straight from the hip...

[hernanu]

I've been dropping some weight. I was trying several things, calorie counting, etc. until I chanced on a comment by someone here (do not remember and the search engine is working against me in this case) that mentioned Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution.

I was ready to change things, since the HRs have allowed me for the first time to be optimistic about my body. I'm not an advocate and am still on the beginnings of it, but I have lost about twelve pounds in about two weeks (the goal is 1 to 1.5 per week). I'm eating extremely healthy (lots of leafy vegetables, protein sources) and loading up on vitamins, etc.  I have no urges to speak of and feel very well. It does require you to put aside some of the usual suspects (grains, milk, sugar) and some not so usual (most fruits), but in my instance, it seems to be working well.

Just my 2 cents, it may not work for everyone, but there it is.

[Luanna]

Harold and Hern,
Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution is really good for weight loss. My hubby has lost 30 pounds on it to date. 20 more to go. It's kinda hard to stick to because it cuts out all refined flours and sugars and gets you eating lots of salads, vegetables, and a small bit of protein for the first phase.

It also has other really profound health benefits. He is one of the top 100 heart surgeons in the world and is continually looking for ways to help make his patients more heart healthy. He seems to know his stuff. His book rambles a bit but the program works.

Glad to hear that it's working for you Hern. 12 pounds in 2 weeks is quite a bit. I'd be interested to hear your take on his rationale and the science/research behind his diet.
Luanna

[hernanu]

It's what sold me on it, Luanna. I was a biochemist long ago, so some diets did not make sense to me. I like his approach to presenting the diet, the reasoning behind it, etc.

The proof is always in doing it yourself  and seeing how it goes. I have lost weight quickly and expect that won't continue, and I probably don't want it to, since my goal is weight loss while maintaining muscle. I knew I needed to change things and now that I'm a year past, I think I can focus on other things more, like diet, exercise and all of those things that are possible now with two healthy hips. I think that's the first time I've ever thought of them that way, but why not? They feel healthy and therefore they are (apologies to Cogito ergo sum).

So let's see about the health benefits - I have a checkup in a couple of months and we'll look at the test results. My main focus is to drop the weight to support both my exercise goals and maximize the survivability of the implants under less mass.

UPDATE ****

Of course, there are people who torpedo your best intentions. I just finished my diet compliant Caesar salad with hardboiled eggs and a glass of water, when a coworker who owns a farm dropped a container of cookies in front of me and proudly said - my wife just made these cookies... They looked a bit big, but being a guy, I couldn't hunt for someone to split it with, so I ate it, finding it that it was a chocolate chip cookie with a whole Oreo stuffed inside of it.

So I think I just gave up two weeks of my life at some point and some weight gain for this. Hopefully the diet deities will see my good intent in not insulting him and only punish me slightly. 

I mean it was an Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookie!!!!

[Luanna]

Who could resist a cookie like that???  ;)

Luanna

[hernanu]

Right ?!?!

Oh well... still a good diet and I'm back on that pony.

[kajubones]

Hernanu and Luanna,

Hi! I will look into this diet you are both talking about, it sounds great. By the way, I went to the dojo tonight to stretch out and I am super tight! I mean I lost so much flexibility even in my other leg! In fact my other leg actually hurt under the strain. On my way home I got to thinking that I am so far away from how I was even with the damaged hip. I did not realize how much a part of me the martial arts has become until tonight and how much it hurts (emotionally) to be in this state. I have no one else to talk to about this because they would not understand. On top of it all I feel like I am all alone, in my own personal hell. My wife will never know how important this is to me. Anyway, I know you guys know what I mean. I really need to learn patience, that has been my weakness and now I have to face it. I am also worried like you Hernanu that I will wear out this hip really fast. I felt so timid doing some techniques that I got strange looks from the other guys in class. That was not how I was before. I moved as fast as I could and as hard as I could but with control so as not to hurt anyone. Now I feel like an egg shell, ready to crack at the smallest sign of force. By the way, is it safe to do jump kicks; falls; rolls; or even jog. Sheesh this is crazy!

Harold

[Luanna]

Hi Harold,
Just be sure to take it easy. I've reread your entire story and you've made some amazing progress from where you started out after surgery. A pulmonary embolism is a major big deal.

You are doing GREAT! I'm at 6 months almost and still taking it slow and easy and making good progress now.

Luanna

[hernanu]

Hey Harold - sounds pretty normal to me. I was still pretty tight at your point. Remember too that you took about a month's hit before you were able to do any PT, so you're going to deal with a month's lag time.

I treated my regaining ROM as if I was teaching a new white belt, without any stretching training (no dancers). I usually told them that the flexibility that higher belts have they worked on and will come in time. It took until about four months before I could touch the floor bending forwards, about six months before I could do flat palms to the floor.

The flexibility will come. You do need to be patient and remember that in a way you are apart, but it is a positive way. You have taken control of a condition that would have left you in a wheelchair or crutches eventually, and now have the chance to do the things you want to do again.

I've started doing full speed kicks now (round house and front) and to tell you the truth, although I haven't gotten back  to the heavy bag with kicks yet, I will in about a month or so. The pop in my kicks is still there (you know what I mean), and they feel so smooth now, it's hilarious.  I'm holding back on side kicks at full power, although I do the slow extension now as both a strength and balance exercise. I can also see those coming soon, since I tried low side kicks with some force and my hips felt fine.

I feel more and more confident that my hips will be just fine, and as a martial artist, your bone density should be off the charts, so that works in your favor. I understand how it drives you up the wall not to be there yet, but, like Danny, Nemesis, Peter and other martial artists, we need to be patient so that in one to two years, we're all doing things as fast and well as we did before. That's a goal, and I'm committed to it.

Don't worry about the timidity, it is the mark of someone who has gone through something difficult and is relearning to trust his body. You're still at 5 months along, I didn't even think to start kicking or working out with anything to do with martial arts until about 7 or 8 months. Then everything was slow and easy until I got the muscle memory back along with my confidence. I think confidence is like everything else that we're trying to heal; there's no need to hide the fact that your confidence has taken a hit, just another part of you that will heal with everything else.

I'd take it back a notch, I think you're expecting too much right now. You are doing something that the other people you're working out with can't even fathom - to restructure your body to do what it did before with a whole new architecture. Let yourself slowly come back to snuff, and your reward will be years of good workouts.

I have just started jumping in place to get more used to being airborne now (16+ months) since I also want to return to jump kicks. I finally feel strong / balanced enough to try successfully, but I don't see myself doing those for six months. I want my basic kicks strong, and to feel if I do fall, that it wouldn't hurt my hip. Probably by my 2 year, I will be doing some. At least that's my schedule.

Patience, my man. No getting around it, you want this to be strong as hell and then I think you'll be in good shape to continue. Five months is still early, but it will come.

[kajubones]

Luanna and Hernanu,

Thanks :). I will try to take it easy. I am going to try to go to class and stretch some more. I will keep you posted.

Harold

[kajubones]

Hey Guys,

I am finally off of the Warfarin (blood thinners). It is great in a way that I am off of them but I was not ready to hear the news that they gave me after telling me it was ok to stop taking the pills. The doctors at Hemotology are saying that since my blood clot had broken through their first line of defense which is the Lovenox shots that I will be likely to have another one if I had another surgery. Also I will have to take shots (Lovenox) when I have to fly on long trips. They also said to avoid sitting too long at the office and that I should plan on getting up every two hours or so. Man, I was not ready for that one! I thought after all of this everything was going to be cool but now I kind of feel weird. I really don't know what to think. I actually feel kind of sick right now: my neck and head is hurting kind of bad so I am going to cut this short.

Harold

[hernanu]

Sorry to hear about that, Harold. I don't know enough about blood clots and their long term behavior, but I did do medical research on clotting a long time ago, and don't remember anything on long term effects from a previous clot.

I'm assuming they are saying that your body is more prone to blood clots, so as a precautionary measure they want you to use lovenox for trips. Getting up every now and then at the office is good practice anyways, need to have movement when in a job that requires lots of sitting.

Just like with OA, I'd get a second opinion from a good Hematologist and check out why they think another blood clot is likely to happen and what can be done to deal with that if / when it happens. Can never have enough information about your own body.

[Luanna]

Hi Harold,
Good to hear from you. Sorry that you will have to take preventative measures to prevent another pulmonary embolism. They can be extremely serious so I can understand why your hemetologist wants you to take precautions when flying. I have no clue why they would think that you'd have another one if you went into surgery again. I'm not a doc but perhaps they can predict future behavior on what happened this time around?  Not sure.

How is your hip doing these days? Are you able to work out? Hope everything else is going well for you.

Luanna

[kajubones]

HI,

working out has been off and on. I am worried about injuring the hip again so I would go to class and then stop going again for a while. I just can't seem to get past the fear. still working on it.

Harold

[hernanu]

HI,

working out has been off and on. I am worried about injuring the hip again so I would go to class and then stop going again for a while. I just can't seem to get past the fear. still working on it.

Harold

Hey Harold, no problem with taking it easy on the way back. The important thing is to do things when you're ready for them.

A part of being a martial artist is toughness in confronting scary situations. In this case, that is a scary situation. We all fear compromising the HR, sliding back into pain, so on.

It's ok to look at it in the face and admit the scary situation. Then take the right action for it; to me the right action is to ease back from a place probably no one in your school has been. They have no concept of the pain you dealt with and no idea how they would react. When you do get back, ( and you will ) you need to be fully confident. It took me a full year to start doing full strength kicks, and some things are still in working to it phases.

Don't put any deadlines on when to do any of your techniques and certainly, don't let others put deadlines on you, they don't get to. Just let it flow, my man - again, some of the wisdom of disco ... "don't push it , don't force it, let it happen naturally... "

I am so glad to use the goodness of disco  8) .

[kajubones]

LOL, disco rocks. thanks man, I really don't know what I would do without you guys. By the way, I got into a horse stance and I expeirienced some groin pain around (I am just guessing) the hip socket? I hope that is nothing but it really hurt! in face it took about 10 seconds for the pain to go away.

[kajubones]

Hey Guys,

On September 27th I just took my 3rd degree blackbelt test. Afterwards I was not able to walk without pain, not because of my hip but because of my knees. Both my knees are swollen and it makes it hard to walk. I have tried modifying some of my movements as to not cause damage to the hip. It makes me worried that I might have banged up the hip if I hurt my knees so bad. Anyway, just wanted to keep in touch and let you know what is going on with me. I have not gotten on the forum because of other life events like being laidoff but yeah that is off subject. I hope you guys are well and thanks again for the support.

Harold

[hernanu]

Harold, it's good to hear from you, and congrats on the 3rd degree! That's a great accomplishment, shows your mettle in digging in and getting back to high function. Not many 3rd degrees around.

I've been doing some serious kicks lately and have really tried not to change my movements to accomodate the hip. My thoughts were that if a kick (or a punch, they can put a lot of stress on the hips) is going to cause issues, then I won't do it and if the whole thing will compromise the hip, then I'll make the hard decision and walk away.

I've actually been trying to be more exacting on the proper way to do things, since in looking back, I think in some kicks (yeah, that's right roundhouse kick, I'm talking about you!) in my eagerness for impact and speed, I let my form suffer and it may have made things worse for my pre OA hips.

We are all concerned about letting our hips live as long as possible, but you don't want to push other parts of your anatomy to compensate for a problem that may not be there. I've been doing some hard kicks for about six months (20-40 minutes heavy bag work) now, and have not run into knee swelling or pain.  I've been through the preparations for a black belt test before, and I know you're pushing your limits, but the pain should be all around, not just on your knees.

One thing I did was to hunt down a physical therapist about five months ago and have her watch me hit the bag. Then she commented on whether the way I was striking was at strange angles, etc. I explained to her what to expect, and she observed me and let me know if I was doing things in the right way.  You have some great resources at your school, maybe you can get another black belt or your teacher and have them look at your form. They may be able to tell you if you're twisting or moving in a way to put too much on the knees.

How are your stretches? One thing that would hurt my knees was if I wasn't fully stretched for the routine I was doing.

In my opinion, I'd avoid changing your form, just let the kicks and punches happen the best way for your body. An un medical opinion, but so far it seems to work for me.

There's many kind of accomplishments, jobs come and go, but achieving a higher rank black belt after this kind of procedure is amazing to me. I've been there without the hip recuperation, and I'd like to hoist a glass to you.

[kajubones]

Hi Hernanu,

Thanks for the compliment and helping me see the situation from another angle. You are right about the compensation on my part. I really do need to work more on the correct form of things. That has been my plan all along and I got sucked into this test, not really by my choice, and I felt that I was not ready for it. It was really a humbling experience because although I passed I felt like I really failed. The hip on the other hand was a real trooper, for that I was happy. Thanks for all the great advice! I will use them in my path to recovery.

Regards,
Harold

[kajubones]

Hi Guys,

It has been about two years now and things are going pretty well with the hip. I am back on the mat at the dojo. Right now I am struggling with doing side falls because I end up hitting my hip on the mat. Last night my instructor tried showing me how he does his side falls but it also looked to me like he is banging his hip. I tried everything he showed me and ended up hurting myself. I don't know if I have been doing it wrong this whole time but he swears he does not hit his hip hard on the mat but I do. If anyone can give me info on this type of falls that would be great. I think it is important not to damage the hip so I have modified a lot of my movements already but the falls seem particularly hard to modify.

Thanks,
Harold

[hernanu]

Hey Harold, good to hear from you.

It shouldn't hurt significantly when you hit the mat. The way I was taught in hapkido is that you want to expose the most area to the floor when you make impact.

This site gives a simple sample -

http://www.ultimatejujitsu.com/learn-jujitsu-techniques/traditional-jujitsu-techniques/white-belt/side-breakfall/

My instructor emphasized hitting the ground as flat as possible and hitting the ground hard with the extended arm on impact. So timing is important, but also relaxing the body.

We did a sequence. First sitting on the ground, dropping sideways and performing the last part, the impact. That lowered the tension and helped with good form on the hip, thorax and leg extension as well as the last hit with the arm.

Once we had that down, we did the full fall. Always on mats first, to get the form down, then we did it on the grass (checked for rocks and roots, of course), then on a hard floor when we got cocky.

It did save me once.

I was working at an amusement park, running games for customers, when I was posted to a game where a rope ladder which was attached at each end by a single axis (both sides of the rope tied to this). There was a large air cushion under the whole affair to catch people falling.

The goal was to reach the top of the ladder without spinning to either side, landing on the cushion. If you got to the top, you got a prize (beer glasses were very popular). The people who did the game became good at doing it, by maintaining equal pressure on both sides of the ladder.

I was practicing when few customers were around. I didn't notice that my partner in the game had moved the cushion after landing on it. I got near the top, about ten feet, when I got spun - looked down and saw only concrete under me.

I did the whole move from that altitude, probably more like six feet, hid the ground hard, slapped the heck out of the concrete on impact. Hurt like hell on my arm due to the concrete, but got up and no issues.

I told my teacher about it, expecting praise and he told me I was an idiot not to check that the cushion wasn't in place before going up. Korean teachers are rough.