Life and Health

A friend recently described me as having a 'sprinter's mentality'. It's true.  When I was young, I was an athlete. I excelled at the 100m and 200m sprint. Later in life, I discovered distance running. It's how I lost weight after my first two children. Then I had two more children years later.  I have not yet lost any of the huge amount of weight I gained.  I tried, I went running. After each run I suffered with severe back pain. I finally went for an x-ray.  The chiropractor met me with the words: "it's amazing that you are not in a wheel chair"!

It seems my sprinter's body was not designed to carry so much weight nor to have four children.  It has been permanently damaged and I am so lucky to be standing on my own two feet.  However, I am no longer allowed to run or cycle and no high impact exercise. This was a shock to me. 

So what now?  It has taken me months to come to terms with this situation as it required me to re-train my brain.  Today I decided to make an effort to take exercise that will help me lose weight without damaging the delicate balance that keeps me standing on my own two feet.  I have decided to try walking and swimming. Both of these are low impact. To reduce the feeling of boredom, I walked through the woods rather than on the road.

We live in the hills and the walk has many climbing sections!!!!!All I could think of was water ...

Thankfully the walk back home is down hill. It was lovely, and definitely something I can persevere at.  It will not result in instant weight-loss, but I need to be patient. It is a start...