Weather is helping

As you know if you are living with fibromyalgia, weather can be such an important factor.  When the weather is changing so much, like it is now, you just feel like you are at the mercy of the weather.  When there is a beautiful warm day, you feel great.  And then it gets cold again.  Or too hot.  Or it starts to rain.  For me, this is the time of year when I need to remember my routine and stick to it.  As soon as the weather is great, I start walking outside instead of my indoor exercise routine.  But then, when the weather turns, I am not walking as much and my indoor routine has become an activity of the past.  It feels like work to incorporate it into my day again, since I had used the walking to accomplish things, like walking to the grocery store or the office.

This is the challenge for people with fibro.  At least for me.  I have to constantly remind myself to get so much cardio into my day and so much stretching.  Today, I have done none of the above, and, frankly, I am pretty achy.  And my seasonal allergies are kicking in, so I feel like I deserve a break.  How quickly I forget that a break from my routine will make me worse.  And then it will take several days of commitment to get back on track.

Living with fibro is a journey and you need to keep on track, I guess.  So while others are happy to see spring coming (and I am too), it is still a challenge to keep on track.  Once spring weather is fully in place, I know that I will have my outdoor routine.  It is a challenge, but the rewards are great.

Keep going, keep doing and keep living.....

The beat goes on

Well, the challenges of Fibromyalgia never seem to dissipate, but it is still manageable. The snow has fallen and it is officially a snow day for the kids, so this is a great opportunity for me to try to catch up. Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle two weeks ago (it still hurts) and last night I twisted my other knee. This means I have to re-think my aerobic workout, so out comes the stability ball and two cans of spray starch. I bounce on the ball and use the cans as weights while I raise and lower my arms to build up my heart rate. It works! And without stressing my pathetic leg joints. I also get to watch television or listen to the radio. I recently started downloading a podcast called Fitmusic, and that has been great, too.  Of course, I love my Fibromyalgia Cookbook - quick healthy recipes.

I have wrapped my knee and I am trying to keep moving. I do love the show. It makes everything so beautiful, but it makes walking a little tricky. I might try cross country skiing this weekend if my knee and ankle will cooperate.

Recently our health insurance offered me a free health coach. I took them up on it right away. The best thing she did for me so far is told me to take baby steps. Of course, I have a list an arm long of the things I want to start incorporating in my health routine: lose weight, swim, yoga, tai chi, aerobics, bike riding, work out at the gym, etc., etc. She said I need to slow down, added one thing (additional 15 minutes of aerobics three days a week) (I already do 15 minutes each day). Of course, one of the limiting factors with fibro is that I can only do 15 or 20 minutes at a time so that my muscles can recover. I learned that the hard way when I kept doing 45 minutes at a time, but kept getting worse and worse.

Anyway, things seem good, but it is important to keep focused and work through the pain, make accommodations so that you can stay active and, most importantly, keep thinking positively! I would love to hear from other about their struggles because I know we all have them, but with support we can all overcome these limitations in time.

It all starts with a good attitude and one manageable goal

Well, yet again a series of setback occurred over the past several weeks.  It started with a small traffic accident.  No injuries, thank goodness, but I ended up totalling my 1998 Ford Windstar (not worth that much so not really hard to do).  That forced us into doing something we have known for a while that we needed to do:  get a new car.  Went through that process - took up another week.  Weather has been up and down, so when it is nice we really go to town with bike riding.  Had severe neck pain, resulting in emergency room visit (because of the accompanying headache) and another visit for an MRI, along with many doctors visits.  Lost a lot of time that way.  Now, hopefully, that is all behind me.

You know, the most important thing to hold on to during stressful times like this is an upbeat attitude.  Even though all of these activities got in my way, I tried to embrace the time waiting around for things, like doctor's appointments and MRIs, and tried to really focus on what I need to do.  I have been feeling overwhelmed because the list of things I need to do seems never ending.  Ultimately, I realize that in order to maintain a positive attitude, I need to make the list more manageable.  So I have boiled it down to one goal:  lose weight.  And with that one goal, everything should fall into place.  Lose weight equals eat healthy (great for fibro), engage in activity (also great for fibro), get plenty of sleep because when I am tired I make bad choices (also great for fibro and Chronic Fatigue), and keep track (this will also improve my attitude because I will see progress).

And there you have it.  Yes, I have meds for fibro, exercises, a whole book of what I should do, but now I am going to try to just use this one goal to encompass all the other goals.  That way, I don't feel as overwhelmed.  I know I can do this.

Spring is trying to spring forth

Well, you can tell that the weather has been pretty good around here, since I am spending less and less of my free time at the computer. With the warm up here, we have been riding our bikes quite a bit. That is a great exercise for me, since you can coast once in a while. We rode throughout German Village this past weekend. We rode to the grocery store, the park and then to dinner Saturday night. We didn't have the time change yet, so coming home was a little dark. It won't be anymore, though. My son and I are trying to invent a way to haul one bike with another so I can drop him off at school and take his bike with me. There is no place to park the bike at the school (yet).

I am also walking more. Overall, this "mild" exercise seems to be helping me. During the last round of warm weather a few weeks ago, I was really pushing myself, and then I paid for it with even more pain than normal. Now I actually feel like I have a little more energy, although I am not quite ready to give up my mid-morning nap!

I am also trying to de-clutter my life. It's like doing personal spring cleaning. I am trying to clearly identify what needs to get done, get things that have been sitting done, and get rid of the rest. It helps clear my mind, reduce stress, and I feel better. I am feeling somewhat optomistic about my overall health now. Of course, having said that, I just set myself up for something, I'm sure.

Well, back to de-cluttering......