It’s the beginning of January and many people are heading off to the gym to fulfill their New Year’s resolution, but yesterday I quit the gym. Yes, I quit, but why? Sure, the gym will be over-crowded for the next 2 months until all those who were well-intentioned on December 31st find themselves too busy to continue, but the timing of me quitting had more to do with having spent much of October and November re-evaluating my priorities.
At the beginning of October, I hurt my back doing something as benign as sleeping funny. Seriously! I slept in an odd position for a few nights in an attempt to make myself more comfortable as the result of an unrelated issue, and much to my surprise ended waking up one morning in debilitating pain. I thought that a few days of taking it easy and using muscle relaxants would solve it, but it didn’t. My doctor said that I may have aggravated the same area that was injured in a car accident I was in about 15 years ago and recommended physiotherapy. After another two weeks of wearing a back support and taking alternating pain and anti-inflammatory meds, I finally gave in and took a four-day class to learn how to gently stretch the area, and to keep the muscles from going into spasm. It was a life-saver and have been practicing the stretches most days since.
In the many days that I spent lying on a heating pad unable to sit or stand for more than an hour, I gave a lot of thought about what needed change so that I don’t find myself in this position again. Every second morning when the reminder on my phone would pop up saying “gym”, I would groan and mutter to myself “yeah, right. I can’t get out of bed“. I knew that something had to change, but what?
This wasn’t the first time that I found myself at this type of crossroads. As I wrote about in my 5-year update to my significant weight loss and health restoration, after I got Covid I experienced months of post-viral symptoms that left me finding it difficult to walk around the block. The difference this time was that my son got married and moved out almost 2 years ago, and I needed to find it within myself to make the changes, without someone encouraging me.
At the end of 2022, I was diagnosed with profound hypothyroidism which also affected my mobility but once I was stable on two types of thyroid medication, the symptoms resolved over the following year just as my doctor said they would. Things were good with my thyroid for about a year, during which time I was going to the gym, however I faced a bit of a ‘hiccup’ in early June. It turned out that my thyroid meds needed to be adjusted and my doctor worked with me to get them tweaked. By the end of this summer I was feeling much better and rejoined the gym. I really enjoy going early in the morning and having that dedicated “me time”, but hurting my back at the beginning of October brought that to an end.
The last two months made me realize that I not only need to do weights and resistance training, but also work on flexibility and balance — but at my own pace due to my recent back issue.
I have had success exercising from home previously and since I already have the training resources, equipment and space that I needed to workout, I decided to not renew my gym membership right now, and exercise at home over the winter.
I already know that I prefer to workout first thing in the morning, and have planned to rotate stretching, balance, weights, and resistance training on different days. I will probably incorporate a bit of high intensity interval (HIIT), for good measure.
To get ready over the holidays, I cleaned and organized my exercise area so there was nothing preventing me from starting when I was ready.
Monday I weighed myself and took my measurements, as I did when I started my Dietitian’s Journey back in 2017. I am five pounds up from my post-Covid weight in 2022, so I have a total of 25 pounds to lose to get back to where I was, but as I tell my clients, my focus will be to lose the extra inches around my waist, which is where the health risk is.
As an older adult, I designed myself a new Meal Plan which focuses on sufficient highly bioavailable protein, and the amino acid leucine at each meal to retain and build muscle mass, delicious, healthy fats, leafy greens, and some berries to make things tasty.
I am ready to start this new year off right — not as a resolution, but a committment to myself and an investment in my health because the “best time to start” is now.
To your good health.
Joy
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