It’s a sad fact that the less you exercise, the less you feel like exercising.  As my mother got older, she, like her mother before her, had a lot of trouble with arthritis. Eventually, she gave up doing handicrafts such as sewing and crochet because her hands hurt too much.  As the degeneration spread, she stopped moving around any more than necessary and the less she moved, the weaker she got.

I started having joint problems when I was only in my mid-thirties.   I laughingly called it “traveling arthritis” because the pain was located in a different joint each winter.  The first episode involved a knee that ached all one winter.  Everytime I sat down, I covered my lap with an afghan, like an old granny, to keep that knee warm.  When the weather warmed up, the pain subsided only to flair again as temperatures dropped.

The next winter, the problem moved to my left shoulder and so on.  By the time I was 40, my hands hurt most of the time.  I was working in the data center of a trucking company.  This was in ancient computer times.  The system filled an L-shaped 300 square foot room.  The System 38 IBM hard drives were prone to overheating, so it was necessary to keep the room temperature below 70º F at all times.  The thermostat was set at 65° F year round.  I wore gloves with the fingertips cut out and my hands still ached terribly by the end of the day.

Around this time, I heard about a dietary supplement called Glucosamine.  I decided it to give it a try.  By the next winter my pain was nearly gone.  I’ve been taking it in various forms for more than 20 years now and I hardly ever have to deal with arthritis pain anymore.  The only exception is the knee I injured in 2004.

I stepped in a hole and twisted my left leg so severely that the top of the shin bone splintered vertically.  Needless to say, all the ligaments and tendons were badly damaged as well.  To repair it, the doctor attached a metal plate to the outside of the bone, just below the knee, with screws.  It took six months for me to be able to use the knee normally without some sort of support.

Presently, the knee sometimes pops, but it seldom hurts. The pain is lower, in the shin bones, it isn’t usually severe, but it does limit my exercise ability.  I still take my Glucosamine.  The problem is that a week without walking leaves my struggling to make my mile.  My left knee & shin ache, my right hip has spells of sciatica that is made worse by strain.  My wind gets short as well, then the heat sucks up my energy and I just don’t want to struggle with it all.  Until I remember my mother sitting in her rocker, in pain every day and never getting better.

So, on the days when it is too hot to walk outdoors, I try to remember to get up from my chair and run through my Yoga workout a couple of times during the day.  It may not burn enough calories to help me lose my excess pounds, but it does keep my joints from freezing up.

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As we move into summer, it becomes harder for me to stay motivated to work out.  This morning we moved our daily walk time back a half hour and it was still 82 degrees by the time we finished our park trail route.  As temperatures continue to climb, I’ll have to find an alternative.  I simply can’t handle exercise at temperatures much above 80 degrees.

It hasn’t been easy for me this past week.  My breathing ability hasn’t improved much.  I thought it would adjust as I got back into a routine, but it doesn’t seem to be happening.  At least, my legs aren’t stiffening up and getting sore, but that may mean I’m not working hard enough.  I know for sure my weight isn’t dropping very much.

So here’s the update: I missed doing much of anything from the sixth through the eleventh.  That’s not as bad as it sounds since the ninth and tenth were the weekend when I don’t normally do any planned workouts anyway.

From the Monday the eleventh through Thursday the fourteenth, I averaged 1.4 miles a day at about 3 miles per hour.  That is my standard.  On Friday, I spent the day catching up on blog work and didn’t get out of the house at all.  I do try to remember to get up from my chair and stretch every couple of hours, but I don’t have a way to quantify that.

On Saturday, the 16th, I sort of made up for Friday by going to the Handy Blues Festival and spending the afternoon wandering around taking pictures.  It wasn’t aerobic, but between the walking, the time there (about 4 hours), and the heat, I figure I burned some significant calories.

On Sunday, we did our monthly grocery shopping which involves pushing a cart that gets progressively heavier up and down aisles full of people who don’t care whether they are in your way or not.  The frustration alone should burn off a layer of fat. We spent a good 2 hours in the store, and I’d say it counts.

So, this week I’ve hit the park trail three days so far and walked around the block here at home the other day for a total of 5.25 miles at an average of 3 miles per hour.   If I make it out tomorrow, I’ll have completed a whole week.  For the time being, my goal is, at least, one mile per day, five days a week.

Since I’ll be leaving on a 3 week road trip on July ninth, that month will be unpredictable.  We’ll only be traveling for about a week of that.  The other two weeks we’ll be visiting my grandson and his family in Montana. He’s stationed at Malstrom Air Force base there and I’m sure there will be someplace that I can get my miles in while we’re there.  On the road, we’ll be staying at La Quinta Inns and they usually have a workout room available, so I just have to keep myself motivated along the way.

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