Setback

I have a history of dislocating my right shoulder. I’ve dislocated it three times in the past. The first time I needed the doctors to put it in for me but the second and third times I put it in myself. The second time I had to use a sling for a week or two. The third time was not very traumatic and it popped back in quickly – I was mildly sore for a few days after but I restricted its use and it went back to normal

Today, I dislocated it again – attempting to learn how to do the turkish get-up with a kettlebell. It wasn’t very traumatic and popped back in easily. But it still hurts a little with certain movements. My range of motion is still pretty good. But I am definitely going to stop everything involving the shoulders until it heals.  At least a couple weeks.

Which makes me frustrated with myself. I should have known better. Frustrated that I didn’t go slower in doing shoulder work knowing that I have a history of dislocation. Frustrated that I didn’t know my own limits. Frustrated that right when I’m trying to get back into the swing of things I injure myself. I ordered some therabands to do some basic physio exercises with my shoulder – the same things I was originally ordered to do by a physio when I first dislocated it real bad back in college. For those interested, here is a good free resource for shoulder dislocation rehab that my physio recommended way back when.

I already focus mainly on the legs and glutes anyway so I will just continue to do that as well as some more cardio.

But oh well – it gives me a good excuse to really focus on my diet anyway. If I can’t see gains in the gym at least I can strive for making strives with my waistline. I’ve lost about in inch from my waist already in the past couple weeks while staying at relatively the same weight.

My philosophy when it comes to diet and nutrition is maximal adherence. While it might be “optimal” nutritionally to do a lot of at-home cooking to make the healthiest and most delicious food with the best fresh ingredients – anything that involves a lot of prep work is not going to be something I can stick to for weeks at a time, day in, day out. For me it’s gotta be super easy with prep work lasting mere minutes with 2-4 ingredients or preferably just popping it in the microwave or eating it out of the fridge/pantry. Or just making a protein shake.

This means spending more money too since for me maximal adherence means buying frozen grilled chicken rather than raw chicken breast because when I’m lazy, which is all the time, I can just pop a fillet in the microwave and, bam, 21g of lean protein for a mere 110 calories. Or making eggs in the microwave instead of the stovetop. You get the point. Maximal adherence means less binging, less cheating, less straying from my plan. I’m also one of those people who can eat the same thing everyday and not get bored.

Another tenant of my current diet routine is to eat the foods that are easiest to determine the calories with minimal estimation. A consequence of this is that I tend to eat only food that comes prepackaged with a calorie estimate. I know there can be a 20% variance but I severely doubt my ability to e.g. make a chili from scratch and accurately track my calories each meal. I trust what’s on the package way more than my own ability to estimate foods. I just don’t have the time or energy for that. So I try to strike a balance between “clean” and “mildly clean” eating. It’s not the perfect diet. But it’s not horrible either. And it’s really really easy to follow. For me at least.