Monday, April 26, 2010

Exercising With Lupus

There's an article in USAToday.com featuring Jane Fonda who is promoting Saturday's World Fitness Day. Reading this article got me to thinking about my many attempts throughout the years to be fit. I often fantasize about being this fit woman who runs marathons, bicycles mountain paths, plays tennis, and goes white water rafting.

In reality, I'm lucky to get out of bed to make it to the shower many mornings. Morning is the single most unpleasant part of my day. The other night, I attempted to stay awake all night just to avoid the feeling I get when I wake up in the morning. I didn't quite succeed at that. When I wake in the morning, everything hurts. Then when I stand to get out of bed, it feels like I'm standing up from a steep fall off a cliff where I damaged every part of my body.

Yet given this, I still hold on to that fantasy, and I attempt to exercise everyday in order to be that fit, active woman. I don't succeed in exercising everyday. I wish I could be one of those motivational lupus people that you read about or see on the news who exercises everyday or accomplishes some monumental feat. It's just some days, I don't have the mental capacity to do it.

I was most successful when I had a trainer. I would call him up on some mornings and say, "I'm just feeling too achy today, and he'd say, "No problem. We'll just take it a little easier in your workout today." I'd mumble and agree. I hated him on those days, but usually in the end, I felt better.

I don't have my trainer anymore which means many days I find it hard to get motivated to exercise. I got a Wii Fit for Christmas, and I just opened the box this weekend. I love that thing especially the yoga feature. In yoga classes, I often felt self conscious because I'm not as advanced or fit as the others, and I often had to explain my many problems to the instructor. With Wii fit, I don't have to explain anything to anyone. I just work at my own pace.

Working at your own pace is very important with lupus. An overly excited trainer of instructor can send you into a lupus flare faster than your next push up. It's very important to listen to your body.

How do you motivate yourself to drag your achy body out of bed to exercise? Just keep telling yourself, "This will help me feel better." At first you may feel awful, but personally, I found that once I got conditioned, I felt great after exercise.

Have a Lupie Fitness Day!

LupieKat

2 comments:

CaliGirl4Ever said...

Thanks for sharing. I have Lupus and also for years have been going up and down with the weight as well as the health. I recently lost my job and have found it not only physcially draining to even get out of bed but also mentally draing as well. Exerise is the best way I know & when I was working everyday...moving all day I felt so much better but now staying motivated is the hard part for me. I have heard Lupus can affect the brain but how? And I wonder if they plays any part in things for me these days?? Please reply with any insight you may have or anyone reading may have on that issue.
Very helpful hint... I have a Wii & never thought of getting that game and working out at my own pace. I have tried alot of things and getting out of bed seems alittle harder these days but with no one watching until I'm ready sounds pretty good. And doing it on my on beat sounds even better. So THANKS for that idea!
Be blessed and keep inspiring.
CALIGIRL:-)

The Lupie Kat said...

Hi Cali:

Lupus does affect the brain. I will research it and try to post a blog about it.