I JOGGED 8D

sanniefoxx

I know, big whoop to some or most of you. But lemme give you a little perspective:

I'm 29, trying to lose about 20+ pounds since I'm only a whopping 4'11", and am trying to coexist with COPD. Normally considered a "lifestyle disease," I'm one of the rare cases where I was diagnosed in my mid-twenties and have never smoked a day in my life. Can't, I have asthma. But since my diagnosis, I've slowed down a lot and lost a lot of my ability to be active, which I hate. I used to be an athlete. Ages ago, I was on track team. I was an avid swimmer and rollerblade girl. I was majorly into martial arts, archery, horseback riding, and most importantly, music. I trained in opera for more than 15 years. And then getting progressively sicker once I hit my 20's more or less cut all that off.

I've been fighting my weight for years since my early 20's but have never been thin. Athletic, but never svelte. And that was fine. But as I had to start slowing down and started coughing more, the weight piled on. Soon I sounded just like my grandmother for all the years I knew her, coughing every morning and night, always gunky, and always out of breath just going up the stairs. I drove myself nuts to lose as much weight as possible, but the disease never seemed to relent, so after a while it seemed kind of pointless.

In the last few months it started to advance to the high end of stage 1, early stage 2. I don't have insurance here and can't afford breathing treatments. I just get hand me down inhalers from people who have extras. But then I was told that it didn't have to be a death sentence. I would have to fight back as hard as possible, and that meant doing all the breathing exercises I could. So, I have been. I'm training to be a tai chi teacher, and part of that is deep breathing training, which makes me dizzy and is incredibly difficult, but every day it gets a little better. Every day I walk, regardless of the humid Florida heat; two miles in the morning with the dog, two at night with the dog, and then at least an hour on my own during the day, sometimes more, plus my training classes. My exercise makes me feel better and a little closer to how I used to be, so today I tried, even though I hadn't brought my inhaler with me or taken it beforehand.

"Flower" by Moby came on. Also known as "Sally's" or "Bring Sally Up." Out of the blue, I decided to jog. Not a full on race like I did when I was young and tearing up the track with my team, but a good cadence jog that I could breathe with and scream out the lyrics and scare the egrets. I made it the whole song. Without fainting, collapsing, coughing, or stopping. I made it. I finished the song and went back to my speed walk and felt like dizzy spaghetti, but that was okay. I. Freaking. JOGGED.

I know none of you know me, but I wanted to share, on the off-chance there's someone else here in the same fix as me, especially since I never thought I'd be able to jog again without fainting or my throat closing entirely. It feels fantastic to push past that marker, small as it is. Lots of you are unbelievably active and fit already, and I want to get where you are. And this says that maybe if I push a little harder I can And so can someone else who is just starting to fight back.

CCSunlight

Congratulations! That's a great accomplishment!

alcrisp93

That's so exciting!!! Congratulations, I'm super happy for you. here's to hoping more accomplishments like that are in your future -raises glass-