Pain Makes Couch Potatoes

I have FMS and PFS, not major conditions...they are not degenerative nor will they cause death. However, it causes a lot of chronic pain.

Another reason I want to help others...I have chronic pain, so I know what it feels like.

Pain makes couch potatoes! I know, b/c I used to be one. I've had my days from laying around.
I mean, I walked and jogged a little back in the day and as I got into my mid 20s, I was able to afford to go to the gym, so I did. But I was always in pain.

Even in high school, I was in pain...all the time. My body was never the same after I had a terrible bout of MONO my junior year of high school.

Growing up, my sister and I were always so active...we even did basketball camps, etc. in middle school. I loved track and field when I was in the 6th grade. Our parents had us in tap dance and acrobats, etc. They took us camping and hiking all the time. We were always camping at the beach too. They even let us take swim lessons and join the pool membership every summer! We rode our bicycles around everywhere as a kid! I even remember one summer when Mom enrolled me and Gayle (my twin sister) into an aerobics class...it was a summer long class on the weekend.

In high school, it all stopped. I got lazy or got in the wrong crowd.

My freshman year of college, i lived on campus and had no car. I had to walk everywhere! I even worked out at the campus gym and even took body sculpting classes. I went camping and hiking that year some. After that, I turned 21 and could legally drink and party. So I did. My exercise turned into going to raves and dancing from 11pm to 11am the next day! I was really good at dancing. Glow sticks and all! Hahahaha Seriously, I was good at it. It was aerobic too. I always remember my knees hurting all the time from dancing. My favorite room was the break dancing...and drumb and bass. I always wanted to learn how to break dance but never did. I was also not taking care of my body though...eating terrible back then and not getting enough rest!

At age 25, I was settled down by now, out of college and working. I was sort of a couch potato, but i still liked to power walk and go out occasionally to club. I started meeting some people who were active, and I wanted to get out more. But I would hurt all the time. It would make me just want to lay in bed. I finally went to a rheumatologist who diagnosed me with FMS. He told me that most people with FMS are usually disabled by their 30s. He wrote me a prescription for some Flexeril and told me to take advil.

When he diagnosed me, I didn't even understand FMS. No one did. They still don't really. At least they know more about it now. I started my own research. That was when I joined a gym for the first time. I was 26.

I found that exercise really helped me feel better!

An old friend of mine and I used to work out together every day at the gym. We power walked together too. We were really motivated and exercising all the time too. I started feeling really good all the time. I even starting getting muscles. I remember she got a second job at night and worked out less and less and then we never worked anymore together.

I still went to the gym, but it wasn't the same w/o a partner. It was really hard to get motivated. Then my boyfriend (at the time) and I got a puppy. Needless to say, my working out came to a hault. I would come home from work to let the puppy out and feed him....and then never went back out. I was also in school at night as well at this point too. I sorta stopped working out. I was studying a lot.

When I hit 30, my aches and pains started coming back again. The boyfriend and I weren't together anymore after 5 years, and I started going out and staying up late...leading an unhealthy lifestyle. It felt similar to college, except not as crazy! I laid around a lot feeling sort of down and in pain a lot...probably depressed. I slept a ton too.

I was tired of hurting. I was tired of the way I was living and tired of my boring life! I was existing and that was it.

I started reading a lot of books. I wanted to be a different person and change my life. Life to me, had no meaning behind it.

I joined back up at the gym again in 2006. This is when I started doing yoga a lot. Trying to work out again. The same gym where I was doing yoga classes has a climbing wall. In 2007, that is when I tried climbing. I was scared of it at first and wasn't sure if I would ever go back. But I did. And I ended up loving it! Now I climb a lot, and it is something I could not imagine never doing anymore.

Unfortunately for me, climbing is really hard on your body. Having FMS and not being previously conditioned for a sport like this, later on, I started having issues with pain again. My knees mostly...and shoulders and neck. I figured out that you have to train your opposites with any sport...and that you have to condition your body as a whole. I've learned so much since I started climbing about my body! And I have also learned it from Anusara Yoga. Most folks would probably already know all of this, but not me. I had never been into sports. I wasn't aware of how bad I was treating my body.

I sought physical therapy in Spring 2010 for my knees. I learned so much. And I also found that what I was learning was so interesting. I wanted to know more. I also wanted to feel better and do more and push myself in ways that I've never done my whole life. Fear, anxiety and pain had constantly held me back for so long.

I have also in the course of several years sought some therapy. Getting to the root of emotional issues also helps. A lot of pain is brought on by emotional problems.

I used to just lay around all the time, because it hurt to move. Now it hurts when I lay around. I want to move constantly. Hell, if it is gonna hurt on a couch, why not just get up and move? Moving is better.

Regular exercise is key for physical and mental health. It also helps keep muscles strong, and your bones need strong muscles. They help support each other. I also don't want Osteoarthritis and other things as I get older. Strong muscles help make your bones stronger!

I have gone back through and read a lot of my old blog posts here. Wow! I sure have come a long way. I also found some old posts where I wrote about how I didn't know what my purpose was here in life and how I felt confused as to what my calling was.

I can look back at all the people I have met along this journey since I decided to change my course, and I have met some really inspiring people. People who inspired me to want and go get a better life!

Oddly enough, here I am going back to school now. Wow!!!

I doubt that pain really makes couch potatoes! I am quite sure it is the other way around now!