Living with Cushings requires a significant amount of acceptance and patience; you don’t have much control over your body and every treatment is followed with a wait and see what happens. Last year I started off with quite a bit of optimism, what followed was frustrating – radiation and surgery without any significant changes. I ended the year with six month check up where instead of celebrating success, we talked about my options going forward.
It hasn’t been all bad news though – I have maintained my weight during the last year, my ACTH levels are steady, I’m not seeing any additional side effects from the extra weight, and my headaches and muscle aches are still infrequent. These are small wins but they are still wins.
This year my only resolution is to push harder. Regardless of the state of my disease in the coming months I want to work on my endurance, my strength and flexibility while preventing any further weight gain and hopefully keeping my blood pressure and blood sugar in check.
Alright, on to the specifics…
Diet
I’m happy with the 1800 calorie diet plan my nutritionist and I settled on last year, the only change I’m going to make is to reduce it to 1500 calories and effectively eliminating a cheat day – I do this because I find that cravings are progressively so much worse as that day comes around and I feel it’s better to maintain moderation than go crazy once a week.
Exercise
For endurance I’ve decided to work on progressively more challenging hikes, I really enjoy hiking and pushing myself while enjoying a new environment sounds like the perfect combination. I also really miss running but every attempt I’ve made in the last two years to get back into the routine has resulted in pain. This year I’m going to follow a program I found through Runner’s World that over twenty one weeks get’s you back into running four times a week.
Strength will be tackled through a combination of adding more weight to my current program as well as adding in a couple of mini workouts throughout the day – I’m going to try out 7 Minutes for the first month and see how that works for me.
Flexibility is all about getting my yoga routine back in force. Years ago my practice consisted of Sun Salutations every morning, a twenty minute flow midday, a restorative flow at night and three 90 minute classes every week at an Anusara studio. I’m positive I won’t be able to fit in the classes but I can certainly do the rest.
Meditation
About a month ago I joined Headspace, a site that helps train you in mindfulness meditation, trying to fit that in every day over the holidays proved difficult, something I’ll need to work on during the next month. I’m shooting for every morning but I’ll take 4-5 times a week as success.
I guess I’d have to say that the most important and perhaps more difficult resolution I need to make is to not get derailed by work, my volunteer commitments, feeling defeated by lack of improvement in my condition and the depression that can follow. Procrastination via responsibilities?! Well, balance hasn’t traditionally been my strongest skills, here’s hoping I can find the right mix this year.
Vibrant Thing 