Embracing recovery

Embracing recovery

August 31st, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Román

It’s been almost TWO weeks since having to give up my workouts momentarily and stay still for a short while. As hyped up as I always am, the price to be paid has been too high but what else could I have deserved for dragging an injury for that long? While impatiently awaiting for my first appointment today, I was assimilating this tiny obstacle, getting mentally and physically prepared to hear what I already knew (rest, don’t force your body, follow your therapy strictly), and telling myself that now that the problem has been detected, getting to know my body into more depth and NOT ignoring it is a MUST without putting it off any longer!

Day one of my truce, 5pm today:

 When I stepped into the therapist’s office, I was very calm even after hearing different speculations, one of them being fibromyalgia (FM or FMS), a medical disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and allodynia, a heightened and painful response to pressure. Fibromyalgia symptoms are not restricted to pain, leading to the use of the alternative term fibromyalgia syndrome for the condition. Other symptoms include debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance, and joint stiffness. Some patients may also report difficulty with swallowing, bowel and bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, and cognitive dysfunction. Fibromyalgia is frequently comorbid with psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety and stress-related disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

The location of the 9 paired tender points are those where fibromyalgia attacks

Treatment

As with many other medically unexplained syndromes, there is no universally accepted treatment or cure for fibromyalgia, and treatment typically consists of symptom management. Developments in the understanding of the pathophysiology of the disorder have led to improvements in treatment, which include prescription medication, behavioral intervention, exercise, and alternative and complementary medicine.

My body manifested most of these symptoms and I assured that this was the problem so needless to say, I was TERRIFIED that I wouldn’t be cured ever again until I heard the doctor’s diagnose. According to him, the ligaments inside were tense and stressed due to the impact of that unexpected wreck three years ago causing a 5mm cystic lesion on my distal femur misplacing my cartilage that is now bent and crooked, rubbing against the bone and leading to pain and swelling.

According to the MRI results my cartilage is intact! I was honestly expecting to hear that it was shattered but thank God at least there is always hope, whatever the injury may be, and despite feeling like a whale, I have already decided that I will not let ANY injury prevail over me. I have dictated that NO temporary obstacle will put a halt to my active lifestyle. I am determined that once I am fully recovered with a few extra pounds, my come back will be stronger than ever. I shall return reloaded and last a rather long while.

At any other given moment I would have been torn into pieces but not today. Although my body is slowly losing strength and endurance, my mind is gaining AMAZING self control and my soul is being fed with faith so I am ready to defeat this injury and hold on to hope because sooner rather than later I shall be strolling down the trails of Colomos or Metropolitano and embracing the promise of a new day!

Feeding my mind body and soul

 

Feeding my mind body and soul…

Spiritual, physical & mental goals

August 27, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Roman

Now that my physical challenge has been narrowed down, I will be able to sleep better, tackle and play around it in order to defeat it. Despite not having stability time wise, I will manage to squeeze in my first therapy session this Saturday once my agenda bounces back to normality.

Physical goals:

1) Embark on a pain free journey to adjust the 5mm cystic lesion on my distal femur (once I am on stable grounds I will research into dept and write about it).

2) Schedule three or four brisk walks, stay away from the bike or anything that aggravates the injury. Mainly work on my upper body; arms, abs, etc.

1)     3) stick to veggies, tuna and fish; green juices, anything including vegetables. Drink more green tea, water. DO NOT give in to unnecessary, mindless, compulsive, impulsive and emotional cravings!

Spiritual goals:

2)     Pray and meditate more to replenish my soul.

1)     Go to church and see what kind of volunteer work I can do this weekend.

2)      Learn the prayers the priest recommended when I was confessed.

3)     Read five short stories of ‘La Vida de Los Santos,’ the other priest suggested.

4)     Don’t think about my needs so much; reach out to others’ instead.

Mind goals:

1)     Read more about the human body, knee and physical injuries, types of therapy, diet and workout alternatives.

2)     See how I can help the young athletes I’ll perhaps be working with soon.

3)     Don’t read or watch any violent news.

4)     Try new relaxing teas to release the tension and enjoy more hours of zzz’s.

5)     Write and post more about health and fitness.

Health & Fitness quotes

• Health & Fitness quotes
• August 27, 2012
•  
• “So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health.” ~ A.J.Materi

• “To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy meals.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

• “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”  ~ Hippocrates

• “Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

• “He who cures a disease may be the skillfullest, but he that prevents it is the safest physician.” ~ Thomas Fuller

• “Health is the greatest of all possessions; a pale cobbler is better than a sick king.” ~ Isaac Bickerstaff

• “A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time – pills or stairs.” ~ Joan Welsh

• “The ingredients of health and long life, are great temperance, open air, easy labor, and little care.”  ~ Sir Philip Sidney

• “He who enjoys good health is rich, though he knows it not.” ~ Italian Proverb

• “Be careful about reading health books.  You may die of a misprint.”  ~ Mark Twain

• “Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “The best of all medicines is resting and fasting” ~ Benjamin Franklin

• “Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”  ~ Edward Stanley

• “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.”  ~ Plato

• “The greatest wealth is health.”  ~ Virgil

• To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” ~ Buddha

• “Health is the first muse, and sleep is the condition to produce it.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “An hour of basketball feels like 15 minutes.  An hour on a treadmill feels like a weekend in traffic school.”  ~ David Walters

• “Many so-called spiritual people, they overeat, drink too much, they smoke and don’t exercise. But they do go to church every week and pray ‘Please help my arthritis. Please help me bring up my strength, make me young again.’” ~ Jack LaLanne

• “To insure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life.” ~ William Londen

• “As a child my family’s menu consisted of two choices:  take it or leave it.”  ~ Buddy Hackett

• “The more you eat, the less flavor; the less you eat, the more flavor.”  ~ Chinese Proverb

• “As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists.”  ~ Joan Gussow

• “If you are surprised at the number of our maladies, count our cooks.” ~ Seneca

• “Most diseases are the result of medication which has been prescribed to relieve and take away a beneficiant and warning symptom on the part of Nature.” ~ Elbert Hubbard

• “The physically fit can enjoy their vices.” ~ Lord Percival

• “In general, mankind, since the improvement in cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.”  ~ Benjamin Franklin

• “Most of the food allergies die under garlic and onion.”  ~ Martin H. Fischer

• “I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more.”  ~ Henry Ward Beecher

• “It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.” ~ Michael Pollan

• “Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing” ~ Voltaire

• “The word aerobics comes from two Greek words: aero, meaning “ability to,” and bics, meaning “withstand tremendous boredom” ~ Dave Barry

• “The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” ~ Thomas Edison

• “The deviation of man from the state in which he was originally placed by nature seems to have proved to him a prolific source of diseases” ~ Edward Jenner

• “There’s lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven’t the time to enjoy it. ” ~Josh Billings

• “Our food should be our medicine and our medicine should be our food.” ~ Hippocrates

• “I fear not the man who has practiced 10000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10000 times.” ~ Bruce Lee

• “Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backward, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck.” ~ Author Unknown

Todo me es lícito, más no todo me conviene

"Todo me es lícito, más no todo me conviene"

“I have the right to do anything, but not everything is beneficial”

August 25, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Román

While going through my email inboxes a few minutes ago, I stumbled into this alluring message that brought out a smile and the first thing I exclaimed was, “How adorable, but I don’t even know this man!” More than being sweet, the young man who sent it deserves A LOT of credit because not only did he make his best effort to write in a language unknown to him but he was also very creative and sleek in his approach.
“Hola!! Hoy fui donde el médico ♥...El psicólogo me dijo: que jamás podré borrarte de mi mente, el psiquiatra me advirtió que podría enloquecer si un día me faltas, y el cardiólogo me diagnosticó un ataque fulminante si me dejaras.. Así que por razones de salud es estrictamente necesario tener tu amistad por siempre: espero haberte robado una sonrrisa. Con el cariño de siempre: besos... unknown

If I had gotten this message ten years ago I would’ve immediately jumped into the game of curiosity and drawn a bridge of communication…

Not today though, at this phase in life I reflect more, I analyze, measure and calculate each situation and decide whether it’s worth the effort or if it’ll be beneficial, not in a materialistic aspect but in the matter of, “I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by mundane desires.”

Since I hit the BIG thirties I’ve learned to differentiate my wants, needs, desires, would likes, must have’s and will do’s,  based on the fundamental of my morals, values, ethics and principles. Despite of being content with who I am and with what I have, I sometimes tend to covet more just like any human being.

My wants: Have more friends, more adventures to share, travel and have more material things.

My needs: In reality I don’t need anything as I’ve been blessed with many gifts. Why not instead put others' needs before mine?

My desires: I am infatuated with the hot man I recently met (and I can’t wait to see him again), the one who is looking right at me when I am peering at him ‘discreetly.’ But I won’t even dare make a move on him because in the back of my mind I am contemplating the long-term results and I wouldn’t want to ‘lend’ my body for a momentary desire which in the long run will leave me with a much bigger void of solitude.

Would likes: I would like to get to know a man who is NOT for me. Therefore, I simply shrug my shoulders and redirect my mind to another route. Why even go there!?

Must haves: I must have a new this, new that, go here, go there. I question myself instead, “Should you really have this? No, so you must NOT have it.

My will do’s: I will do this if it is the most prudent and appropriate action and will it guide me in the right direction to reach my purpose faster?

Right now I could say, “I have the right to do anything, to listen to my body’s needs and grant my selfish nature to have its way every time I want.” I am entitled to saying, “This is what I want, I have to have it now and I will have it no matter what, without addressing others' feelings and giving a damn about the long-term consequences." There are many choices to favor me, but I avoid falling into the world’s most crippling disease; ‘I, I, I, me, me, me, and my, my, my.’ I refuse to fall into that game.

So when I am getting distracted with self-centeredness, vanity, materialism, superficiality and shallow matters, I try to engrave these words in my mind.

1 Corinthians 6:9-12

“I have the right to do anything, — but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.

1ª Corintios 6:9-12

“Todo me es lícito, pero no todo me conviene y tampoco me llevará hacía el camino correcto. Todo me es lícito, pero no todo edifica.”

Discipline doesn’t have to hurt

Discipline doesn’t have to hurt

August 23rd, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Román

When my gym had recently inaugurated, it was promoting through a local radio station to bring in more clients. One morning while I was briefly interviewed, the radio talk person inquired, “What is your drive to exercise regularly?” I answered, “I have been doing it for half of my existence so it’s become a lifestyle.” Within a few seconds the phone lines were open for interrogations and the first caller, a young lady immediately bombarded me with questions but the most significant one was, “How can you be so devoted? I have started and given up many times and tried every single diet out there at no avail.” My answer was, “It’s very simple, all you have to do is set your mind, heart and soul into it and commit, sacrifice and DISCIPLINE to achieve your goals.” To that she responded, “But I am not strong enough to commit because discipline is very painful.”

I snapped and replied, “You are hesitating so what that means is that you don’t really want it, if you don’t do whatever it takes to get it, you don’t desire it with all your might.”

As of lately my own words keep haunting me and I have to bite my tongue every couple of seconds when I’m ready to curse myself for being so inattentive with the best I gift I was blessed with…

My engine, the temple I should’ve cherished from the moment I was capable of doing so.

As I watch my fingers type, this thought keeps beating into my head, “I want to escape the prison of my own making, the prison of pain I incarcerated myself in.” As much as I may have wanted to stop it, I clearly didn’t want it badly enough, I dragged it for too long and now I am seeing the results.

All along I made myself believe that I was well acquainted with my body and its needs and that I had corrected molded and perfected my mental faculties and moral character to NOT give in to weaknesses or injuries. I was under the impression that I had AMAZING self-control gained by enforcing obedience or order of my body but deep down I didn’t as I failed to hold on to discipline and follow my inner voice, I lacked the mental discipline and patience to seek for help and get informed much earlier.

Right now I feel my self-power drifting through my hands and I don’t know how to regain it. I am peering down at myself and scowling Gina angrily. This feeling will only last until the next day though, tomorrow is the day I am dreading yet I will lie awake all night anxiously to know the dictating results of whether or not I set foot into the slaughter house. Ha, ha! Surgeries were always regarded as a far away mirage but now I am one step from submerging into an operation room within a matter of hours.

Whatever happens though, I am certain to witness the promise of a new day without feeling this disturbing distress that is robbing me from mental and physical harmony. I will surrender to discipline because through it I will experience the reward of peace and reconciliation with my body.

I am well aware that many times we all have to make a pause, momentarily give up what we like and do things that we don’t like but in the end discipline molds and shapes our character and it doesn’t have to hurt the same way untaken actions and the outcome do, like that young radio caller implied.

God bless!

Diet goals for this week

Diet & Fitness goals for this week

August 20, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Román

Logging my nutrition goals last week definitely helped me; it forced me to stick with my regime.

 Every time I gazed at a doughnut I didn’t give in to my temptation and when I did my grocery shopping, I intentionally avoided going through the potato chip or the sweets aisle. Not bad for someone who eats junk every day!

Leading a healthy diet has always been my downfall so I have to set limits especially now that I haven’t been able to get my mind away from being operated. As daunting as it may sound I have to put a stop to my pain for good, with this said, I am getting myself ready physically and mentally so diet plays a majorly important role.

This week I intend to eat more vegetables, fruit, more food that boosts my metabolism, eat bread and tortillas only once or twice a week. Only splurge one day BUT within a limit.

Make it to the gym two or three times a week and do a brisk walk twice a week despite all the insconstancy of the upcoming two weeks.

I am very confident that I will accomplish my goal since last week I was impressed with my self-discipline.

Happy Monday!

My obsession with pain

My obsession with pain

August 19, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Román

Being a deaf tenant in my own body is the most descriptive adjective for me. When it comes to health, I am good at telling my friends and loved ones to get their regular check ups, to get treated when they get injured, I am the first one behind pushing them to not forsake their physical, emotional and spiritual well being. But I am the first in line to break my own rules, always ignoring my body.

After a week invaded by severe pain, pondering about my knee injury all weekend and trying to decide whether or not I should seek medical help, my worst fear manifested through a very vivid dream, I’d say it was closer to a nightmare that I woke up sweaty and my heart pounding at a million beats per minute.

There I was lying on my bed with my left leg elevated and bandaged after a recent emergency surgery for it was impossible to take another step. I was caught in the midst of different emotions; fear, frustration, self-pity, sadness, lack of self-control, craze, emptiness and anxiety because I couldn’t move. On the verge of tears I promised not to ever have another surgery because I would not be able to bear the pain. I have never been good at withstanding pain, yet it’s been one of my companions for a long time making me very dependent on it. I have willingly integrated physical strain in my life as I have neglected to seek the according treatment. Getting it over with was never in my plans since I’d voluntarily decided to drag it for this long.

Through all the reflecting I made a fundamental decision; that agony won’t last much longer, from now on, I will go against torturing my body, not another day, week, month or year will I put up with the strain, I cannot allow this internal issue to rob me from many nights of sleep or from a pain free life.

Looking back at all the hardship I’ve put my body through since I was an adolescent, I cannot fight the yearning to beat myself against the wall for being so ignorant with it.

My first experience with physical pain was at sixteen when I marked my body (I got my first tattoo) just because I wanted to go against my father’s dictatorship. My second experience was shortly after that, at age seventeen on an early Thursday morning I was riding my bike and got hit by a car. The vehicle struck me on my right side making me fly right out of my two-wheels and them landing on top of me. I was bleeding all over, my spine was out of place but being the invincible super woman, I rejected to have an ambulance pick me up so after the matters were ‘resolved’ with the driver’s insurance company, I hopped right back on my bike and pedaled home. I claimed I was just fine, went home, cleaned, and did all my chores as normal until…

 the next day, I was bruised, scratched and aching all over but I still neglected to go to therapy. That following Saturday I was shaking my booty at a concert with my then boyfriend!!!

No wonder my mother almost had a heart attack!

All through my competition years I was a hard core partier taking advantage of every traveling opportunity and the thrill of knowing new places with my team. Being the bad influence I’d always talk the girls into partying out and getting a little wasted and then pigging out an entire pizza the night before a state meet. Needless to say, that was a detrimental decision for our results but more so for our body so my coach almost kicked me out of the team. She actually gave me the benefit of choosing and so I did. Partying was put on the back burner for some time.

After college, I went on to long distance but only that time there wasn’t anyone getting on my case about partying so I’d pull many all nighters salsa dancing the night away at an annual salsa congress in San Francisco by the beach, drinking, grabbing a dinosaur size beef burrito and storming right back to Sacramento, arriving right at 7:30am to do the 42.1 k.

It took me a while to get why I never made it to the cross line. My body was suffering and there I was thinking I was the ‘citius altius fortius nenikekamen’ (the Fastest, Highest, Bravest, I will always win) of the universe. I brushed the pain aside not wanting to take it to the extent of harming myself but I have. I’ve been self-destructive; I’ve invited pain to be a part of me because I was always under the belief of having strong genes and that the pain would only be temporary. All my life I’ve struggled and been haunted with dreams of life, death, fear, and physical pain that I’ve slowly integrated it into my life.

During my last years of long distance competition my body started ringing the alarm but I once again shut it down. Not long after I had to put running to a halt because of the awful wreck I got into on Carretera de Chapala on June 15, 2009. Once again, I didn’t go to physical therapy, I instead went to psychological therapy to accept that my years as a professional athlete were long gone.

After that I continued running for a few more months until I was paralyzed with the symptoms of sarcopenia (a severe injury - age related loss of muscle).

Physical damage had been a part of me but from now on, I want to detach for good, I want to live a normal life and be able to walk without panicking. I don’t want to be bedridden or dependent on crutches or someone to do everything for me. At this point I don’t even care about running again (I actually do, only 20-30 minutes without aching).

That’s why as of today, I’ve decided to discontinue being a deaf tenant in my own body. Perhaps one day all my expertise and wounds will make me wiser and perhaps I can mentor young athletes. And as scared as I am, I will do whatever it takes to go back to normality even if a surgery is necessary.

Being in bed or immobile puts me on panic mode but I have to overcome that fear because I know for a fact that quitting is NOT an option.

I have bent temporarily many times before but I’ve NEVER been broken.

“Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” 

Lance Armstrong

“Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.”

J. K. Rowling

“If pain must come, may it come quickly. Because I have a life to live, and I need to live it in the best way possible. If I have to make a choice, may I make it now"

Paulo Coelho 

By the River Piedra I sat Down and Wept

"Only then will I either give up or continue fighting”

Gina Yoryet Román

 

A True warrior

A True warrior

August 18, 2012

By: Gina Yoryet Román

“You are worth the strength of twenty men together,” an old man said to me while I went on a stroll the other day. My mother told me when we chatted the other day. When I scan my mother’s slightly plump and petite (5 feet) physique, I am in complete awe because she has more energy than many thirty and forty year olds. She is always very hyped up and walks for endless hours at least 4 times a week. In previous years when I used to train, many times she was my running partner.

After bearing eight children she still has the strength of twenty men together like that old man inferred. I recall one time in my childhood while looking through a photo album I spotted this slender Asian looking woman in all the pictures with all my siblings and I. at the beginning I was absent-minded and didn’t recognize her but then it dawned on me that every time I looked at myself in the mirror, she looked right at me (I look just like her when she was my age).

She actually looked better because after being pregnant for eight consecutive years she was a size three if not smaller!! I am like, “mother, did you spit all these babies right out of your mouth?” What’s most startling is that not a single time in her life has she gone on a diet, not once has she joined a gym or tried a strict workout regime. Brisk walking and cutting back on grease, fried and abundant meals are her only health allies now per her doctor’s recommendation as she’s hit ‘el sexton piso’ the sixth decade with a few pounds over her limit.

She has never been the type of woman to spend her whole day at a spa, or getting her hair or nails or a facial done, yet she’s got very silky and glowing skin. Not once did she buy an expensive anti-wrinkle or anti age spot facial moisturizer or treatment because she could never be at ease even for five minutes as she was always running after eight little bundles of terror leaving herself forgotten.

In addition to being a 24/7 mom without ANY nights out with her hubby or “Me” time, cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, making arts and crafts, knitting and making beautiful and colorful shoes and dresses, cutting our hair, and making magic with everything she touched, she juggled a full time job.

At the young age of thirty or thirty one (younger than me), she had borne all eight of us she was still very svelte and not even one single trace was left in her tummy. Sometimes when I look at her, very few age spots reflect on her face and her hands are flawless, acne problems have always been non-existent.

Unlike me! To begin with, I was always ‘la gordita,’ the chubby one in the family, I didn’t lose my ‘baby fat’ till after High School. When I joined a co-ed soccer team, I started shedding the stubborn pounds, once I got into Track & Field and Cross Country and started nurturing my body differently it changed but I always hit my borderline.

I have not given birth to any children and I sometimes laugh or go on panic mode when I look at myself in the mirror and say, “todo se está empezando a ir al hoyo,” when a small spot is starting to become visible. I have never gone on a diet, but I do lead a healthy life for the most part as opposed to her when she spent many years of her life getting a few bites of this and that here and there.

I know for a fact that nature was very generous with her and gifted her with great physical virtues; it must be the Asian genes which prevailed over my father’s.

Every time I hear her say, “ya estoy viejita,” I tell her, “mom, at sixty three you’ve got a long way to go!” I always ponder on this, “She’s so intact that even though she was bent temporarily by cancer, she was never completely broken. She should’ve been named Victoria because she has shown great vigor, courage and aggressiveness in every area of her life, the principles which we were brought up with.

‘Warrior’ comes from the thirteenth century old Northern ‘werre’ meaning war.