As I left for the gym this morning at 6:30 am I realized that my knee was hurting.  I have osteoarthritis in my right knee and have been bone on bone for many years now.  When I weighed 424 pounds it hurt all the time.  As I lost weight it ached most of the time but hurt with less frequency.  As I started swimming laps for exercise I found that it rarely hurt much in the water, but getting out could be another story.  Once, at 400+ pounds I had had the series of injections into that knee that were to replace the “joint fluid” that is no longer present.  That did provide some relief so I started the therapy again after losing 250 pounds and gaining the desire to be fully physically active in my new life.  Amazing the shots worked for anywhere between 4 and 6 months.  I was 95% pain free and gained the majority of mobility and flexion back in my knee.  WOOHOO!

So, you ask, why was my knee hurting today?  Last week was the 6 month anniversary of the last of my previous series of shots, and since the pain relief is so noticeable I tend to ignore when the pain starts creeping back in.  Denial must still be one of the tools in my tool box for ignoring the obvious.  Fortunately my insurance company is quick to approve the injections…hmmm, 3 office visits and some expensive pharmaceuticals or total knee replacement, who would have thought they would opt for the lower price choice she says, voice dripping with sarcasm.  Off I go to the orthopedists office with hope that the pain will once again subside to my last post injection minimal levels.

My orthopedist and I have an agreement that when these shots quit providing relief I will try a cortisone injection, and then, when and if that no longer provides relief I will consider total knee replacement.  He says it is an easy surgery but the recovery takes time and patience.  Hmm, time and patience…I have neither…time is at a premium - too much to do, too many people to see and places to go, and patience, well ha....I am definitely not known for my patience…just ask anyone who knows me.

Tomorrow morning, whether or not I am pain free (it usually takes a couple of weeks for the shots to kick in) I will get up and go to the gym as I do every weekday morning.  I’ll warm up for 30 minutes on the elliptical and then strength train for 30 minutes…that is my routine for Wednesday’s and Friday’s.  Exactly how hard I can work, and how deep (if at all) the squats can be will be determined by the pain level in my knee.  Regardless, I will be at the gym and working.

Getting on the elliptical this morning and having pain until I was 10 minutes into it and got the blood flowing freely through my knee reminded me of how much I hate the elliptical because it’s always hard.  It never feels good to get going no matter how loud I play the music, but I know that when I am done I will feel great.  The pain will truly be minimized by the increase in the blood flow, I will have raised my heart rate, sweated, burned a bunch of calories and created those feel good hormones.  The first time I got on the elliptical I could only go for 5 minutes, and I was already fit- I had lost 250 pounds and was swimming laps at a good pace for 45 minutes to an hour 6-7 days a week so you know I had a decent fitness level.  I knew I needed something different, something new to challenge my body and my mind and the elliptical was it because it was stress free for my knee. 

It took me a LONG time to work up to 20-30 minutes in my aerobic zone, and then to exceed it because it wasn’t challenging enough for me.  I added 1-2 minutes at a time and then celebrated when I accomplished them.  I kept at it on days I had headaches and sinus pains, and just didn’t feel like it because it was too hard.  I had to warm up before strength training to make sure I did my best with my trainer since I was paying him so this provided some incentive as did improving on my previous day’s performance, even if it was only by 30 seconds.  Every little victory felt like a major accomplishment and now, I can sustain an aerobic heart rate on the elliptical for 20 minutes; I use the first 5 minutes to warm up, and the last 5 to cool down.  Yay me!   I STILL hate the elliptical and I hate sweating, but I sure do like being able to do 2 sets of 15 pull ups once my body and mind are all warmed up.

You may be stronger than me, you may run like the wind, do 4 sets of 30 pull ups, you may LOVE the elliptical, or the treadmill or doing squats, and that is great.  For me, swimming was and is my first love.  I started with laps the same way as the elliptical.  A minute, then 5, then 10 and so on.  I look forward to diving into the water and swimming, it frees both my body and my mind.  The elliptical, NOT SO MUCH.

What’s the point you say?  Find something, anything you may actually enjoy doing and do it.  Start small, don’t try to do it all the first day or the first week.  Allow yourself to plan for doing it, make an appointment with yourself for your exercise, be it bicycling, walking, swimming or the dreaded elliptical machine.  Get your body moving on a regular routine and you may just find you like the way you feel when done so much that you will actually come back and do it again, and again, and again, no matter what the weather, no matter what else you have on your plate.  Do it for YOU, reward yourself for completing it…put $1 in a jar every time you finish 30 minutes of whatever your exercise is and designate the money for a treat- NO, not food, perhaps a pedicure, a massage, a bouquets of fresh flowers, etc.  Your imagination is the only thing that limits your choices.

JUST DO IT!