The Quintanas, Week 20: Lack of Activity Equals Lack of Enthusiasm

Filed under: Healthy Families Challenge

Elizabeth, my oldest daughter broke her thumb a few months ago. She hasn't been the same since.

Perhaps a quote from the pseudo-intellectual movie Legally Blonde would help clarify. During her first experience at trial, Reese Witherspoon's character, Elle Woods, loudly explains to the rest of the defense team, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make people happy, and happy people just don't shoot their husbands. They just don't."

Beth happens to have been one of my more active children before we started the Healthy Families Challenge. She has participated in various sports throughout the years, never really pinpointing which was her favorite. A few months ago, Beth was helping with a children's class at the Little Gym of Doral, where my younger daughter, Chloe, takes gymnastics classes, when she fell backwards, hyperextending her thumb and breaking it on the growth plate.

We took her to the urgent care center near our house, where x-rays confirmed the fracture, and then a hand specialist for children, due to the concerns about the location of the break. If not properly cared for, doctors told me, the injury could cause her lifelong problems.

Here we are, four x-rays, one cast, one splin! t and se veral visits to the specialist later, and the thumb is still not mended. It seemed to have just began to heal at the last visit. Beth will now undergo physical therapy until the thumb is functioning well and healing at a normal rate.

Needless to say, Beth has had to quit training at American Top Team Doral.

Oh, so sad... Credit: Michelle Quintana

What has this done to her personality? Well, she hasn't shot anybody, but being sidelined has upset her deeply. So deeply, she declared this week that if she could not train, she didn't think it was fair to be dragged to the gym. She spent the class we went to with the boys, lying on the floor. She would not speak to anyone, including Danillo Villeforte, our coach and friend.

He was taken aback, as Beth is normally the first one to walk in and start a conversation. Danillo was so worried, in fact, he told us that if we did not see improvement soon, he would speak to the physical therapist that had helped heal a fighting injury to his hand.

Beth tried attending a Monday-night yoga class with me at Pranoga. She loved the class itself, but quickly became frustrated when she couldn't do certain poses because of her thumb. Beth has worked out occasionally with a friend of hers after school, but very sporadically at best.

We pray that her thumb will heal quickly, because, "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make people happy ..." Right now, she is far from happy.

Mandatory update on me: I am happy, first and foremost to say I have not seen another buffet in recent days. And although my weight has not changed from last week, I hold steady at 142.5 pounds. I found a women's boot-camp clas! s that I hope to be starting up soon.

Mama needs cardio! Have I said that before?

Who's the rest of the competition? Check out all the challengers' latest updates here.

Permalink | Email this | Comments