Staying Active

It can be a challenge to stay active when you have a chronic illness. Living with chronic illness is exhausting and some days it takes everything I have to get out of bed. Sometimes I just don’t have the spoons to go for a simple walk in the evenings. However, once I started dialysis, I began to feel a lot better so I had a little more energy to do the things I enjoy. Keeping active is very important to me. It would be so easy for me to just sit around most of the time reading and not wearing pants while eating cereal straight out of the box. I’m kidding! Kind of… My fellow introverts get me. Anyhow, here are a few things I enjoy that help me stay active.

Walking
My husband and I enjoy walking around our neighborhood and try to go for at least a half an hour, if not longer, every night when the weather is good. We run in to a lot of people playing Pokemon GO! Haha!

House Work
Yes, I know it sounds lame, but I take pride in keeping a tidy home. Laundry, dishes, mopping, vacuuming-any of those things are a great way to keep me busy. And the bonus is that my house has a huge flight of stairs so a few times up and down them will get my heart rate up and help me break a sweat especially when I was carrying 30 boxes of dialysis supplies up the stairs. It was great cardio!

Yard Work
My husband takes pride in his yard the way I do with the inside of the house. Yard work is not my favorite, but I get to be out in the warm sun-with sunscreen of course! We planted flowers this year and we water and pull weeds often. It makes us feel accomplished when we look at our yard after a hard day of working outside.

Golf
My husband got me a set of clubs a few years ago and showed me the basics. I picked it up fairly quickly and did okay. I took a lesson at the beginning of the summer which has improved my game significantly!
Now you may be saying to yourself, “Don’t you live in Wyoming where the weather is only decent about 4 months out of the year? What do you do the rest of the time?” I’ve listed a few of them here.

Road trips/Travel
My husband and I love to travel. We try to go somewhere new each year for our anniversary, which is around Labor Day. We plan trips to Las Vegas every spring for Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend and to visit our families. We go to Salt Lake every month for my doctor appointments and while there, will plan to catch a concert.

Pool League
My husband also plays on a pool league two nights a week from October until April so I usually go with him and cheer him on. Okay, maybe this doesn’t exactly count as exercise, but at least it gets me out of the house for a few hours.

Halloween Halloween is a very big deal to us. We do a themed spooky haunted maze every year and let people come and walk through and trick or treat. This involves a lot of building of props and spending time outside to set everything up

The Gym
Ugh, my last resort. Yes, I can actually go to the gym and use the elliptical or walk on the treadmill. The gym is not my favorite, but I have friends who love it. I just find it boring. Maybe it’s just that I’m aware of the fact that I’m actually exercising or working out, but I just don't care for it. I feel like people are looking at me and judging me because I don't know what the heck I'm doing. Instead, I actually got some weights and created a Pinterest board of workout ideas. I pick a few different exercises to focus on and create my own workout while I listen to a podcast or an episode of my favorite show.

- Lacy Smith