Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Progress Not Perfection
A friend of mine posted something on Facebook today that kind of slapped me in the face:
Those who see me every day or every week know my struggles for the last four months but If you saw me walking around today you’d never know I suffer from osteoarthritis. I don’t limp anymore, I’m somewhat active, and I’m working hard to get back to where I was in October.
It takes an average of 3 years, and 5 doctors, for a person to get a proper diagnosis of an autoimmune disease. I just wish more people understood what an autoimmune disease is. It is not a cold or the flu, you may never get better, and even a nap will not help. Just eating a salad and hitting the gym won’t slim your face or get the pounds off. At the other end...eating well & exercise won't help to gain weight or build muscle back; Sleeping 10 hours doesn’t leave you well rested, ever! Achy joints and bones, dry skin, breaking hair, mood swings, and depression are just the tip of the iceberg. You are also prone to having multiple autoimmune diseases.
Please, in honor of someone who is fighting Lyme Disease, Osteoarthritis, Neuropathy, Sjogren's, Scleroderma, Hashimoto Disease, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Sarcoidosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hepatitis, Raynauld's Syndrome, Celiac, Crohn’s, Thyroid Diseases, Scoliosis, Spinal Stenosis, Degenerative Bone, (Osteoporosis) Ulcerative Colitis, Pemphigus, SPS, MS, PBC, Psoriatic Arthritis, POTS or CIDP, copy and paste to your page and reply "DONE" on mine.
The first paragraph is mine, the rest is what she had posted. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I have an autoimmune disease. I have been so focused on getting back on track that I haven’t really faced what knocked me off of the track in the first place.
I have an autoimmune disease.
It got me thinking, though. I have come so far since that awful day in November that started this whole disaster. Today I am going to focus on my progress, and forgive the imperfections.
When I turned in for the night tonight, it was rough going up the stairs. It’s always harder at the end of the day, and honestly, I avoid the stairs all day if I can. When I first injured my knee, I had to scoot up the stairs on my butt. I’ll take the struggle over the scoot any day.
Last weekend I finished a 10k. I could only run the first half of it, and I walked the rest. Four months ago I wasn’t allowed to walk around the house without crutches.
On Valentine’s Day, the hubs planned a whole night around the same basic neighborhood in Charlotte. We parked the car and walked all around that area all night. It was a lot of walking, and I was wearing heeled boots. Remember those crutches?
I’m a running coach, and in the past I’ve coached from a bike when I was injured. For the first two months I couldn’t even do that. Yesterday I rode 8 miles while my group ran.
I’m a yoga teacher. When I first injured myself I couldn’t demonstrate a lot of poses. I still have really crappy balance, but now I can at least demonstrate the pose, even if I can’t hold it as long as I’d like.
I love me some carbs. This is not a secret. One doesn’t run as much as I do and stay chubby on a clean diet. I have been focusing on eating an anti-inflammatory diet to help with my osteoarthritis. Did I have ice cream cake for dessert tonight? Yes I did. But everything I ate all day was super healthy and carb free.
Progress. Not perfection. I’m getting there.
My current goal is to be able to complete a half marathon this July. It’s called the Scream and it’s a mostly downhill race on mostly dirt road. I will start that race and I will finish that race.
Tonight I joined a StepBet challenge for the first time in months. I am finally in a place where I can walk 8-10,000 steps a day without having a swollen knee at the end of it.
Progress. Not perfection.
It really is the little things, and those little things are going to get me back on track, and they will help me learn to work with my osteoarthritis. Please notice that I didn’t say that I would beat it. This disease is forever. I just have to learn to work through it.
Those who see me every day or every week know my struggles for the last four months but If you saw me walking around today you’d never know I suffer from osteoarthritis. I don’t limp anymore, I’m somewhat active, and I’m working hard to get back to where I was in October.
It takes an average of 3 years, and 5 doctors, for a person to get a proper diagnosis of an autoimmune disease. I just wish more people understood what an autoimmune disease is. It is not a cold or the flu, you may never get better, and even a nap will not help. Just eating a salad and hitting the gym won’t slim your face or get the pounds off. At the other end...eating well & exercise won't help to gain weight or build muscle back; Sleeping 10 hours doesn’t leave you well rested, ever! Achy joints and bones, dry skin, breaking hair, mood swings, and depression are just the tip of the iceberg. You are also prone to having multiple autoimmune diseases.
Please, in honor of someone who is fighting Lyme Disease, Osteoarthritis, Neuropathy, Sjogren's, Scleroderma, Hashimoto Disease, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Sarcoidosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hepatitis, Raynauld's Syndrome, Celiac, Crohn’s, Thyroid Diseases, Scoliosis, Spinal Stenosis, Degenerative Bone, (Osteoporosis) Ulcerative Colitis, Pemphigus, SPS, MS, PBC, Psoriatic Arthritis, POTS or CIDP, copy and paste to your page and reply "DONE" on mine.
The first paragraph is mine, the rest is what she had posted. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I have an autoimmune disease. I have been so focused on getting back on track that I haven’t really faced what knocked me off of the track in the first place.
I have an autoimmune disease.
It got me thinking, though. I have come so far since that awful day in November that started this whole disaster. Today I am going to focus on my progress, and forgive the imperfections.
When I turned in for the night tonight, it was rough going up the stairs. It’s always harder at the end of the day, and honestly, I avoid the stairs all day if I can. When I first injured my knee, I had to scoot up the stairs on my butt. I’ll take the struggle over the scoot any day.
Last weekend I finished a 10k. I could only run the first half of it, and I walked the rest. Four months ago I wasn’t allowed to walk around the house without crutches.
On Valentine’s Day, the hubs planned a whole night around the same basic neighborhood in Charlotte. We parked the car and walked all around that area all night. It was a lot of walking, and I was wearing heeled boots. Remember those crutches?
I’m a running coach, and in the past I’ve coached from a bike when I was injured. For the first two months I couldn’t even do that. Yesterday I rode 8 miles while my group ran.
I’m a yoga teacher. When I first injured myself I couldn’t demonstrate a lot of poses. I still have really crappy balance, but now I can at least demonstrate the pose, even if I can’t hold it as long as I’d like.
I love me some carbs. This is not a secret. One doesn’t run as much as I do and stay chubby on a clean diet. I have been focusing on eating an anti-inflammatory diet to help with my osteoarthritis. Did I have ice cream cake for dessert tonight? Yes I did. But everything I ate all day was super healthy and carb free.
Progress. Not perfection. I’m getting there.
My current goal is to be able to complete a half marathon this July. It’s called the Scream and it’s a mostly downhill race on mostly dirt road. I will start that race and I will finish that race.
Tonight I joined a StepBet challenge for the first time in months. I am finally in a place where I can walk 8-10,000 steps a day without having a swollen knee at the end of it.
Progress. Not perfection.
It really is the little things, and those little things are going to get me back on track, and they will help me learn to work with my osteoarthritis. Please notice that I didn’t say that I would beat it. This disease is forever. I just have to learn to work through it.
Friday, February 14, 2020
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Sunday, February 9, 2020
RnR NOLA 10k
Way back when I was feeling good, I registered for the RnR NOLA half marathon with some of my friends. Of course, I had to downgrade to the 10k, but even that was too far. My longest run has only been 2.5 miles so there was no way I was even attempting to run that far.
We have been doing a lot of walking around, from Bourbon Street to the Garden District, we saw a lot of the sights, ate a lot of the food. I rested as much as possible in between but my legs were still tired this morning when I woke up.
I had a plan. I would run 5k and walk 5k, and not worry about time. At one point, since I was feeling so good, I considered running 4, but I talked myself out of it. Slow and steady wins the race. This is really hard for me, but I’m determined to do this the right way, and pushing my knee too hard is not wise!
So I ran 3.1 and then I walked 3.1. I am
Glad I did it this way. After 3 months off, these runs seem so long to me. Everything aches now and my right foot aches from taking some of the heat off of my left knee.
It was a fun race. There was plenty of water at all of the stops, lots of spectators with beads and booze, and the music was fun and frequent. One of these years I will run a race here when I’m not injured. Or not. Either way, today was a great day!!
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