Every morning, I wake up stiff and achy. It's a struggle to get myself out of bed, and mobilized enough to make myself some coffee. Every morning I catalog my pains, figuring out the level of discomfort coming from each, and which (if any) are bad enough that I should consider them injuries.
And it makes me smile.
I smile because every ache, every pain, is due to exercise. It lets me know that I am pushing my body once again. Growing beyond my limits.
I am leaving the safe and comfortable zone, and making myself grow again. Growth can be painful, scary, exhausting, and frustrating. But oh man is it worth it.
I ran my second 3 mile run of the week last night. While I sat stretching afterward, feeling the ache in my calves and knowing I would have to coddle my legs the next day, I started thinking about the barriers I've busted through.
Not too long ago, I was struggling to break the two mile mark. Not too long before that, struggling to run for longer than 20 minutes straight. And before that, struggling even to run at all. Each time the barrier seemed unbreakable. I would feel trapped under a self-imposed limit, and feel like I had pushed myself as hard as I was capable of. Then one day, it would just happen. I would run farther, faster.
Now is the time when I need to be cautious. To pull the reigns in a bit on myself. Now is the point where I tend to over train, to push too hard, and fall victim to injury. I need to remember to let my muscles build slowly, and to let them rest.
But still, this is a good pain.
2 comments:
it's so great that you are looking at all this in a positive way! knowing in the long run every lil ache and pain will be worth your goals! *hugs*
As you know, I've been riding my unicycle to work now. This has left my knees, of all things, feeling worn and achy. So I usually try not to do it every day. The pain usually goes away in a day.
With you, it sounds like you're stressing your body out to the point where it needs to heal. I say that because you always seem to be talking about ow much it hurts. While you may have built up stamina, your body still may be over stressed. You may be in better shape, but if you're still in pain after all this time, your body may be trying to tell you something. Consider doing something equally as energetic, but less stressful on the body.
The more stressers you can eliminate from your life, meat, dairy, sugar, processed foods, chemicals, stressful activities, the more balanced and efficient your body will become.
I went from basically zero pushups to thirty plus and adding like 5 a week since changing my diet. I have more energy, need less sleep, feel happier.
I am convinced that eating a more whole food diet, avoiding meat, and dairy, will make you less sore, and more happy to wake up in the morning.
I went the vegan road so as to not be tempted by the foods I shouldn't eat, but thats just me. It's too easy to tell yourself that you don't eat much dairy or meat, but it's in so much food that unless you know you aren't, you probably are eating more that you think.
I'm only bugging you about this because there really is a huge difference in how I feel and I want you to feel your best too. I don't miss my old favorite, Pizza, because I feel fully nourished on real food. Going back to pizza would only weigh me down.
If you're serious, and I'm serious, try it. You can borrow my Kind Diet book. Take the time to try some of the recipes. I can tell you what I eat. There are plenty of delicious things to eat that don't have meat or dairy.
You can turn this battle, into play.
Post a Comment