Break Time is Over

There was a little scrawny man who used to work with me. He was the shipping and receiving person and could work circles around anyone else. One of his favorite sayings was, "Break times over!" I guess he thought other people weren't working fast enough. He was probably right.

In July I had spine surgery. I'm a rule follower. Always have been (for the most part), probably always will be. Wear a hugely annoying neck brace 24 hours per day? OK, whatever you say doc. So I did. For three weeks and three days, I wore that thing like it was my job. Because, well, it was my job. Healing during that time was my job. I'm great at it, mostly because I. Follow. the. Rules!

But then I was tired of it and called and asked if I REALLY had to keep wearing it. Got permission to take it off and only wear it in the car. I was FREEEEEEEE!

And now I've had my follow up appointment with the surgeon and I'm good to go. I'm not going to lie, I indulged over the last few weeks. They told me that they had to move my esophagus over to make room to work on my spine, so I might have a sore throat and/or a little difficulty swallowing for a bit. Do you know what that means? Ice cream. That's what that means.

But I'm happy to report that I didn't OVERindulge. I still had my lowfat cottage cheese with blueberries for breakfast, fruit as a snack, yada yada. I managed to lose about seven pounds while I was off work healing. That is SO. NOT. ME. I mean, I get two weeks off at Christmas and feel like I need to eat the house while I am at home. Not sure what I'm going to do if I ever retire, but hoping that the changes I'm making now are going to stick with me forever.

If the last month is an example of my forever, I think I'll be OK. BUT! There's always a but. It's time for me to get back into walking. I have exactly 71 days until a half marathon. The whole spine surgery thing threw me off my training schedule and totally means I won't be jogging this one. But I'm walking that bad boy. And in the next 71 days, I'm going to get myself ready for it. Break time is over.