Happy Saturday Morning, Everyone! So many things to do today! Paperwork. Paperwork. Did I say Paperwork for work? Cleaning, only this time for a new house appraisal, so deep cleaning! Then workout! Take dogs to groomers. A visit to PetSmart. Fun in the Sun with the pooches. Taking videos and pics. More Paperwork. Ugh. Workout...Yay! Day 9 of having that COLD pool open and clean for swimming and guess what? It has seen this body IN it 7 times!! Woohoo! If I could bottle the way I feel after a 1-2 hour workout and sell it to everyone suffering from chronic pain, methinks I would be a millionaire and able to save more doggies AND help more people! Now, of course you dont want to know how I feel about an hour later when my ankles lock and my back is killing me. Haha! The words Old Lady come to mind! With me, I take the old adage, No pain, No gain, to a whole new level, only with me its more like You will lose it, if you dont use it! LOL! I lost a lot, but not all! I am feeling pretty confident on the progress I am making ever so slowly and next will be mastering ye olde treadmill. I have yet to have my ankles and knees unswollen (is that a word) enough to feel safe yet. I have been doing 10 minute spurts of uphill walking but most of you who know me, I am not satisfied with walking. I was born to run. I have a need for speed and the most difficult part of the past 14 months has been the waiting, the Snails Pace bod telling the Energizer Bunny mind be patient Grasshopper, you will return to your passions one day. So, here I am, just at the cusp of what I feel is just the beginning of my comeback. I still am forced to take things slow but my neighbor Dianna giggled at me the other day saying If thats taking it slow, I cant wait to see what your normal workout routine is like! Ofcourse knowing her only 9 months she has not seen the triathlete side of me other than photos and other than seeing me bust my butt on working on this house construction, her and Ken have been so supportive. I just adore them. My biggest cheerleaders that have witnessed my struggling every day. He is a cancer survivor and she knows the sorrow of losing her own body to age and a more sedentary lifestyle. Nicest folks ever and supportive, it is kinda like they are watching me as I transform from a mere cocoon into a butterfly. Granted, I am still at larvae stage, but we all have to start somewhere, right? I will gladly take Larvae when I can envision the Butterfly emerging one day. So Week 2 will see me add more time on the treadmill. The pool allows me a full body workout I actually developed myself when I was training for triathlons and bike races. The pool offers me buoyancy and a weightless environment which allows me the freedom of a fairly intense workout without jarring my ankles and knees. Things unheard of on land for me now, split lunges, deep dip plie squats, scissor kicks, sidekicks, back kicks, and cardio jump squats with the much wider range of motion I have in the water are all available to me again. It feels good to have those natural endorphins kick in. Something I have had to shelve for so long. Thank God for muscle memory! Ever so slowly, I am feeling the difference in this beat up body. The feeling, unless you have experienced major injury and were forced to withdraw from most every activity you love, is indeed P R I C E L E S S! So, forgive me this morning for going off topic of my faith or my doggie rescue. This mornings message is set forth this day to inspire anyone out there reading this who has been injured like me, or actually anyone getting older and experiencing the effects of menopause (for women) or find themselves in a more sedentary lifestyle than they had hoped to be in. (men and women). I love to inspire people and teach through personal experience. I do not preach something I do not practice. Although many years ago, I was badly injured in a horrific car crash, this time, my healing and recovery, a decade later, have been very different and humbling for me because my injuries were exacerbated through a nasty super bug named MRSA that wreaked havoc on my body. I dont accept the word no in my own challenges and yet, I had no other choice than to be patient and wait for my window of opportunity to shine again. Well, the window has been opened, the stage has been set and the bar I set for myself is pretty high, yet attainable in time. My challenge for those of you that are sick and tired of being sick and tired or simply tired of hurting, I want you to not TRY but DO something, anything towards your goal of feeling better and getting healthy...CREATE your own Return to Fitness or Be the Best You Program. Start small. Change something in the way you see yourself. Dont THINK you are worth it, KNOW YOU ARE!! This concept seems easy, but truthfully, has been the toughest one for me to grasp. We are all stronger than we think! Look at most of us. When we are given a task, we devise a plan and we carry it out. Well, the task at hand is YOU! What have you been putting off that you desperately want for your Life.? Well, Listen.up! The time is NOW! Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. But right NOW! Take this word of advice from a very busy lady, EVERY ONE of us has 24 hours a day to utilize. Can any of us truly say (now be brutally honest) we cannot find 30 to 60 mins a day to devote to ourself? If your Life depended on it, you know you could! Well guess what? Your Life needs you and does depend on you! If you cant find 30 to 60 mins in chunks, split the time up to at least 10 mins increments. During those increments DO something positive for you, yourself and you. Now, of course, I dont know what you are struggling with. For me it was figuring out how to return to my passion of physical fitness while marred with physical limitations. I had to find things to do to keep me from throwing a pity party for myself. I rededicated myself to my job, my church activities, my fur kids, and my rescue efforts to save German Shepherds. During my most depressed of times, I sought out someone worse off than me (they are always out there) and did something to help a fellow human being. Now, with my body at rest for so long, I kept my mind active and with the pool at arms length, that darn proverbial dangling carrot, I knew a day would come wherein I could tolerate the cold water since the outside temps were remaining constant. Not the ultimate way I had planned to enjoy the pool but doable! Oftentimes, to achieve our goals we have to get uncomfortable before we get comfortable! So think about what you want and need to do with your life to improve it and be able to truly enjoy it. Pick something you need to accomplish. Gain weight? Lose weight? Stop smoking. Stop procrastinating. Another addiction you have and wish to break? The Skys the limit on topics to choose from! I promise you, do something DIFFERENT than you have been for 21 to 30 days and you will find yourself on the road back to where you want to be or better yet, at a place for the first time you never dreamed you could achieve! I hope and pray this mornings message has touched even one person enough to make a difference in their Life. I know when I am feeling good I want to help others feel good too. It will not be easy, but I promise you, it will be worth it. You are worth it. And so am I. Have a blessed day.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 16:07:00 +0000