Back in the Saddle – aka – Cancelling the Pity Party

Today is the day  that I start again. Well, technically yesterday I took the first step, but today is the day where all the pieces are back into place.

See a week ago today, I had my lower left wisdom tooth removed. It was impacted below the jawline so it had to be removed by an oral surgeon in the fun, cut your jaw open kind of way. I was told before the procedure I was off any kind of heavy exercise, running and whatnot for 5 days. That was a rough pill to swallow for me.

Me, looking pathetic right after surgery

Well, I’d love to say that things went smoothly from there, but unfortunately not so much. See my tooth was a stubborn little bugger and didn’t want to come out without a fight. The doctor eventually won, but not without a bit of damage to the nerve that runs right below there. Long story short, today is Day 7 of not having any feeling in the front of my face. Well, no feeling isn’t exactly right, sometimes it feels like crazy. But only randomly. Needless to say, I’ve been a bit down in the dumps about the lack of activity and lack of feeling in my face and have had pretty much a week-long pity party.

But that’s over now. Time to get back to work. Numbness or not.

So here’s where I now. Basically, the not being able to feel my front teeth thing has made eating an issue for me. Most form of chewing are right out as of now which has made it a challenge to eat enough protein and veggies without actually having to chew protein and veggies. I’ve had to been creative in order to get in the calories I need, and I’ll be honest, I’ve been failing. I met with a nutritionist last week and she wants me to eat 1300 calories per day. I’ve been averaging around 700 on a good day. I know, not cool.

Yesterday I picked me up a big ol’ container of Plant Based Protein shake stuff, almond milk and berries and made up some overnight oats and a smoothie. I also cooked up some chicken breast and blended it within an inch of it’s life along with some celery, onion powder and mayo in order to make pasty chicken salad. I will attempt to consume these items today to hit my calorie count.

Meanwhile, I ran a pretty slow 4.5 miles yesterday at Riverwalk to get back into the swing of running. This morning, I did the Bi/Tri/Shoulder class at Burn. That felt pretty good. Had half the smoothie before and half after, and while typing this, I am working on the overnight oats.

Also, this morning I set my weekly plan for both workouts and nutrition. I’ve never been consistent with keeping a bullet journal, but I am hoping that this week will be the one where I can make it stick.

Mostly, this week I’m working to get back in the saddle of my active lifestyle despite my new normal. Hopefully the numbness is temporary. But there’s no way of knowing at this point when or if feeling will return, so sulking over it any longer is not longer an option.