I did a thing...

     Sometimes we say that tomorrow we will do a thing and we just keep saying it until we forget what the thing was in the first place. I've had a lot to conquer in the last few months, and especially since the surgery; it can be easy to want to just give in and lay on the couch watching Netflix and bingeing on nachos. Before the grand cyst drama began back in April, I had been very consistent and productive with my exercise regimen. I found that it was helpful to exercise a couple of days a week and to repeat the same schedule for 3 weeks before adding anything new. Now that I'm starting over from almost scratch I felt a bit intimidated and didn't know where to start. Last night I grappled with the line between "you are 8 weeks post op" and "I will start a thing tomorrow". 
     Naturally, I did what I do best, opened a word document and made a visual. I'm already upping my step goal each week, and I know that I'm not ready to go back to personal training, so I wasn't sure what to do other than walking on the treadmill. As that blinking cursor stared me down, I did a thing. I put aqua yoga in the calendar square for today. Now, this was Sunday, which meant that Monday was tomorrow. Was I ready? Could I really just say I'd do this thing tomorrow so willy nilly with no time to process my decision? Once it's in the word document, there is no going back. The document is accountability and accountability is law.
     So this morning, I crawled out of bed, made breakfast, put on my new swimming suit and went to the pool. That's right, the thing I said I'd do today - I actually did it (and I survived)! I could only half do most of the poses but I stayed for the whole class. Best part? It was in the warm water therapy pool which feels amazing! Getting out of the water was hard because, lets face it, manatees are not land animals. Floating has always been one of my favorite past times, but today as I walked out of the pool, all of my weight returned to me and I realized just how much work it is to stand upright when you're gut muscles aren't ready to support you yet.
     No wonder I've been so tired! Just walking around is a lot more effort than I realized (and walking around doing laundry, making dinner, washing dishes). So huzzah to me! I've found my new three week schedule - aqua yoga on Monday and treadmill on Wednesday/Friday. I'll start with 5 minutes and work up from there. The next 3 weeks, I'm adding a water aerobics class on Tuesday nights. At the end of those 6 weeks, I'll be 15 weeks post op and ready to go back to personal training. I told you I'm moving the mountain one stone at a time. Stand back world, I'm unstoppable!
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