WE CAN REBUILD HIM...

"We can rebuild him, we have the technology...but we don't want to spend a lot of money."

By now most of you probably know that I have a pretty severely torn labrum in my right hip as a result of Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI).  What that means is that I have an abnormally shaped femoral head (the "ball" of the ball-and-socket joint) and certain motions result in excessive rubbing and pinching of my labrum.  Over time this excessive rubbing caused a tear.  If both the tear and the femoral head are not repaired, I could easily wear away the cartilage surrounding and lining the socket which would then result in bone-on-bone contact and premature arthritis of the hip.  These dangers aren't imminent, but if I wait any longer it just increases the odds that my labrum will be irreparably damaged (unless I switch over to a sedentary lifestyle, which is NOT an option).

This has likely been going on for a LONG time, but symptons didn't present themselves until late this summer.  My hips started "catching" and then "popping" quite often, and eventually I started to experience discomfort in my right hip (no pain, just discomfort).  That's the other bad news...I have the same type of impingement on the left side and likely a torn labrum too, but the impingement is less prominent and the tear is probably less severe.  My left hip is now like a ticking time-bomb.  The only good news out of this is that I haven't done anything wrong to injure myself.  This is a congenital condition that would have presented itself at some point.

Anyway, after experiencing the "popping" for long enough I decided to make a doctor's appointment.  I went to the Carrell Clinic here in Dallas (a very high-profile clinic whose doctors operate on every professional sports team here in the Metroplex...Cowboys, Mavericks, Stars, and Rangers) on September 18th.  The doctor took x-rays and could immediately tell that I had a cam impingement on both sides.  The next step was to schedule an MRI arthrogram (which involves injecting a contrast dye into the joint) to confirm the doctor's suspicions of a torn labrum.

My MRI arthrogram was last Thursday (September 24th).  Typically I wouldn't have learned the results of the MRI until days later after having the follow-up visit with the doctor.  Luckily for me Lauren works with the Radiologist who performed the MRI on me!  She called him before the procedure to let him know I would be coming in, and then he called her back later that morning to go over his findings.  He said "your husband has one of the biggest labral tears I've ever seen."  Damn.

My follow-up appointment with the doctor was yesterday morning (September 29th).  Lauren came with me and we asked him all the tough questions and ultimately we decided that the best bet for me was to have arthroscopic surgery to repair my torn labrum and reshape my femoral head to eliminate the impingement.

We also did our homework on this doctor (Mark Muller, M.D.).  He completed a 2-year fellowship at Cornell recently in which he focused on this very procedure.  So he has a lot of experience, and he even did his medical school, general surgery internship, and orthopaedic surgery residency at UT Southwestern here in Dallas.

I'm currently scheduled to have surgery on October 22nd.  I am extremely anxious to get the operation over with so that I can start the healing and rehab process.  I told them to put me on standby as well in the event that an earlier appointment becomes available.

On a positive note, Alex Rodriguez had the very same operation on March 9th of this year and was able to return to action shortly after the start of the season!

WHAT I'M HAVING FOR DINNER TONIGHT

Just a minor deviation from my traditional "What I Had for Dinner Last Night" post...I couldn't wait until tomorrow since I am so excited about this meal (and the copious amounts of leftovers that will result)!

If you thought my instructions for baking fish and Brussels Sprouts were easy, then you are really in for a surprise this time.

Lentils w/ chopped onion, celery, new potatoes, and spinach

If you have a Crock-Pot, then I highly recommend using it!  I'm sure most married couples received one as part of their registry, but if not it will be the best $45 you ever spent!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1 - Get out Crock-Pot
Step 2 - Put beans in said Crock-Pot with water
Step 3 - Chop veggies (whatever you like) and put in Crock-Pot
Step 4 - Turn Crock-Pot on
Step 5 - Leave
Step 6 - Come back 8-10 hours later and enjoy!

Perhaps the best part is when I first walk in the door after work.  The entire house smells freakin' great!!

There's a good chance that I will put some hot sauce on the lentils as well as drop a little meat in there too (we have left-over turkey tenderloin from last night).

The benefits of the veggies are pretty obvious, so I'll just highlight some of the benefits of the lentils:

High fiber (roughly 16g of fiber per 1/4 dry cup...that's INSANE)
Good protein source (roughly 13g of protein per 1/4 dry cup, which is very high for a legume)
Inexpensive (a pack of lentils at Kroger, which will make quite a few servings, costs approximately $0.60)

The history of lentils is actually pretty interesting too, so if you care to know more check it out here.

THE MINI WORKOUT

The Mini Workout is a concept that everyone "knows" about, but I'll admit I never actually put it into practice until just a few months ago.  Ross Enamait talks about the Mini Workout a lot in his books Infinite Intensity and Never Gymless, and he frequently mentions its effectiveness when answering questions on his forum.  The premise is simple...everyone has their Main Workout which could consist of lifting weights, running, bodyweight exercises, etc.  Everyone also has weaknesses or areas where they want extra improvement.  That's where the Mini Workout comes into play.  It is a very short, focused workout that is done separate from the Main Workout so that the body is fresh and you can give 100% effort.  Examples could be grip strength, core strength / stability, or skills that need to be honed without the presence of fatigue.

For instance, yesterday morning I performed my Main Workout which was power- and strength-focused.  When I got home from work, I wanted to add a conditioning component to the day's work so I performed a conditioning Mini Workout that consisted of 15 minutes of jump rope and a sledgehammer and med ball finisher:

The total time required was less than 20 minutes (and that was a "long" Mini Workout), which was a perfect way to kill time while I waited on some fish to thaw out before I could cook dinner.

IS ORGANIC REALLY ORGANIC?

I was reading Tony Gentilcore’s Blog the other day and he brought up an interesting point about organic foods that inspired me to dig a little deeper into organic labeling and other labeling practices of the food industry.  Basically, is organic food really organic?  (By the way, Tony’s blog is a nice combination of training info, nutrition info, and miscellaneous posts related to fitness…and it’s hilarious…you should bookmark it).

A lot of consumers typically just look at packaging and see the “USDA Organic” seal and assume that is exactly what they’re buying.  However, as usual, there is a catch.

To quote from the USDA’s Organic Labeling and Marketing Information Fact Sheet, there are three levels of organics:

100% Organic – products must contain (excluding water and salt) only organically produced ingredients and processing aids

Organic – products must consist of at least 95% organically produced ingredients (excluding water and salt).  Any remaining product ingredients must consist of nonagricultural substances approved on the National List including specific non-organically produced agricultural products that are not commercially available in organic form.

Made with Organic Ingredients – processed products that contain at least 70% organic ingredients

Products meeting these requirements may display these terms and the percentage of organic content on their principal display panel.  If the product only qualifies for the “Made with Organic Ingredients” level, the manufacturer is still allowed to advertise in the principal display panel of the package with phrases such as “…made with organic vegetables.”  However they are not able to display the organic seal.

To me, the “Made with Organic Ingredients” label pretty clearly should have a sidekick label that says “Made with non-Organic Ingredients Too.”  The labeling doesn’t mislead consumers to believe that the product is 100% organic, but I have a hunch that the typical consumer just doesn’t think with that mindset (if the word organic appears on the package, it must be good).  However, I do think the second level (“Organic”) is very misleading.  There is no ambiguity in the wording of the label…it very clearly states the product is organic.  There is a contradiction in the meaning of the label though, since it really is telling us that the product is just mostly Organic.  Honestly, if it weren’t for Tony’s blog I would’ve thought that Organic and 100% Organic were interchangeable terms.

Why not make it very black and white?  Either it’s Organic or it’s not.  The only reason I can see why a manufacturer would use less than 100% organic ingredients is so they can get the benefit (premium price) of putting “Organic” on the label without the cost of going completely organic.

Finally, just because something says organic on the label (regardless of which level it has achieved) doesn’t even mean it is good for you.  Case in point:

The real debate should be the benefits of organically grown fruits and vegetables over conventionally grown produce…maybe that will be my next blog.

Well now that I’m all riled up about the food industry and their labeling practices, I want to expand on my previous post regarding Nutrition Info and product label savvy.  This time I’m going to cover the following trick:

“Made with Whole Grains”

Let’s use the example of bread, since that is probably the most common product where consumers think they are buying something healthy.  First of all, a lot of breads are simply colored brown with molasses so that they appear to be a whole grain product, but in fact they are as heavily processed as Wonder Bread.

Anyway, here’s the trick:  If you have a product that says “Made with Whole Grains” with two ingredients listed as grain products, but only the second one is a “whole grain” product, then you are likely consuming a bread made with as little as 1% whole grains!!  Let that sink in for a second.  Technically the manufacturer did not lie to you because the product was “made with whole grains” but they sure as hell deceived you!

You actually have to look at the ingredients list to determine if in fact the bread is 100% whole grain.  A few classic ingredients that manufacturers will use to fool consumers are “enriched wheat flour” and even just plain old “wheat flour”…if it has to be enriched then that means it has been processed to hell and back!  So how do you know that you’re eating whole grain bread? Let’s go to the source…quoted from the FDA’s Summary of Whole Grain Label Statements:

Question:  Are there standards of identity for products made from whole grains?

Answer:  For bread, rolls, and buns, the dough is made from whole wheat flour, brominated whole wheat flour, or a combination of these and no other type of flour is used.

That means if ANY OTHER flour ingredient is on the label (even if they are in addition to those ingredients), then it is NOT a 100% Whole Grain product!!

By the way, you can avoid all of this mess by simply eating Sprouted Grain products instead, and they are carried in every major grocery store!  These products are more expensive, but then you start to get into the “Real Cost” of food.  You will either pay for it on the front end (by buying more expensive, high quality products) or on the back end (with healthcare costs).

TOUR DES FLEURS - THE OFFICIAL RACE REPORT

*This is a guest post written by the co-owner of the SHOP (Lauren)

Drew asked me to write a post race report... first thing first, I ran the 20K (12.4 mile) Tour des Fleurs in 1:27:47 which figures out to be 7:04 minute mile pace.  Quite exciting! 

Out of roughly 1,750 participants I finished FIRST in the female aged 25-29 group, came in FIFTH overall woman and THIRTY-FIFTH overall person!  Not bad!

I was a little worried about the weather, as it has been raining buckets for the past 2 weeks. Which has made my past couple of runs really fun.  The "girls" (my dogs) and I went out in the rain for long runs, we got soaked, but it stays cool and there is noone out.  Am I crazy?  Anyway, it stopped raining the day before the race, but an insufferable humidity was left behind.  Yuck!  Felt like you had taken a dunk in the lake by mile 3.

The course was great, except for the hills.  Lots and lots of hills. I can definitely tell that my SHOP workouts have stregthened my legs.  All those one legged squats and Bulgarian split squats helped me kill the hills.  Except for this one hill!  About a mile left, I remembered that I had to run up the "Spillway Hill"  We usually bike the opposite direction down the "Spillway Hill" and love it because we can fly down and pick up enough speed to clock 35 mph on the bike. Fun times.  But running up the hill really sucked!  I had almost reached the top, when I got that "ick" feeling in my stomach. Oh no, Throw up! I let up a tad, took some deep breaths, got to the top, and  coasted to the bottom without anything bad happening or anyone passing me! Suckers!

Even more exciting I got a $125 gift certificate to Luke's Locker, a couple awesome Tshirts, and a really awesome running hat! Even better is the satisfaction that I kicked ass!

Lauren

ANOTHER SATURDAY IN THE SHOP

From now on, Saturday shall be called SHOPday.  Just having a little fun in the SHOP with my buddy Sammy.  Hope you enjoy!

We did more deadlifts today, but this time we were working a few triples and doubles on our way up to some heavy singles.  We started with 365 for 3, then 375 for 2, 385 for 1, 395 for 1, then finally 410 for 1.

After deadlifts, we did handstand pushups on cinder blocks (for added ROM) and some single-leg hip thrusts (a new glute exercise I learned that is incredible)...sorry, no video of these.

Next came some weighted dips and standing ab wheel rollouts!  I'm working up to the one-arm version of the standing ab wheel rollout, but I'm not there yet, so today was two-arm rollouts going downhill for added difficulty...with video to prove it!

We did more wrestling at the end too...3 rounds, 4 minutes per round.  We had to get fired up since I'm going to watch UFC 103 live tonight at the AAC and Sammy is hosting a boxing party to watch the Mayweather vs. Marquez matchup!  A great night of fights!

TOUR DES FLEURS - UPDATE

I was sitting out on the curb waiting for Lauren to run by.  This video is from about an hour into the race.  Enjoy!