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.