Every year my company puts on several wellness activities, including a 6-week summer competition called Summer Games in which teams of ten compete to see who can log the most steps during the time frame. I found myself EVERY year determining that this, THIS would be my year. I would lead my team to victory, or at least to the top ten. And every year, something would happen: I'd go on a driving vacation with little time to walk, I'd get sick, my pedometer would break. Something to foil me again.
Imagine my surprise at the beginning of this week when I realized that nothing untoward has happened this year, and we are in the last week of the competition. I patted myself on the back (for what, I'm not sure) and decided that maybe it was an early retirement gift, since I'm set to leave the job in two weeks.
In the meantime, I joined DietBet. And I really, really, really want to win my two games, both of which started this Wednesday. So yesterday, the day after the games started, I did something to my knee. I had taken a small cardboard box out of the trunk that had, maybe, seven pounds of food in it, took two steps toward the house, and suddenly felt a sharp, painful crick in my knee. I kept going, expecting it to click or something, but it didn't get any better. I walked around slowly for a while, willing it to work itself out, but it didn't.
I've had a whole day and a half limping around, bemoaning the fact that my body isn't young anymore and how am I supposed to lose weight if I don't move and is this some sort of condition that I've brought on myself and will this turn into some sort of vicious circle where I move less>get stiffer>leading to moving less>getting stiffer and less able to move? Not very constructive.
The point of this post is two-fold: to face my fears and (with your suggestions and help) come up with ideas of how to gain strength and burn calories while not able to move in my preferred way; and to remind everyone to not put exercise off - move while you can!