3 Mile

(Before beginning, am I the only person who reads his / her own blog? I like my blog; it makes me happy. So, I read it a lot. Is that weird?)

At my appointment the other day, my doctor told me that my weight could be contributing to some of my health issues. She didn't say anything like, "you're fat; therefore, you have this or this." It was rather, "You have this and this, and your weight may be exacerbating those symptoms." I love my doctor, and I really, truly cannot disagree with this at all. The more weight my body carries around, the more stress there is on my joints, which aggravates my RA. The excess tissue and fluid my body carries around exacerbates my pain. Logically, I know this. I've known for a while. I don't accept the notion that I've contracted these conditions as a result of my fat, but I do know that my fat is contributing to how I physically feel.

CD (my doctor) is really awesome about the issue, too. We were talking about possible culprits for different types of pain, and we were talking about my daily eating habits and possible culprits there, too. So, she gave me a few little mental ninjabombs that I can't stop thinking about. Turns out, with the conditions I have, I should not be drinking any sort of caffeine at all. Period. Do not pass go. And I really love me some Dr. Pepper. *SIGH*

Also, she told me that in order to shed some of the 40 pounds I have put on over the past year of diagnosis-chasing, I need to be walking / jogging up to 3 miles daily. At first, this sounded completely ludicrous; but now, I can't stop thinking about it. For me, high-impact sports are out. They just cause too much pain. Running, jumping, volley balling, or anything of the sort of super-fit-people exercises cause me too much pain. (I know it totally sounds like an excuse, but it isn't.) However, walking, slow jogging, and / or swimming, I CAN DO. I can ride a bike. I can do step aerobics, too, when I feel the gusto to get really hammered. I can also do yoga and pilates. These are all light-impact activities. And now? Now, I can't stop thinking about doing three miles of SOMETHING per day. I think I feel like frog felt when she knew she wanted to start a running program, but she couldn't get past thinking and into motion. I'm scared of it even though I know it is good for me. Why? Because it will hurt like hell before it starts to feel good.

Right now, I'm walking up to 20 minutes per day and swimming on a fair routine. (This past week has been a no on the swimming due to lobster burn, but I try to go at least twice per week on a regular week.) (Which was not last week either due to flooding and tornado. Dammit!) So, I AM more than sedentary. But I'm just maintaining where I'm at now. I'm keeping myself from gaining more weight, but I'm not pushing my body to lose any of it either. And I know that I have every opportunity to do this for myself (i.e. treadmill, YMCA membership, spastic dog), I just can't seem to move past the picture in my head and into actual physical activity.

...I got distracted I will finish this later.