Day -2

Saturdays are for my slow, long cardio workout, so today I enjoyed a two hour hike at a regional park. It was inspiring because the combination of the snow, the frozen lakes, the sun, and the tree I saw with the largest, bulging, rotted out knot I've ever seen inspired me! Now I know the bulging sounds disgusting but actually trees are truly remarkable how they can have a whole section of themselves bulge and rot and still continue to grow. Beautiful! 

The fresh air also started to clear out the cobwebs and chronic pain from not working out as much as needed lately. I'm one week into the workout schedule and am headed into the first full week of pre-training. 

The key to pre-training is putting all the components together and maintaining that balance. In the past, I seem to always be able to get one or two things going together, but not everything. 

This is one reason the healing from chronic pain, specific muscle atrophy, adrenal fatigue and the drain of trauma on your cellular memory has taken so long....it's all about balance. When I can maintain balance on the outside, my body has an easier time staying in homeostatis (balance in body language). When the body has to do most of the "heavy lifting" in areas like stress, nutrients, hydration, and rest, then it's fighting against itself (figuratively speaking). As I consider the goals for the first week of pre-training, these are the key considerations.

For example, my adrenal system is directly related to my Circadian Rhythm. This means that, at times, my body thinks midnight is actually 10:00 AM, wakes me up and keeps me up like I'm in the middle of the day. It also thinks 7:00 PM is actually 2:00 AM and is screaming at me and wondering what am I doing up? Most days it's not that dramatic, but that's why the adrenal testing I'm going to do this week is going to make a big difference. It will tell us exactly what my adrenal system thinks it's supposed to do, support it with medicine while it gets stronger and adjusts my Circadian Rhythm back to "normal." 

Because of this, I started leaving work at 3:30 p.m. last week so I can exercise by 4:00 or 4:30 - before the "rush" at the gym makes it almost a mute point as a relaxing activity and before my adrenal system starts it's evening dip. The experience from the first week tempts me to believe that this may become one of my future keys to success. I'm hoping! 

I'm daydreaming a lot about the days when my blog is all about the trials and tribulations of training and not healing... which is exactly why I know this is the absolute right road for me. Off I go for my "daily rest"! 

Day -3...

This year I am headed off to an adventure I've been waiting 10 years for. Even though it's only going to last 9 short days, it is the tipping point of a very long journey. Even so, I'll save that story for a little bit further down the road...

SO, I have spent most of this year trying to heal from adrenal fatigue and starting to train at the same time - not an easy task, I tell you! But last week, my doctor and I decided we had narrowed everything down to the chemicals which control my adrenal system. At the same time, he told me I would need three months of training for my August adventure, which was great news because that gave me one week (this week) to turn things around from working way too much the last seven weeks, two months for "pre-training" and three months for real training.

So, the goals for pre-training are to heal adrenal system completely, maintain physical training plan, cleaning up the food intake, and....losing some of the 30 pounds I gained since the car accident (hint to original story :).

Because I am not sure which will be the bigger adventure - reclaiming my former active life, building my new "self" or heading off the August adventure - I decided to create a blog to document it!

I don't know what the months ahead will be like, but I'm ready to be "all in" to see what it's like to transform yourself, your life, and get back what was formerly lost.

Chronic pain over....healing the residual impact on my adrenals....and living a full-out athlete life....HERE I COME! Thanks for joining me!