Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I have a lot of people that inspired my over the years, but two people stand out as the biggest influence to how I live my life today. One is Dr. Joel Fuhrman, who I have blogged about many times. The other is vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke.

Dr. Fuhrman defined the way I eat and Robert Cheeke helped me to become 100 precent vegan. Before learning about Robert, I was struggling with loose skin, especially around my abs, a result of my 150 pound weight loss. I tried everything to try and tighten my skin and believed that if I built more muscle, I could disguise some of the skin. But the problem was, my arms were skinny, resulting in loose skin that slightly hung, the chest was droopy and my abs were a mess.

I think I went back to running too quick. My knee was feeling awesome for weeks after the physical therapy. I made the mistake of making some wrong movement and here I am again, a swollen left knee and doing physical therapy.

I know I went back to running way too soon.Even though it was feeling great, I went full into it again. Had I given it even more time to heal and get stronger with the strength training, I think I could have avoided the swollen knee this time.

After healing another knee injury from almost 6 weeks ago, I am back to running. It felt great, and most importantly, my knee was pain free. The physical therapy works and I can't thank the therapists enough! Also, my anti-inflammatory diet brought the inflammation down within a few days of the injury.

I saw my orthopedist the other day and she thinks that maybe there was a small tear that healed. It could have got trapped under the knee cap, causing it to swell like it did almost a year before. She checked my knee and how I moved it. I definitely have full range of motion again, no problem! She reminded me how far I came. During my appointment in late November or early December (whenever it happened), she recalled the crutches I was using. She recalled how I could not bend the knee. And she knew how painful it was if I put any weight on it at all.

Last Sunday, I somehow twisted my knee. This was the same knee that was injured nearly one year ago.

My knee gradually got swollen during the day to the point where I couldn't put any weight on my leg or bend it without excruciating pain. Instead of going to the ER, I called the doctor on call. He told me to keep icing it and elevating it. I saw the orthopedist the next day.

Last year, I did the Manchester Road Race for the first time. This race is well known internationally and gets thousands of participants on Thanksgiving Day.

I didn't do as well as I could have last year. I came in at 50:55. My knee was bothering me that day. I really shouldn't have run. I completed the race and by the time I got home, my knee was hot and swollen. Eventually, it got to the point that I couldn't put any weight on it. It was also gradually getting more painful, to the point it was excruciating. I ended up calling the ambulance to go to the ER.