How to Take Back Control of Your Life when Fibromyalgia Strikes

You've got fibromyalgia. Which means you've got pain. What are you going to do about it? Let me tell you a true story about a fellow fibromyalgic. The name has been changed but the facts are true. Linda gave into her fibromyalgia for several years. She let it control every area of her life. Her self-esteem dropped...her weight soared. Finally, she had enough. So she did the only thing she knew to do to fight back. She started exercising. She started slow and easy. Her workout wasn't enough to effect her weight but gradually she noticed a decrease in pain and an increase in energy. But most important of all, she felt good about taking back a part of her life. It took months before she was able to tolerate an effective exercise program. But when she reached a certain level of intensity, her weight started dropping. Yes, she still suffers pain every day. Yes, she still experiences a certain amount of fatigue. But she no longer uses pain as an excuse not to exercise. Instead of allowing her flare-ups to send her to bed, she tries to exercise through them. By doing so, she has found the pain doesn't last nearly as long. Linda knows that she will have to exercise for the rest of her life. But in doing so, she is able to live a much more normal life. She can spend more time enjoying family activities, visiting friends, shopping and going out to eat. To her, that's well worth the effort. How about you? Do you want to take back some of your life? If so, consider an exercise program. However, standard 'go for the burn' exercise programs, do not work for fibromyalgics. In order to be successful, you need a program based on the limitations of your illness. A good fibromyalgia exercise program needs to be planned out on paper and updated weekly. It needs to reflect what you can do...not what someone else is doing or thinks you should do. It requires starting slow and building regularly. It means resisting the urge to do a little extra on days you feel good. Because you know that little 'extra' could keep you in bed all the next day. If you decide to begin exercising, first check with your doctor. Then find a program that is designed for the fibromyalgic. The program should get you started slow and easy. And it should help motivate you to keep going when the novelty wears off. It may take a month or more before you feel any change. But after that the benefits will keep increasing. In the end, you'll find out as Linda did, that exercise is one of the best ways to take back at least a portion of your life from that devastating illness of fibromyalgia.