For years I was really good about exercising on a regular basis. Whether it was walking, riding my horses, or zumba, I was always doing something on the regular. Well, then I met the man of my dreams and kind of started slacking a little. First it was not going to zumba on a regular basis, then I ended up selling my show horse so I was no longer riding, then it kind of just turned into nothing much at all. Ahh sweet, comfortable love ;)
After a year or so I had snapped out of it and began zumba classes once again, with my favorite instructor. I was finally back into the swing of things, taking classes 2-3 times per week, and walking here and there in between. I began noticing awesome changes, sure on the scale, but more so with my body. I suddenly had a flat back without any roll definition, my poochy area was shrinking, and dang, I was getting some guns for arms!
Then my injury happened. It was a Saturday morning in April, almost 2 years ago now, and my sister pulled in the driveway to pick me up for our Saturday morning zumba class. I ran out the door, slipped on ice on our concrete stairs, and down I went. I landed on my hip on the exact corner of the concrete step and felt immediate pain. I had also rolled my ankle and obtained a few bruises, but my hip was the worst. I stayed home that day and iced it, and took the week off. I tried resuming classes which seemed fine for a week or two. Then I began having nasty pain in my hip. And I mean, nasty, sharp shooting, stabbing pain inside my hip joint. I visit my chiropractor on a regular basis, but I made an extra appointment with her to see if she could help. She initially thought I may have been a labral tear, or Bursitis. We tried treating it for a few weeks, with no luck. So I reluctantly made an appointment with my Dr, who referred me to 6 weeks of physical therapy. Well, 6 weeks turned into 12 weeks, before I finally got a referral to an ortho. Three lengthy appointments, a set of hip x-rays, and an MRI later, we found out the cause of my horrible, now alternating between hips, pain, which were multiple synovial cysts on my spine. Long story short, I have a hyper curve in my lower back and over time (and I'm guessing with years of riding, falling off, getting tossed around by 1200 lb animals), it has pissed off my spine which then create these little cysts with synovial fluid, which sometimes pinch my nerves. And they never go away. The doc's answer? Lose weight. Um, right. I'll just get right on that. Lose weight without the ability to vacuum my own floors, shop for groceries for more than 15 minutes, or walk more than a block, let alone get in good exercise? No problem! The other option was to try injections, which to me, sounds a little scary and invasive for a first round of treatment.
So, though somewhat defeated, and I don't even know how many pounds heavier, I tried to do as much as I could. I started yoga classes, and a water exercise class. Keep in mind this is coming from the girl that rocked it at zumba for years for exercise and was used to riding horses, so this was different for me. Yoga was ok, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a yogi. I will say, however, that it is very relaxing and a great time to zone out and re-focus and ahhhhh, breathe. Water exercise was great too, it was actually a sort of challenge with those dang foam dumbbells your swim with, and I love being in the water. But then I had gotten a new tattoo and couldn't swim for a period of time, and by the time I checked back into classes, they had cancelled them indefinitely. :(
So, 6 months and more pounds later here I am, still no regular exercise regime. BUT, that is all going to change, starting yesterday! Well actually, I need to rewind a few weeks. I had missed a chiro appointment, and ended up being scheduled out almost a month since my last adjustment. The night before my appointment, I noticed something crazy. I had no pain. I had swept the floors in the house, did some cooking, did some picking up, got groceries, and I had no stabbing pains. What the....well, by some fluke, I figured out that by not adjusting my hips, my pain was kept at bay. Woohoo!! I tested my theory that time, and the next, and now a third time and I'm still good to go! Every once in a while I'll find something I should definitely not be doing and it will remind me that I need to slow it down, but for the most part it has been incredibly better.
So, yesterday was a gorgeous day and I decided to take our dogs for a short walk. Everything went pretty well actually, and apart from being a hair sore at the end of the small walk, and a Charlie horse in my leg in the middle of the night, I'm good to go! So, my plan is to continue walking a few times per week, lengthening my walk every 2-3 times. Then, I'll try my hand at zumba again. Because let's face it, there is no way in high hell that I can just launch myself back into zumba with my favorite teacher and live to talk about it the next day. She's crazy, and I love it. I should mention, it's not your ordinary zumba, and it contains a lot of high cardio, high impact, kick your ass to the curb, burns 700 + calories per hour, go throw up in the bathroom and come back for more kind of stuff. I can't wait!!!
And please don't get me wrong or take this the wrong way, I am very comfortable in my skin. I am confident no matter what size I am, and I am happy with myself no matter what. Yes, I'd like to lose weight, but more so I'd like to be fit, I'd like to be stronger, and I'd like to be healthier. And getting regular exercise is part of all of that. I will never be a size 5 and that's completely, totally ok by me, because as long as I am healthy, eating well, and exercising a few times per week, then I'm healthy and I'll feel good and that's what matters most!
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