Injuries & Loss

This will be a bit of a departure from the other Work It Wednesday posts as I want to talk today about what to do when you can’t “work it” like you want to.

I always hear people showing concern about the upcoming holidays and how they are a threat to a healthy lifestyle. For me, the most significant setbacks I’ve experienced came from an injury that kept me from performing my routine activities.

I’ve shared in a number of previous posts how I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and how after six months I was “cured” after losing nearly seventy pounds eating low carb/low glycemic load and starting normal exercise routines.

What I don’t talk about as often was how a year later I had a tumble down a concrete driveway that kept me in a walking boot and arm immobilizer for nearly a month. It was so hard having to lay around thinking about all the things I couldn’t do. I was feeling sorry for myself and low carbs to me had traditionally translated to low comfort.

When I was just focusing on what I couldn’t do, I tended to start doing what I shouldn’t do.

Over that time and the few months that followed, I gained nearly half the weight back. Ultimately this led me to learning about and pursuing eating keto, which I’ve found to be a much more sustainable low carb lifestyle. Check out my Keto Thursday posts for more on that. I guess everything does happen for a reason. 🙂

I wish I could share the ultimate wisdom that would keep me (and others) from responding to injury with additional injury to ourselves. I don’t know that I’ve found that yet.

The best advice I have found on it was from my wife’s grandmother, who in her early nineties lost her right leg due to surgery complications. This of course wasn’t her first loss, she’d lost a child, her husband and much more. And yet, she maintained a positive outlook and determination to live a good life. I believe that if Gandhi were to meet her, he would have given her a “You Go Girl!” Unfortunately, we lost her earlier this year at the age of 96, however I’ll always remember what she said to us about dealing with life’s injuries and loss. She said,

When I get down thinking about all I’ve lost and can’t do anymore, I stop and give myself a good talking to, then I get up and do what I am able to do.

Maybe that is the best wisdom, to get busy doing what you can do.