I am a poster child for exercising, or not exercising, depending on how you look at it. I had convinced everyone, especially myself, that I was too ill to do much at all. For the last year I barely did more than I really had to do and that left me breathless, in real pain, and miserable.
My joints hurt so badly that sometimes I just sat in a chair or lay in my bed covered up with blankets and sleeping. I was mostly marking time. Then, when my doctor wanted to put me on a bunch more medicine for diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure I panicked.
So, I bit the bullet and decided to give it all one last try. I would exercise! In the beginning I gave myself credit for every move I made. If I walked to the car, I counted that as exercise and noted, “Five minutes, walk down steps to car.” If I went shopping I did the same thing. Then one day I walked to the trash dumpster and decided to walk over to the apartment office and pay my rent. Wow! It took ten minutes! I was so tickled that I made it a point to walk ten minutes for the next week. I was slow. My ankles hurt. My knees ached and I was so winded! Until one day I wasn’t quite so winded and decided to walk a little further. After three weeks I walked twenty minutes and discovered my breathing was better, my joints were not quite so sore and now, after nearly ten weeks I am up to 30-40 minutes at a brisk pace covering quite a bit of ground.
My blood pressure is way down in the normal range, my sugar level well into normal, I have lost a fair amount of weight and I am feeling – well, younger!
Today a friend sent me a link that just sort of gives the reasons for all of this and I’d like to share it with you. It is a doctor talking about the studies that show what is the single most important thing you can do for your health. I hope you’ll take a look. It’s called: 23 and ½ hours, What is the single best thing we can do. It’s better than you think.
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