Charging through …

Tonight after work I sat in my recliner with two bags of frozen vegetables.

I know I’m supposed to incorporate more vegetables in my new healthy lifestyle. But tonight it was a little bit different. I wasn’t exactly having these veggies for dinner. I sat in my recliner, feet propped up, with a bag of frozen carrots on one knee and a bag of frozen corn on the other.

The last few days I have thought I must know how it feels to be Mark Schlereth. For those of you who don’t understand that reference, Schlereth, a Service High School graduate who went on to star as a National Football League lineman for the Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos, underwent 15 knee surgeries during his career. Frankly, my knees have been killing me. Knee problems have been a problem for me since high school.

It’s frustrating, because I don’t want it to slow me down. I feel like I have been on a roll lately. I’ve lost 30 pounds. My endurance is far and above what it was six weeks ago. Even with a pair of aching knees I ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill today.

RAN.

I’m proud of that.

I’ve hit it pretty hard the last two weeks though. The AT&T Sports Center personal trainer, Krista, prescribed a “special” circuit for my health needs. In short, it’s lifting weights and sprints around the track. The lifting involves lots of repetitions and scaling down the weight, and in between each particular lift there’s a sprint around the 1/12-mile track.

On Friday, we hit biceps and triceps hard and a few hours later I had trouble lifting my arms above my head.

My arms ached on Friday, but it was a good feeling actually. With that feeling of hurt, there’s also a feeling of pride and accomplishment.

As far as my knees, that’s a different hurt. I know I don’t want to stop. I just might have to tell my wife we need to by more frozen vegetables.

Continued luck to all,

JB