16 Jun
Sixty years old and I have somehow convinced myself that strength training is for people who already know what they're doing. I stood in front of a YouTube video last Tuesday with two tins of beans and felt genuinely ridiculous. Put them down. Made a cup of tea instead. The thing is I know I need to do something. My joints ache if I sit too long and they ache if I move too much and I am absolutely exhausted by about half two in the afternoon every single day. My GP mentioned fatigue limits when I saw her last month, as in, she wants to know what actually stops me rather than me just pushing through and crashing. Which I appreciated. But it also means I now have to pay attention to when I hit a wall, and honestly I hit it faster than I expected. So I am trying a different approach. Just mobility before I go to sleep. Not a workout. Not a routine. Literally just some slow stretching on the bedroom floor while the news is on. I have been doing it about ten days and I cannot tell you it has transformed anything but my hips feel marginally less terrible in the morning and I will take marginally less terrible at this point. I also started eating something with protein after I move, even if the movement was only a twenty minute walk. Felt faintly silly at first, eating a boiled egg after a stroll. But I read something here a few weeks back about muscle and menopause and it lodged. I am not becoming a fitness person. I want to be very clear about that. I just want to be able to carry my shopping and not feel eighty. That's the whole ambition. x