Sitting too long…a cautionary tale

Nancy is super engrossed at the keyboard. Her thoughtful heroine is about to make a fatal error….

Four hours later—Nancy is super engrossed at the keyboard. Her thoughtful heroine is still not thinking right, she’s going further down the rabbit hole. And Nancy hasn’t moved from her position yet!

Yes, this is how the past several years have gone starting five novels ago. Why am I sharing this with you? So you become smarter than I was and not completely disregard exercise from your daily routine. I don’t have the time or inclination to think about exercise. Well, the time is available that’s true, but I’d much rather be “super engrossed at the keyboard” than wasting it doing any sort of exercise.

It started with a hitch in the leg/pelvic region. What had just happened? It seemed for a moment maybe one leg was shorter than the other and it resulted in an uneven limp/walk. I shook it off and thought an actual short “refreshing walk” would rid me of the kink. Only about a block away from home, my upper legs burned, my stamina deserted me and the thought I may not be able to walk back to my home crashed into my brain.

I asked our family physician, did I need  xrays?  Medication? Gulp, surgery like in hip replacement? Am I disabled? He is so patient with his writer patient. “No. You need exercise, like a nice refreshing walk. I also recommend physical therapy.” I shook my head. Argggg! I seemed to be without a choice.

Two months later, I thank my physical therapist, Sheila Gallagher-Whitlock for introducing me to best practice exercises for tight hip-flexor and Psoas (pronounced so-as) muscles. For me it means various exercises, a daily walk, a stand-up desk, and writing intervals of no longer than twenty minutes. Twenty minutes!

So all my beautiful readers and writer friends, I humbly offer this tale for your consideration. I never dreamed this could happen to me, but I’ve since learned I am not the superwoman I thought. No, I could become disabled for if this condition had been left unchecked, the muscles I work so hard to improve daily could have reached the point of no-return and a nice little scooter would have been my only future option.

This tale I share is even more important than a New Year resolution! If like me, you find your daily routine is light on mobility, do what you can to change that! I wish you all the very best in 2019!

From Nancy, writing from her stand-up desk!