Monday, January 25, 2010

Pain in the . . . Hip

It's back. My left hip, which first began to twinge and then hurt surrounding my first triathlon efforts, is tender again. And by "tender" I mean that I have some pretty gnarly shooting pains when I walk on it, not to mention leap and jump and do all sorts of other exercise-y types of things.

Which means I'm off the exercise. The high impact stuff, anyway. Last time, my doctor recommended a regimen of low intensity swimming and yoga, but I'm not sure that will help this time. The mere idea of doing warrior and crescent lunges on my yoga mat makes me cringe.

My thoughts on the matter are: #%&?>! And yuck. I'm not going to lie -- I feel pretty upset at this development. I was being good to my body and exercising moderately, taking rest days, and making sure I felt good before doing any higher impact stuff. And now this happens. I'll say it again: yuck.

However, I'm also determined not to get too depressed (which is not always an easy feat for me). When I had to take it easy this past fall to allow my hip to recover, I kind of freaked out. Between the stress of an exercise revamp and starting a new job, I ended up foraying into the land of emotional eating and gained some weight. I've lost a little of it, but not all of the weight. I'm [still] telling my eating disordered mindset to shut up about the matter, though, because I know that if I listen even a little bit I'll soon find myself re-imprisoned in food restricting and over-exercising. That is not a place I want to go again. So I'm not trying to lose weight, and am maintaining healthful nutrition and physical activity.

Except now my physical activity is going to the wayside, at least for a little while. The thought raises feelings of dread, panic, and depression, but this time I'm ready. This time there will be no emotional eating. This time I will not flip out. Why? Because . . . I realize there's nothing I can do about it. If I want to continue using my body (including the gimpy hip) in the future, I need to let it rest and heal now. Sure, that might result in a little muffin-top-of-doom action, but that's worth avoiding hip surgery, right?

Right. So I'm trusting God, and trusting my body to tell me what it needs. Pain is a communication tool, and I'm going to use it this time around instead of pushing and punishing my body to further injury. So I'm going to lay off the squats and plyometrics and lunges, and stick with hooping. After all, who can resist a nerdy white girl in a hula hoop?


6 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with your hip again. I hope you have a speedy recovery. This is my favorite hooping video so far. You are so cute and this video is the first that made me want to try it. You really looked like you were having fun. Loved it!

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  2. Oh dear, I'm so sorry. I hope the pain goes away soon. But trust that nothing is a coincidence, and maybe God is training you to be able to maintain your peace and joy even despite such setbacks.*hugs*

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  3. sorry to hear this beth. injuries can be so frustrating! your mindset is strong- give this to God! i was just reading about how hard it is for many humans to "get out of the mind" when it comes to stuff like this. we will be much happier and at peace when we accept the "low cycles" of life instead of fighting against them or "pushing through." there will always be low times, and it is ok to just let that be.who says white girls can't hoop!? :) GREAT video beth.

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  4. OMG I love this video :) You are seriously awesome. I want to learn to do that!!

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  5. Ha ha thanks, Maggie! You totally could learn how to hoop . . . although hopefully you're not as nerdy as me. ;)

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  6. Wow! I love to watch you hoop! You rock!

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"I am glad you are here with me."
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King