Tonight was my first night back to the gym after a lengthy hiatus.  It feels really good to go in there and come away exhausted.

For those who don't know, I have Sarcoidosis, and it hurts.  It physically hurts, it diminishes my physical capacity, but worst of all it's mentally and emotionally taxing.  It's primarily confined to my lungs so there are no outwardly physical manifestations of it.  The downside to that is, people, especially people whom I'm closest to, tend to "forget" or just not understand - if they can't see it, it must not be too bad.  "It's not cancer, right?"  Well, it's there, and I can't ignore it because it causes me physical pain and reduces my physical endurance.

So, between the sarcoid; being supremely busy with my wife and boys (the twins are now four); working; travelling; etc. I've been avoiding the gym.  I've tried to keep doing *something* like pushups and situps, but the truth is, I just became so exhausted and frustrated that I even started slacking on that.  Well, I'm happy to say that I've been hitting the treadmill at home and I've built up enough stamina to head back to the weight room.  So, tonight was my first night back.  Probably won't be able to move tomorrow, but I like that feeling.

 It's a vicious cycle when you don't work out - you become too tired to work out, so you don't go; when you don't go, you don't build the stamina and fight the fatigue. That's a mountain with a snowball that's hard to stop.   But, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.  Hopefully tonight will be the first night of my comeback to fitness.  I'm setting realistic goals for now - first to make it a habit again, and second to build up the stamina and fitness level to lead a healthy life not just for me, but for my wife and sons too.  There was a time when I resigned myself to 40 or 50 as my life expectancy.  I'm going to do everything in my power to stretch that to 100.  100?  Ok, 90.

So, it feels good to be back, and I look forward to many more dates with the weights.

Cheers,

Goody