Chronic Rants

Today was the day.  Today was the day I was finally going to the gym.

I’ll back up.  Not so long ago I didn’t have a job.  When I didn’t have a job I exercised either at the gym or at home about six days a week.  I’m a couch potato, so this is huge.  I felt great.  It was definitely helping me.  Then I got a job and that quickly ended.  Still, I tried to keep exercising.  I did some stuff on weekends, and I took a walk every work day on my lunch break, even in rain, cold, and snow.

Then spring hit.  If you have autoimmune diseases you may know what I’m talking about.  Thanks to the pain, fatigue, weakness, and nausea, exercise stopped.  Forget the gym, I didn’t even do accidental exercise.  You know what I mean?  Accidental exercise is the unintentional stuff, like walking to the store for milk, or walking to the T (our subway) for work (I’ve been driving instead) or walking around a park.  To avoid the heat and humidity, I go from one air conditioned place to another, where I’m usually sitting.  This is not good.

I feel lousy from the symptoms, but also from the lack of movement.  Then two days ago, the weather turned briefly for the better.  After work I changed my clothes, put on sunscreen, and headed out into the beautiful, sunny, not-too-hot, not-too-humid evening.  It felt great.  I came back after a mile literally dripping with sweat.  Yeah, it was gross.  But I felt good!  I swore I’d do it again, but of course the next day the humidity returned.

So today I was going to the gym after work.  It’s tough, because I return to a humid apartment (it takes a while for the a/c to kick in) and I don’t feel great afterwards, but it seemed worth a try.  I was going.  I brought clothes with me to work.  I brought sneakers.  I brought music (not that I go anyplace without it anyway.)  Then I made the big mistake: I went out to lunch.

Why was this a mistake?  It was a short walk to the restaurant, but it was enough.  The humidity got to me.  I’ve been queasy ever since (5 hours ago.)  I knew I had to skip the gym and I felt lousy about it.  I felt better about my decision when I got home and stepped up the one, yes, just one, step into my apartment building.  Like it was slow motion, I became aware of my foot slipping off the step and my whole body headed toward the ground. Luckily, I managed to avoid injury (or re-injury) to anything other than my pride.  If I couldn’t handle that one step, it’s a good thing I didn’t attempt the gym!

It’ll be a busy weekend, but next week, I swear, I’m making another attempt at the gym!  And I’m putting it here so that you can hold me accountable.  Need a virtual gym/exercise buddy?  Leave a comment or tweet me (@CIRants) and we can motivate each other.