so getting it pretty was a priority! Even though the weather was a bit iffy in May!
Finally, it was Surgery Week. I have been in pain since last November, and finally realizing that I might be pain free was almost too much to imagine! I was nervous, a bit apprehensive and scared, but mostly I was excited and optimistic!
I handled the surgery really well, and immediately felt relief. My arms and hands had been going numb daily, and the pain in my neck (LOL!) was almost constant. Waking up from surgery and finally coming out of the anesthesia fog, I could already tell a difference. It was crazy! I am almost 2 weeks post surgery and I am doing so much better! Praise God! One odd thing – I'm not a real jello lover (except jello shots, holla!)…but I couldn't get enough jello in the hospital. Every hour throughout the night, when the nurses would come in to check my vitals, I asked for ice chips and jello! My throat was so sore from the tube down my throat, as well as the agitation from surgery, and jello just tasted sooo good and was so easy on my throat! I couldn't get enough. Smile.
Finally, I have to give a shout out to my Zumba friends, who along with my family made sure we were well fed, and I was well taken care of, the week after surgery! I really am the luckiest girl!
And so the month of May has come to a close. It was a great month, and I am looking forward to summer and what the month of June holds for me! I am back to work, and feeling so much better! I'm not able to exercise much yet, but I have been taking some nice long walks! Trying to get those endorphines going and burn some calories!
Happy Monday Friends! And Happy June! I hope it's a great month for us all!
Back in February (yes, I'm still playing catch up!), my cute friend Traci and I hosted a Valentine's Day Cookie Exchange for all or our Zumba Friends!
We asked everyone to bring 2 dozen of their favorite Valentine's Day cookies, treats, candy or whatever! We made sure to specify that the items did NOT need to be homemade! We were absolutely fine with store bought treats! We didn't want anyone to feel overwhelmed to bake something!
Traci and I had so much fun planning the menu items and decorating for the night! She is one of the most creative people I know! Check out the flowers in the candy filled vase below. She had three different ones! So cute!
Some of the food items: Cheese with pretzel sticks, veggie cups, soft/warm pretzel bites, baked ravioli with marinara sauce and fruit salad! We also had meatballs and a few more yummy items.
We set up a large table in my family room for all of the treats:
Oh my goodness! Can you even believe all the deliciousness on that table? And this was just the beginning! By the end of the night the table was overflowing and we were out of room!
We had wedding cookies, mini cheesecake, mini cupcakes, several GIANT Mrs. Field's cookies, rootbeer cookies, YUMMY desserts from Kneaders, eclaires and so much more!
I picked up some plain white cake boxes at JoAnn's and lined them with tissue paper, giving everyone a box to fill with goodies to take home with them!
Are you drooling, yet?
It was really one of the funnest parties I have ever hosted! And hosting with Traci, was even better!
Traci and I.
Seriously, some of the most fabulous people I know! We work out hard, so we can eat yummy treats!
The whole group! (minus me, the photographer!)
I think it would be fun to make this an annual tradition!
And look what Traci even left for me after the party:
