Change for me today was a New Beginning

So something pretty major happened today. I wanted to talk about how awesome change can be especially when you hit a mile stone, but I didn’t get to experience it until the gym today. My former blog post on change just came to me and I needed a really solid example. Maybe that is what happened I posted it and forced a change to happen. Like I summoned it from above.



It is a pretty big deal to me to use my legs as much as I can for cardio. Not just for cardiovascular health of course, but because of my osteoporosis that I found out I had after a fall and my neurologist sent me for a DEXA scan, which I uncovered that I did in fact have osteoporosis.

In order for me to maintain good bone health and build bone, I would have to do weight-bearing cardio. In the past, I have been limited to just the hand bike. I would look longingly out the window of the room I was in tucked in a corner in the back, and wish that I could get on the cardio equipment that everyone else uses, including the treadmill, the Cybex machine, and the elliptical and bikes.

When my gym outfitted one elliptical with power so that it would be easier for me to use, there were times when someone was on the machine and I would either have to ask politely how long would they be on it because I needed to use it because it was the only machine that I could power with my weak leg. It was pretty embarrassing to say the least, but I would have to do it in order to use those machines for my weight bearing cardio.

Let me stop rambling and just get to the point. Today when somebody was on my machine, I knew that they were going to be on it for a while because the gym had just opened. If I had been there may be a minute earlier, I could’ve hopped on the machine no problem. Instead of asking if I could hop on and they hop onto the machine next to me, I just walked straight to the back and used the Cybex machine. It is weight-bearing cardio, reminds me kind of like a Nordic track skiing motion, but it was there that I found the place to put my crutches and hop on quickly. The Starbucks does not seem to be a preferred machine for most so I had choice of anyone I wanted.

The machine is tricky to get on with 2 foot plates that are a few inches raised off the floor. It took me quite a few tries a while ago to figure the best place to get on. I learned no that I would hop on the right played with my left foot, leave a place for my right foot, which is my bum foot, to stand on, and then move my left leg over to the left plate. With a few adjustments I would get my foot in the right position, and then use the machine. For some reason it is defaulted to a level of six which is a pretty steep angle, with a lot of hip extension so I just quickly lower down to one.

So because a change happened, and somebody was on that machine I was expecting to get on, I changed my path and went right to another machine. Had theirs not happened, I would’ve never known that I would be able to do 20 minutes like I do on the elliptical, and instead of just logging my mileage in my mileage spreadsheet, I did 20 minutes. I log minutes on my MyFitnessPal app to track the calories I burn, approximately of course, so now I am changing my goal to length of time.

If this small change has not happened. I would have never looked for another option to use my legs. People usually do what is convenient for them, and the least that they have to do to make a change. Change is not comfortable. So I made a change today and in doing so, changed my monthly goal two minutes. Of course I am at about 75 miles anyway, with less and less on the hand bike for the month so I guess I didn’t see my goal anyway. Now I will just look forward to getting as much mileage on these legs as I can.

I intend to stay up here for as long as I can, and need my legs to do that, right? Today change was really good.