WEGO Health: Tell us about your how you maintain a healthy lifestyle. What is your favorite type of exercise? How do you manage fitness with a chronic illness?
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle with a chronic illness is not an easy thing to accomplish. There are times you’re so sick that it’s all you can do to get out of bed. On those days, all you need to do is focus on yourself and what you can do. Not on what you can’t do.
I’m actually working on getting healthy and back down to a better weight. I’m working on going to the gym three nights a week and walking my dogs when I can. I’m working on doing 30 minutes of elliptical for cardio and I’m also doing some strength training.
I’ve been keeping track of my progress using Evernote. It’s been pretty helpful. It’s nice to see how my progress is coming along. Here’s an example of what one of my notes looks like:
I also have a notebook to keep track of my measurements and weight. I don’t actually take them that often. So far I’ve only taken them twice this year. It’s not something I want to obsess over. I have gained a lot of weight from being on steroids. I was on it for ten months last year and the weight gain took a toll on how I felt about myself. People have noticed that I’m starting to lose weight. So far it seems everyone is noticing it the most in my face. I’ve been told that it’s thinning out. Which makes me happy.
I also have a Fitbit Flex. I use it to keep track of my steps, my active minutes, how well I’m sleeping and my weight loss. It’s a pretty awesome device and I think that Fitbit is a wonderful company. I recently lost my Fitbit flex and the replaced it for free after I gave them my info and proof of purchase. Which I thought was pretty awesome. It’s some of the best customer service I’ve had on a product ever.