Looking ahead

Just re-read my last entry and decided I better get another one out here to let you know how I am doing.
We spent the weekend in Minneapolis with the Klehr family (my sister Sherry, husband Mike, kids, Sam and Maggie) and I have been feeling good. There have been many times over the past couple of years when I had to turn in early or skip on an outing because I didn't have the energy or was afraid of not having the energy. Not this time. We stayed up late, played pool, danced around the newly remodeled basement. We watched some of Sam's baseball tournament games, went to Emma's feis competition, walked the dogs and I even drove a couple hours on our way back home to Milwaukee.
How did I do? Pretty good. There are times when I still need help up when I am sitting on the ground and it takes awhile to get moving after riding in the car. I have aches and pains but they are no longer getting the best of me. For the most part, they are not stopping me.

The other things I did since my last entry:
I followed up with my food coach and she helped me navigate my most recent "detour". I guess that is the best way of describing those times when I get down on myself and allow that to get the best of me...it's a detour. I am still going to reach my destination. I feel comfortable with the food choices I am making and measuring my hunger scale (trying to not wait to eat until I am really hungry and eating only until I am satisfied), keeping the right foods in the house and talking through what I am feeling when I am going to eat something that provides nothing of value to my body.
The next stop on this journey is activity/exercise. I wrote down a single goal. I will exercise every day. This exercise may include walking, swimming, cycling, a DVD, or my physical therapy exercises. I have steps in place to ensure I am successful and I have asked Bill, Emma and Jake to hold me accountable. It may sound silly but I am giving myself a star sticker every time I exercise and I am going to reward myself with a new item of clothes or a manicure every 10 stickers until it becomes the healthy habit I desire.

The other thing I did was research our health insurance. I found a physical therapist that I want to work with and when I have my next appointment with Dr. Cohen (July 7th) I will ask her to write a referral for me to begin physical therapy again. I actually went ahead and made an appointment at Vita Fitness for physical therapy on July 8th. Dr. Cohen has been amazing to work with and I believe she will support this next step. My goal is to work with someone to incorporate weight bearing exercises into my daily life.
So, did I exercise today? I did not.
With that being said, I will head upstairs and do the exercises I received a couple of years ago from another therapist.
Thanks again for checking in. I am pretty sure there were a couple of prayers said for me after that entry and I wanted to let you know they worked.

an update

Hello friends,
Sorry that it has been so long since I last posted anything to the blog. I prefer to write when I feel that I have something that needs to be said or maybe something inspiring. Sad to say, that day is not today either but I did need to let you know I was still out here, trying to make the most of each day.
This is the first week that the kids are out of school on summer vacation and I went from feel good to feeling OK and tonight I am very tired.
So far, the hardest thing about summer is that the clothes from last summer came out for the nice weather and they don't fit. I really , really am trying to stay positive. I am really, really trying to look at all the good that has come over the past year and all that I have learned and changed for the better and then I try and find something to wear and all the good quickly fades to something that feels very much like failure. I allow that feeling to be there. It's there for a reason and then I take a deep breath and appreciate that my legs took me for a walk today with my beautiful healthy children and sweet dog. My arms allowed me to hug my husband and I even put it all together and went swimming for 25 minutes tonight.
Deep breath...I am blessed.
Good night.
Kris