Exercise! (a 2-part series)

Again, if you know me, you know that exercise is not my fave word... or action. I am lazy by nature and I like it that way, but I like the idea of losing weight more!

One looming adversary of Steph exercising, though, is the inevitable injury... lol. I have had a herniated disc at the C5-C6 vertebrae for 4 years now, and although there are flare ups after sitting at a desk for 12-15hrs (whose neck wouldn't be resistant after that???), for the past several years, I have managed to avoid any re-injury. No exercise was key (in my mind... I know better on a logical level, but wasn't willing to risk it).

Then, as I mentioned earlier, I fell. It was a clumsy, really dumb, freak-accident fall that only I could manage. I was taking out the garbage: 1 big bag + 1 big box. Any NORMAL person would break down the box and carry them both separately, but not me! My genius self decided that I should put the bag IN the box, because, well... lazy.

The box was both awkward & heavy. Perfect combo! I got to the dumpster, and the window on this one is a little higher than most, so I had to push the box up over my head to get it into the window. Then I realized that it would only fit one way (naturally) - I had to keep the box upright, hold the flaps on the top of the box flat, and leverage it with my weight. Simple enough, right? HAH!

By this point, I was on my "tippy toes" (now I know where THAT name comes from...) and leaned with all my weight into the box. What I lacked was applicable understanding of physics: when the box that was balancing my body dropped into the dumpster, I lost my balance... my left foot slid down a curb, and I did this weird pirouette thing to spin around and avoid falling into garbage mud. I landed on my hands and knees and slid about 2.5 feet across the parking lot pavement. And I INSTANTLY knew that I was in trouble.

That was 2 months ago. I am still heavily medicated and can usually sit at a desk for no longer than 4-5hrs at a time, which, as a student & a teacher, is not very productive. Now, I have this trip to Charlotte coming up in 3 weeks and I am dreading the 5-hr drive each way over a 3-day weekend.

SO! Instead of embracing my natural inclination toward laziness, I have decided to do what must be done. The cleanse, by the way, really IS pretty magical - my first inclination was to just take the train, but now, I want to work on getting rid of the pain. I should not be allowing pain & negativity control my life. I refuse.