Doctor, Doctor give me the news....

The appointment today was interesting and I think I've learned a lot. Basically the doctor is on board with my plan to get healthy, but put some limitations on what have been deemed "The activities that should be eased into, not jumped into like a pool when your butt is on fire". While I am free to try new activities that interest me, the doctor does not want me over doing anything. Instead I am to try the activity and see how it makes me feel. If it causes pain aside from the normal post work out aches then stop. If my leg swells, stop. If my joints can't handle it and start to hurt, stop. This advice probably sounds obvious, but for anyone who knows me, I tend to be an all or nothing person, and I rarely stop unless I cannot go on. This time however, I am going to listen to my body. When something feels good, then I'll keep doing it. If it feels bad, then its time to stop. I truly believe my body knows what it needs and wants, and I just have to get out of it's way.

So then, what's the plan? Well, to be honest I don't really have one yet. I just want to make small changes that add up to a big change. Today the doctor and I set a realistic goal (she says 45-50 pounds, but did say if I could lose 55 then that would still be perfectly safe for my height) and got some healthy groceries. I also made a conscious choice to walk more by parking in the worst spot in the lot. Instead of parking close to the doctor, grocery store and work, I parked as far as I reasonably could. At work that would have put me walking more than half a mile in the dark to get my car, so I parked at the other end of the building. I still have to walk quite a ways and I can still walk inside. Much better then parking in the lot next to the front door.

As for workouts, there are many activities that sound really fun to try. I'd like to play tennis again, but the doc says to start by hitting the ball off a wall with a friend. Hiking is fun and there is a mountain near by that might be an option as I grow stronger. Of course there is swimming too, but for now I'm going to start with the exercise I loved last summer. It was fun and it worked! I lost weight and toned up when I was doing it frequently, so tomorrow I'm going back to Zumba! Once again I will have to modify it to fit my needs, but I'm going to do it anyway. I have tried a couple of zumba toning classes which go at a slower pace, but no more holding back unless I have to. I'm going to do regular zumba and then do the toning classes as well. By fitting in as many classes as I can into my schedule and budget (which is pretty non-existant at this point, but I'm going to try to make it work) I will hopefully get the boost I need to succeed.