I’m not going to lie to you. I tend to overdo most things. OK, maybe not most things, but a lot of things that shouldn’t be overdone.
Take exercise for starters. During the height of the pandemic last year, I went all in. Six days a week I was in two-a-day-mode. Hot yoga in the morning and 20,000 steps by nightfall. I lost 17 pounds and started seeing lines and definition in my body that I have not seen in years. Then it happened. I started to hit a plateau and the needle began going in the wrong direction.
When I decided it was time to level up the training by adding weights and dance, things…well, let’s just say…went sideways. I began to experience a shooting pain that traveled from my hip through my knee and into my ankle. Tendonitis. Rats! I thought I had whipped the sciatic nerve back into submission and now this. Sigh.
I realized that my body was conspiring with the Universe and they were working together to tackle me to the ground. They won. For weeks now, I have sidelined weight training and dance while scaling down the hot yoga and walking to a more leisurely pace and schedule. Each morning starts with anti-inflammatory and ice packs and each evening ends with alternating heat and ice. Truly, it’s a sign of age that my overactive mind refuses to accept.
But, with everything we overdo, we are given the opportunity to rewind and redo. I’ve given my body the time and attention that it requires to heal (again) and take the much-needed time-out it wanted to regroup and recoup. In the process, I’ve noticed a few things:
- My overall inflammation is drastically reduced
- I am drinking more water than I usually do (which is a good thing)
- The tendon in my leg seems to be healing faster
- I am losing weight again and feeling a bit lighter
While it didn’t initially make sense, the new definition of my body became even more visible, and eventually I had the epiphany that I needed to change things up and proceed ahead a little differently:
- Shuffle the workout deck to give my body a rest from the strain of repetitious exercise
- Reduce the number of sets
- Stretch more and push less
- Try new things and be more open to non-traditional workout schedules
- Embrace an active resting practice
We all overdo things sometimes, but when we do too much and it causes pain, we need to step back and evaluate the hurt that comes with being overdone. Through the wisdom of acceptance and the willingness to change, we can improve our lives for the better. Just try not to overdo it.