Working With What You’ve Got

I love to run. Unfortunately, I developed tendonitis in my knees from all the sports I played in high school, and I sometimes experience pain that prevents me from enjoying a jog in the summer sun. The good news is that my physiotherapy exercises work wonders…the trick is, you have to do them. I’ve been pretty diligent lately, but last week was a little bit of an anomaly and I missed a few days in a row. So, surprise, surprise, when I went for a run on Saturday morning, I was met with knee pain about 15 minutes in. I found myself at a proverbial fork in the road. A fairly common reaction would have been to think, “Oh well. I guess this workout’s done,” and go home. I still wanted to feel invigorated rather than debilitated by my workout, but my knee pain was intense enough that I couldn’t really walk at any decent pace either. What’s a girl to do?

YOGA IN THE PARK! What a wonderful experience. Have you ever practiced yoga outside, with the sun filtering through the trees to cast shadows on your mat, and the breeze blowing through your hair? Talk about invigorating! After a few Sun Salutations and Warriors, I felt that I had a good workout, and wasn’t at all down in the dumps that I couldn’t complete the run I had planned. Workout: salvaged!

It’s easy, and in fact pretty normal to be discouraged by injury. The trick is to focus on what you can do, and immediately get to doing it. That way, you won’t even spend a moment caught up in the story of how annoying it all is, and how your body just doesn’t seem to cooperate with your plans. Instead, you’ll only have the joy and motivation that comes from choosing the road less traveled.

How do you manage to stick with healthy habits when you’re dealing with injury?