My JourKNEE Back

  "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." I'm sure we are all familiar with this saying in one form or another. Let's face it, though, words DO hurt. They may not leave outward scars like our physical wounds, but they hurt in a very deep and personal place. Our inner thoughts may have to fight with them for years until we can finally be freed of their effects. When you grow up hearing words or phrases to describe you such as "little piggy", "chubby", "Ox", "Shamu", "She has such a pretty face.", "big boned", they follow you into your teenage and young adult years. They haunt you when you gain weight after marriage, when you become pregnant so that you try to hide your growing belly instead of being proud of the life you are growing inside of it. They haunt you even when you lose the weight, and you are at the lowest you ever remember being since high school when you would eat hal...

Today, there will be cake, birthday cake to be exact. It will not be a joy filled, opening presents type of celebration, however. Nineteen years ago on March 16, 2005, I had an experience that changed my spiritual and mental outlook forever. It was definitely a defining moment in my life. I was about thirty-two weeks into my second pregnancy and things were progressing well. As a matter of fact, I went for an ultrasound on March 14th and was told the baby was developing normally, everything looked good. We decided we didn't want to know the sex of the baby, as we did with our first pregnancy. I loved the element of surprise, it made it even more exciting and, man, were we excited! March 15th was probably like any other ordinary day at the time, filled with playing with our daughter, something imaginative I'm sure, followed by the mundane lunch, naptime, dinner and bedtime routine. I was mostly an at home mom at the time, with a biweekly cleaning job and this was my week. I woke...

I have the exercise part of getting healthy down pretty well, but nutrition has always been my downfall as long as I can remember. Beginning in March 2024, I planned to start conciously thinking about what I ate and trying to make some changes. March 1st fell on a Friday, and everyone knows that you start new things on Mondays, not over the weekend. (wink wink) What would a new eating plan look like for me? If you talk to me about micros and macros, how many grams of protein or fiber you should have, good carbs versus bad carbs, it will go in one ear and out the other. I do not have the concentration to try to figure all of that out. If it gets complicated, I give up. I've had an exercise and nutrition coach send me a list of fruits and vegetables with the instruction to cross off in red everything that I do not eat. I looked it over, made my marks and sent it back only to be told "that's a lot of red." Yes, I am a picky eater. I don't remember being exposed to a ...

I used to ride bike as a kid, of course. I did the classic trick of putting cards in your spokes, so it made a cool noise as you rode. I have memories of riding to the park to use the tennis courts. I would strap my racket around my shoulders like a guitar and put the tennis balls in my bike rails. I also have a few traumatic memories involving the two-wheeled monster. One time, I was on roller skates, holding on to the back of my sister's bike when she got moving a little too fast and I fell and scraped the side of my leg. Then there was the time that made me a little fearful. Again, my sister and I were out riding. We turned to go down a hill near our house when my bike skidded in a pile of loose stones. As I made the turn, the bike slid out from under me and I fell off, scraping my knee while falling in the pile of little stones. I had stones in my knee. My (step)dad had to pull them out with tweezers. I have a scar to this day. I'm pretty sure I did damage to the bike I was...

  My plan of action until my next appointment, which was scheduled for today, March 1st, was to do my therapy exercises at home every other day and, on the days that I didn't do those, I could ride bike. The therapy plan took about 20 minutes. I diligently followed the plan. I also rode bike anywhere from 3.1-6.2 miles eight out of those twelve days in between, sometimes using our stationary bike and others actually riding outside, trying to focus on raising my heart rate to make it an effective cardio exercise. Today, when the therapist asked how I was doing, I told her that my legs are feeling somewhat better. There have been days that I went downstairs without noticeable pain, and I haven't wanted to sit and cry by the end of each day. She said, "Yeah, I don't think you'll be here much longer." When I checked out, the receptionist asked if I needed to make another appointment. I said, "I assume so since this is only my second visit, but the therapist d...