When Fitness Isn’t In The Cards (aka Know Your Limits)

Fitness is important. However, it’s important to know your limits, too, and when not to push them.

Give yourself grace because no one else will if you don’t. Pushing too hard only backfires. Trust me.

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I was so excited to share how I could feel such a difference in my fitness levels and how I’m so happy with what I’ve been doing. At Friday’s cardio kickboxing class, we’d do a round on a bag, then run around the room twice, then another round and so forth.

When we were done, I was still perky, so the rest of the class dared me to keep running. I did – and I finally stopped when everyone had out their Kettlebells and resistance bands for the next part of class… and I could have kept going.

I loved it!

The on Saturday, I became a moron. And this is a story worth reading, whether you care about my fitness or not – because I need you to laugh at/with me or I’ll cry.

So this was my foot on Saturday morning:

On Saturday, I was making chocolate stuffed bread. The timer went off on the oven, and Mister Man asked me what the noise was.

I explained that I needed to take the bread out, and I stood up off the couch, where I’d been reading. My leg and foot were completely asleep, but that’s not a big deal.

I figured that I had enough muscle memory to walk over to the oven rather than waiting the three to five minutes for my leg to fully wake up. I don’t want my bread to burn after all!

And yes, I’ve done it before where I’ve walked with my leg partially asleep. I won’t be doing it again.

As I started walking, I apparently didn’t lift up my foot on my second step. However, I didn’t know this because I couldn’t feel my foot at the time.

As my leg moved forward and stepped, my foot simply rolled. I heard some nasty-sounding noises and my foot was instantly on fire.

With my nine year old son at home, I took a deep breath and held it, doing the “ow ow ow ow” song in my head. I managed to hobble and hop over to the oven where a child had conveniently left a chair.

I sank into the chair and opened the oven to remove the bread that had thankfully not burned while I was having my issues. After recovering for a few minutes, I started to make my way back to the couch where I could put my foot up, using my counter and island to help me hop.

Before I’d gotten very far, Mister Man appeared with the walking stick his grandfather had given him for hiking. I explained that the walking stick wasn’t quite stable enough for what I needed, but that I appreciated the thought.

He insisted that I lean on him for support as I made my way back to the couch, which was fun as I tried to figure out how to lean on him without toppling him over.

My very sweet son then insisted on getting me and ice pack wrapped in a towel – he was obviously worried about me. I sent him upstairs for our tube of Arnica Gel (an amazing product and something you should have in your house at all times – and no, they didn’t pay me to say that). I already had a golf ball lump on the side of my foot, which is when I took that first photo.

After icing and elevating my foot all day, it was still sore, but I knew I hadn’t broken it. The repeated applications of arnica were helping with the swelling and the bruising, thankfully.

My husband insisted that I go to the hospital Saturday night with a friend, however, where we confirmed that it was a bad sprain of my foot but nothing was broken. I got called a star patient because I didn’t complain about anything or ask for any medication.

Oh, and I knitted my first scarf while waiting.

So now I’m restricted. I’m on crutches, and the ER doctor said I wouldn’t be healed for six weeks, which can’t be true.

All the RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevation), plus the arnica seem to be helping. My foot today looks a whole lot better, especially the bruising (thank you, arnica), but it still hurts like the dickens.

I did go to my cardio kickboxing class this morning, but it wasn’t the same – for several reasons. I obviously couldn’t kick anything, but even doing cross punches and others where I need to shift weight from one foot to the other and twist had to be modified.

I didn’t have anywhere near the same cardio workout, although my right calf and quad got quite the workout with my hopping from station to station and taking all my weight during all the exercises.

I’m going to try to go to class again tomorrow, but last week’s plan of going to the gym where I can do dancing for my exercise for the next two months? I definitely have to reevaluate that.

I’m crushed because I feel like I came so far in my quest for fitness before this speed bump.

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