well my roadrunner had to be turned down...
I hate losing speed but the monthly bill is half the price so I can live with that.....
roadrunner is great(high speed cable internet) but 50 bucks a month is not so nice now its less than half that!!
What I would really like is maybe the wife to buy me a new hdtv or a ps3 to go with our entertainment system.
She is a clinical psychologist MS working towards her Psy D
she is scared for me and part of me fears she may be like what mark is sick? I mean I am a guy who has 3 gym memberships and loved to lift weights.... it was my life for so long no i am not a huge muscle guy but I am thin and in shape
sadly now I am terrified to even enter the gym it still hurts to see everyone working out.... I am to afriad to right now...
I feel sad and get that why me feeling if i go to the gym.
Mark1, it stinks horribly to have to give up something really important to you--like going to the gym because it reminds you of what you've lost and because you so want to be able to do these things again.
I hope you get to work with physical therapist or knowledgeable trainer to help you make a new routine that, in or out of the gym, will make you feel strong, capable, and many of the other things that the old way of being at the gym gave you.
I know it's not the same though.
Still, I find it's helping me a lot, at least some days, to focus on what I can do more than what I can't do (though it sounds so trite I hate the sound of it). Or to try figuring out a way to do the things I still love to do even though I can't do them the old way anymore.
Here's a small, trite thing, but today I wanted to wear a certain dress to work but I've had to give up most of my pretty shoes and in doing so I thought I had to give up a lot of the clothes I love that go with the shoes. (Now see, there's a problem you don't have!)
Anyway, I found a way to wear the dress with a pair of shoes that work and I didn't feel stupid, mismatched, or dowdy. It meant rethinking accessories and attitude, but I made it work.
I would have preferred to dress exactly the way I did before RA. I would have looked better. But I'm not sure I would have felt better, because I gained something today. I still felt like I looked pretty good, and on top of that I felt proud that I had found a solution and recaptured some small thing I thought I lost.
Keeping my femininity (my old way of being feminine) has seemed like a problem to me on many levels, not just fashion, with RA. But every time I find a way to still be feminine even in a workaround way, I feel a lot better, I feel hopeful, like I'm not really going to lose me in this.
This is what I hope for for you. That you'll find ways to keep feeling like you, with regards to staying in shape and whatever else is important in your life.
Whenever you see, with disgusted longing, some guy working out in a way you can't any more, or can't right now, remember, there's some RA woman (who's trying not to let her hobbling show) looking with the same disgusted longing at the chic long line of a woman in pretty heels and a graceful, easy walk.
I know, the gym thing is more important and should get a lot more sympathy!
You have a great advantage in that you already know how to train. I was totally dumb on it and they had a hard time teaching me. I was always at the lowest levels, but it helped me so immensely. I was so much concentrating on what I needed to accomplish, that I really didn't notice anyone else. I was coming in with braces and a cane. It didn't matter. Plus, I would meet others that were in the same fix.
I don't think you should give this up. Talk with your doctor about what level of exercise that you can do. Maybe he will send you to PT to get you past the current crisis. Mine was willing to work with the fitness trainer at the gym to help me work out. My trainer was wonderful.
I don't think you should give this up. It might just be your saving grace through this transition. If you can keep your muscles in good shape, they better support your joints. The lower weight you achieve also puts less stress on those joints. In the long run, you are going to be healthier.
But be prepared, you might be doing 5 lb weight workouts to start with and have to slowly work up. Get in the pool and the jacuzzi. They will help you build up your strength. Again, it is key to talk to your doctor what is approriate for the condition you are in.
Mark, I'm not the athlete type. I'm in my late forties, overweight and physically just not one of those women guys go "ah" over. But if I could go into the gym looking fat, out of shape, wearing braces, walking with a cane --- then, buddy, you can do it.
Deanna has it so very right.
In order to be happy you must participate in your own life! Change and not for the better is the plight of all living things - we age at the very least. (Yes it would be a lot ‘nicer’ to face aging 25 years from now. But at least we have all our parts and have not been smashed to smithereens in a split second car crash.)
Like the rest of
Go back to the gym and modify your routine. Once you start going again, I think you will be proud of your progress.
Best Wishes
RKGal, Im soooo there! LOL I love my heels! I LOVE THEM!! I have not given them up all the way though, thank god I have not had too (most days) I may alternate, heels one day, flats the next so I dont look at that cute little 24 year old I work with wearing her cute little heels! Good days make me happy b/c of heels!!
Mark.....I cannot sympathize with the working out thing, or better yet, understand. I join a gym when I feel fat and I want to do something about it. Never been faithful though. I am joining a gym very soon again. I am going with a friend of mine, who does not have RA. It makes me sad though, now I wont be able to keep up with her, even though shes 10 years older than I am. I will do what I can though, I want to keep my body as healthy and as fit as I can b/c unlike other people, I feel I already have 20 strikes against me with the RA.
Mind Body and Spirit!!! Good luck Mark!
Hey Mark, I've found a new way to enjoy the gym. Like Deanna, I hired myself a trainer who is familiar with RA. He's done a great job of showing me new equipemnent and exercises designed to build up joint strength and improve my reduced range of motion. Sure, I sometimes could spit nails at all the runners on the treadmills, but I have found that the recumbant bike takes the stress of weight bearing off my feet to allow for some cardio. With the plan from the trainer, I'm preparing for the day the pain subsides (gotta have hope, right?!). Maybe you could see if the trainers at your gyms are familiar with RA?Yep, my RD even told me that it is possible that the reason my RA was initally so mild for so many years is because I used to be very fit and muscular. I had, believe it or not, at one time very low body fat. In high school they did a measurment of everyone in PE as part of that Presidents Fitness testing....and I had the lowest ammt of body fat of all the girls in the whole school. There is a benefit of having good muscle tone and strength with RA, you have better support for your joints. Of course now that I am overweight and out of shape (thank you children...and Little Debbie) I dont have any support for my joints...and trying to relearn an exercise program is difficult. So many people have gotten good results with swimming...but with you already having the healthy exercise habits is putting you at an advantage. The main thing is to remember to rest the joints, and just do ROM when you are having pain. Otherwise you can still exercise and weight train. My RD gave me the go ahead for weight training as long as I wasnt having pain and I have osteopenia as well.