Doctors orders

I visited the doctor this morning about my back pain. Last Friday, I decided I couldn't 'power through' the pain anymore so I made an appointment to see my primary care doctor.

First of all, the doctor basically told me to stop running and that I shouldn't run again until I lose a considerable amount of weight, especially without the guidance of a trainer. I understand that there are avid runners out there that think this is horse malarkey, but honestly I don't think she is off base. I weigh 318 pounds. When I think about what the impact of that much weight does to every bone, joint, muscle, tendon, ligament and every other part of my body with each step when I am running, I realize it's too much to risk. I can still have the life goal of running a 5K, it just won't be by the end of this year.

My pain is thought to be muscular so all you can really do is treat the symptoms and rest. So, my doctor prescribed some pain meds and Lidoderm patches for my back and ordered bed rest for 2 days. After I got home around lunch time I took the 3 pain meds prescribed and was knocked out for a couple hours this afternoon. It was really heavenly.

As far as my workouts, I will take this week off from exercise then resume walking and water aerobics 3-4 times a week. I still plan to walk the 5K in October and will be looking for to see if there is a 10K that I can walk towards the end of the year or the beginning of 2011.

With no working out this week, I will need to watch what I eat more closely. This is truly going to be hard for me because 1) being home all day tomorrow I know I will want to snack, snack, snack; 2) I always want ice cream and fast food when I am home sick from work and 3) I just made some Butternut Squash brownies.

The brownies, inspired by my favorite food blogger, resulted from mixing together 1 can of Trader Joe's organic butternut squash puree and 1 box of Pillsbury milk chocolate brownie mix. This was the result:

Not exactly healthy. They are approximately 150 cals per square.

Delicious? You bet! And a perfect "home sick" treat.