Hi Friends!
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written a post (I can’t believe it’s already been a month!). School and life has been kicking my butt lately, but I am happy to say that I am managing everything extremely well. I just wanted to talk a little bit about exercise and maintaining a healthy regimen. I was always an active child; I participate in various sports and recreational activities all throughout grade school. It always felt so good to stay active. I had always been in love with playing music and picked up saxophone in the 5th grade. Once I got to high school I got to participate in marching band, which was always a blast and kept me active without even thinking about it. Once I got to college, however, there was no more marching band. I have been continuing playing saxophone and actually just had my senior recital this last weekend, which went really well. While playing the saxophone has kept my lungs healthy and surely has helped me keep healthier than if I didn’t play at all, I noticed that I wasn’t feeling as great as I used to. I know that some of this has to do with the fact that I am getting older and whatnot. One day it just clicked that it really just means thaT I need to work harder at keeping healthy. So that’s what this particular post is about.
As I was getting ready to play my senior recital I was getting worried about being able to play my saxophone for an hour straight. I had a pretty rough winter with my sinuses, which was making it hard to breathe. I was lucky enough to have wonderful people who worked with me to make sure that I was successful in playing my recital. As disappointed as I was that I couldn’t give a full recital all by myself, I was extremely appreciative that a couple of my classmates were ready and willing to help me out. Anyways, this winter just made me feel defeated. Once the weather got better and I was starting to feel better from the medical help I received, I really started to think of ways that I could work to improve my health. I tried some different things out, but what I really found to help the most was being active. I noticed that the days that were really busy at work and I had to run around a lot were extremely rough (I am a server), but I started to feel better after I sat down and rested at home. It was almost a rewarding feeling. So I decided that I would start myself on an exercise routine. It started out extremely slow since I had been so inactive all winter, and as impatient as I got I just kept pushing myself. I started out taking my dog for long walks around town that were about 3 miles long. Then I eventually worked myself up to going to the gym at school and walking a little quicker on the treadmill. Now I am up to alternating walking and running for 45-60 minutes a day. I cannot tell you how much of a difference this had made in my life. I just thought I was sick and that was the way it was going to be. There are still days that I have to take it easy if I am not feeling particularly well, but overall it is easier to climb stairs like a normal person and actually have energy to hang out with my friends. It has been a real life changer!
I plan to continue this routine as much as I can. I am even confident enough that some of my friends and I are going to be doing a 5K color run. I am so excited to be getting ready for this because I thought I would never be able to do anything like this. I am also hoping to cut down my hospital stays per year (fingers crossed that I don’t get sick!). I am just so overjoyed to have the notion that I am going to be able to enjoy life more than I thought I was going to be able to even a few months ago. I am finally understanding why everyone says how important exercise is.
I encourage all of you CFers out there to come up with some sort of exercise regimen that works for you. This could include something as simple as walking (which is definitely the easiest), jogging, biking, hiking, yoga, playing an instrument, you name it! There’s a hump that is hard to get over, even in the daily routine, but once you are over it life is so FANTASTIC.
