Nicola Butler

It's been exactly 3 months and 3 days since I was hospitalized for my back injury. I ended up slipping a disc between my L4-L5 vertebrate in the finals at Nationals and my season was over. I've just started to slowly get back into riding and each set becomes a little easier. It's crazy how much a couple weeks off can affect your balance and muscle memory. I feel like a complete beginner all over again :(

The main thing I've been preoccupied with is getting my fitness back to its absolute highest. I've started training with one of the best trainers in Orlando, (Bodies By Mahmood), and together we are working every day to make me a stronger and better athlete. Anyone that has been through a serious injury knows that getting back to 100% through rehab and training is not easy. It is one of the most challenging things to do, physically and mentally, but I am determined to come back next year and push  myself and women's wakeboarding as far as possible.

Doing some High Altitude training.

Right now I am on day 3 of a 7-10 day juice cleanse. After watching the documentary Fat, Sick, And Nearly Dead (check it out on Netflix if you haven't seen it. It's an eye opener for sure), I thought what better way to kick start my recovery than to get rid of all the toxins in my body and start fresh!

Juicing is an awesome way of getting all the nutrients and goodness in fruit and veggies into your system without having to digest them. In fact it would be almost impossible to eat all the things I did today. For example my breakfast juice consisted of: 1 Apple, 2 Oranges, 1 cup Pineapple chunks, 2 stems of Kale, 1 cup Spinach, 1 stick Celery, a couple Strawberries, and some Parsley. I would never even dream of eating raw Kale and thats the beauty of juicing :) I recommend everyone tries it for at least 3 or 4 days. It takes some serious willpower but the results are definitely worth it.