Dear Healthy Self:

Move because you can.

Be grateful.

Be grateful that you can run, skip, dance, walk, bike, swim, workout, do yoga, lift weights and sleep comfortably. Some people can’t.

If you are having a day where you don’t “feel” like being active or working out, don’t use that as an excuse. Because that is all it is – an excuse. You may think you are “exhausted” but you really aren’t. Exhausted means that your muscles are so weak that you can’t get them to move your body parts. You wouldn’t be able to get out of bed if you were exhausted. You might be tired, maybe even really tired. But that is still no excuse. Workout first and then go to sleep. You’ll be glad you did.

Any excuse you make for not being active and/or working out is just LAZY. Yes, that is right. If you don’t want to move, you are being lazy. I’ve been thinking about people who physically cannot  move… how frustrated they must be with those of us in America who are obese. I can only imagine that they look at us and wonder why we aren’t moving when we can. They are probably wondering why we are wasting this ability, an ability that they may only dream to have. I bet they think it’s lazy and ungrateful, too.

I know this because I can’t move like I could before and I’m jealous of those who can. Be grateful and move.

Love, Carrie

~

Since my last post about my back pain, I’ve been seeing a chiropractor. He put things in motion, referring me to a neuroclinic to schedule an MRI. The results of my MRI show a herniated disc, which my chiropractor identifies as being a 7 or an 8 out of 10 being the worst possible scenario I could have. It could be from an accident or fall, but I don’t recall anything major. He suspects its degeneration from within the last 10-15 years. The photo of the MRI itself scared me the most. I’m trying my best to get that image out of my head.

Now I wait to meet with an orthopedic surgeon to discuss my options. At least I’ve managed the pain for now. It was the worst of my life. I took for granted little things like picking items off the floor. {Boy do I drop stuff a lot!} I’ve taken for granted putting on my socks and getting out of bed.

Until then, I can’t run. I can’t stretch. Anything too active right now could cause an inflammatory flare up and more pain. Now I just wait. It’s frustrating. I learned from Emily at Blogging Runner that I should avoid reading too many running blogs right now. Boy is she right about that! It’s not that I’m not excited about your success. It just makes me sad that I’m not doing it, too.

I have fears. The fear of returning pain. The fear of getting to the half-way mark of my weight loss and gaining it all back due to my lack of inactivity. I need to learn to adapt.

I am not looking for pity, here. {I know no one wants to hear about it over and over again.} I’m merely writing my thoughts so that I can come back to them at a later, healthier date. In fact, I want to be positive and live my life as normally as possible. I need to remember all that I am grateful for now. I need to stay healthy mentally to get through this.

You won’t see any running posts from me for some time. I’ll have to put those 13races in 2013 and 10k goals on hold for a while. I may start sharing my daily eats on the blog like you see over at My Bizzy Kitchen and Running with Racheal to help hold me accountable. I find that when these gals have posted things a few times, I am more likely to try out what they are making {i.e. lasagna soup from Two Dogs in the Kitchen & hardboiled egg sandwiches}. I love when they share or link to recipes, too! I’ll let you know which ones are worth it or not.

So I’m letting go of this post and am putting my energy instead into the following:

To your health.

Be grateful,

Carrie