Welcome 2021.

I am elated that it’s a new year and 2020 is now in the rear view mirror. 

Maybe you have wondered where I have been the last 16 months, or maybe not.

Basically 2020 was a total disaster for me and not because of Covid although that did not help.

Yes it’s negative but it’s the truth.

Last year was a year of excruciating pain and suffering, spiritual healing and growth, injury recovery and rehabilitation.

On September 14, 2019 I had a severe bicycle accident that caused a critical injury to my left leg called an intra-muscular hematoma of the quadriceps muscle.. 

It took three months just to find out what injury I was actually dealing with. 

My leg had swelled up and had a lump the size of a small watermelon protruding.

Inside the hematoma is a poisonous liquid called necrotic fluid. 

My doctor told me that I could not have the fluid surgically removed

The fluid would be absorbed into my body and to heal itself overtime.

It was not a pleasant process to go through.

For the following 10 months I sat motionless in pain with ice packed around my leg from my hip down to my knee.

I was unable to exercise, walk, bike hike or do anything except lie there waiting for the pain to end.

During the 10 months of inactivity I gained 50 pounds while lying prone in my cave.

My body went into a state of reversibility where the muscles in my body turned into fat and flab.

I did my best to eat a clean and healthy diet to control and minimize the weight gain but I still gained weight from being inactive.

After four months of sitting motionless I attempted to return to exercising only to discover I was not ready yet.

I waited for another four months before the pain finally started to subside.

At that point I decided to do a 21 day vegetable and juice cleanse.

The cleanse would flush out all the toxins and prepare my body to start exercising after almost a year sitting on the couch.

I have done 10 juice cleanses since I first began my lifestyle change in 2014 and they never seem to get easier.

During the previous juice cleanses I have learned that it is not a very good idea to do strenuous exercise and cleansing at the same time.

So I focused on my juice cleanse first and that did the trick.

After a month of the juice cleansing, I decided to start back to exercise.

The fitness studio where I went to exercise before my accident was forced to close their doors when Covid arrived and was very grateful they transitioned to providing classes online using Zoom.

It was a real lifesaver being able to exercise and work out at home. 

So, I started to take pilates, yoga and circuit classes almost every day. 

The first few months were very hard.

The first few workouts took me a week to recover from. I had lost almost all of the muscle mass for my entire body.

The leg muscle that I had injured was a terrible mess.

I stayed the course and started to see improvement, started losing excess weight and muscle definition started to return.

Over a few months classes became easier with less recovery time. 

Six months has now passed since I started back to exercising in June 2020.

I have lost most of the weight gained during my 10 months of being a couch potato.

Unbelievably, I have now become even stronger, healthier and more physically fit than I was prior to having my bicycle accident.

Confidence and testosterone levels have also soared.

Lifting weights and high intensity interval training is very important in increasing testosterone levels in men.

The moral of my long winded blog story is to never give up on yourself no matter what the circumstances are in your life.

I would like to wish everyone who reads my blog a happy and prosperous 2021. 

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