Time to get serious

I first went to physical therapy in January I think - towards the end. She gave me some exercises and I did them and they helped. Both the shoulder and the knee. I went back in February and saw that I had progressed and she gave me some more advanced exercises and I didn't do them. Then I sat on my butt for a few weeks and didn't go to Crossfit. Then my knee started giving me real problems. Really? How surprising!!!! During this break I have been working on getting my knee back in shape, and it's getting there. Then yesterday I had a ortho appointment and talked him into another cortisone shot in my knee - woo hoo. Today the knee feels awesome. Really. Really. Awesome. Went to Crossfit this morning and for the very slightest moment considered just going all out since I felt so good. Luckily I came to my senses rather quickly. I modified. I didn't do a whole lot of double unders during the warm up because the pounding hurts my knee. Smart. I did not do the squat snatches as prescribed, because squatting is not good for me. I did push press instead. There were also lunges involved and I took them slow and easy to make sure my form was good and I did not twist my knee in any strange way. I got in a helluva workout and I felt totally proud of myself for not going crazy. I walked out of there not limping. Yea me!!!!!

One other thing I did during this break is cleaned up the spare room. That is the 'workout' room. I threw stuff away, rearranged furniture, purged a bunch of junk, and made room so it could be a real workout space. Then today, I used my birthday reward from Sports Authority, and got one of these:

I have been using the one at the gym and it is helping but I don't always have time there or want to hang out for 20 minutes rolling myself. So I bought my own. I am going to start a program in the mornings where I do my PT exercises and roll my back, hips, and legs out. I have to work out exactly how long these things will take me, but even if I have to break it up to morning and evening exercises - that would work. Do knee in the morning, shoulder at night. The goal here is to improve these areas, make them stronger before the cortisone shot wears off. Last time I got a shot in my knee, I can tell you exactly when i wore off, because I felt it. I don't want that to happen this time. I want to get 6 months out and say , "oh, my last cortisone shot was 6 months ago, I forgot." It can happen, it is just going to take diligence and persistence and patience. None of these things are my strong suits, but I live by habits. I'm going to make these all a habit and that will achieve the same results.

Right now, I am hungry. Very hungry. I will write more about my plan later.