Physical Therapy

 So I went to physical therapy yesterday and it was a bit of an eye opener. First, I was really, really scared that I had done some serious damage to my knee like torn something. So one benefit of going to PT was to learn if my problem was fixable or if it is something far greater than they could handle. So the good news is that it is fixable. The bad news is that I have lost so much muscle tone and strength in my legs it is not funny. I used to pride myself on how strong my legs were. Now? Not so much. Thankfully they gave me a bunch of exercises to do at home to help strengthen the legs and I know what needs to be done also. So I am on it. I will be doing the exercises every single day and I will be walking. A. Lot. I know that this strength loss is almost directly correlated to the fact that I can't hit 10,000 steps any more. So that is going to be my goal. I currently have my step goal set at 7,500. I'm going to focus on hitting that every single day this week. I'm going to set an alarm for 7pm that will remind me to check my steps and get up and get moving if I am short. Part of the excuse I've been using is my feet. I've been wearing the Good Feet insoles for about 5 years now and I use them as an excuse for not walking a lot. If I can't wear my sneakers I can't walk. BullSh*t. I have ordered a couple of pairs of sandals that have serious arch supports in them. I have 2 pairs of Merrell's from last year that I hardly wore. I just got a pair of Birkenstocks yesterday that I need to break in. I will be wearing those around the house and for every day use during the summer. They have support built in and are fine as long as I don't wear them 24/7. So, goal #1 is to get my steps in. Next week I will reevaluate and up my step goal if I can.

Goal #2 will be to do the PT exercises as often as prescribed and maybe the hip opening challenge on the other days. I want these legs to get stronger and the only way to do that is to work them. So today I'm going to make a schedule of my PT exercises and follow it to the letter every single nigh, no excuses. 

Goal #3 is to continue to work on losing weight. This means logging my food as it happens and not as an after thought. Measuring all my food - this will not be forever, but until I get a good handle on it. Supernatural 5 days a week. And of course walking. 

So, to recap, my goals are to lose weight and get stronger. Now I want to look at the why. Why do I want to do this, why don't I just live my life like this know that nothing is wrong with my knee. My why is that I don't want to get old. I can't stop the aging process but I don't want to get old. And sitting in PT yesterday and not being able to keep the lady from pushing my leg anywhere she wanted to made me feel old. I saw a whole bunch of really old folks in there getting PT and at first I thought YIKES!! I'm in the wrong place. But then once I thought about it I realized that I want to be like them, taking care of myself and keeping moving as much as I can. So there we are. Starting today, it's all about movement and getting stronger.