Could it be that simple

 I've been doing the happy back challenge and I tried rolling out my IT band and nothing has been seeming to work on my knee. On Tuesday I started taking 800mg of ibuprofen twice a day just because I could no longer stand the pain. That has been working pretty well. The knee has not been pain-free but it has been markedly better. After the challenge poses, the instructor has a Q&A session where he answers questions that participants have submitted. In my first challenge I loved listening to the questions because there was a lot of really good information in there. For the happy back challenge I haven't listened because I've been waiting to rather late to do the poses and the Q&As have been fairly lengthy. But for some reason on Tuesday night I decided to listen to the Q&A (these things always blow me away when they happen). Well, on that night someone wrote in about an IT band problem. They had been doing the hip and back challenges to try and stretch it out. They had also tried foam rolling to no avail. Hmmmmm.... sounds like I could have written that question. Anyway, the instructor said if you've tried stretching and rolling and it hasn't worked, try strengthening it. Try doing those banded walks to strengthen it. WTF????  I've been avoiding strength training like the plague because I thought it would just make things worse and here he is suggesting it. I respect him, he really seems to know what he's talking about because he explains the why of everything. So I said okay, I'll give it a try. Last night I did it. I could feel my abductors working(my legs have gotten so weak). It felt okay, didn't hurt or anything. Well, I took my 800mg of ibuprofen before bed. When I got up this morning my knee is completely and totally pain free. I can bend it fully for the first time in 2 1/2 months. Could it really be that simple?  I hope so because this feels amazing. 

On a slightly different note, I really and seriously don't want to feel like this anymore. I'm over it. I'm really, really tired of feeling fat and in pain. Time to step it up a notch. I'm adding some strength moves to my nightly routine (dead bugs, and banded walks), I'm going to spend even more time on my feet. I'm going to make sure I do Supernatural every single night. I don't have to go all out, I just have to move more. I've made huge progress in getting in more movement, time to step it up even more. I'm even going to volunteer to cook dinner on weekends so that I can get some paleo/keto meals and make my lunches for the week. I need to clean up my eating and I figure that's a good start. 

Okay, time to run on my pain free knee.