One thing I can say for myself, is I never let MS dictate what I can or can’t do. When I was married I bought a treadmill. I’m sure you can guess, it wasn’t long before that treadmill became an extension of my closet. Clothes ended up being tossed over it more often than the treadmill was ever turned on. After my divorce I made the decision to buy an elliptical. In that decision I also made a deal, I can never use the elliptical as a closet. I owned that elliptical for eight years and never once did I put a piece of clothing on it. That was my start for exercising. I started at 10 minutes a day, that was huge to someone who wasn’t exercising. I didn’t give myself a choice. I woke up put on a sports bra and went on the elliptical. Eventually I worked my way up to 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 45 minutes. Every morning I would wake up, grab my cup of coffee, put on my sports bra and go on the elliptical. Sometimes I’d be on the elliptical with my eyes close still, but I was on it. I remember I used to literally fall over onto my bed when I was finished. I needed time for my legs to recoup before I could get myself together for work. However back in those days, it didn’t take much, I was able to recoup fairly quickly.

I started moving from the elliptical to Beachbody workouts and doing programs that involved weights. Eventually I became so hooked on my Beachbody programs, I stopped doing the elliptical and only did programs from Beachbody. However the mornings never change. I got my coffee I put on my sports bra and I exercise before my day started. It was not optional. It was not optional even when I was on vacation. My workouts were important to me and I figured out a time to get them in. I worked out when I had steroid stints in my arms, in the middle of MS relapses and I remember once I even did it when I had the flu. My workouts were not optional they were done!!!!

Here I am ten years later, can’t really stand that long, can’t really walk that far and I have many more MS issues than I ever had, but exercising is still not optional. After I got over my shoulder tendinitis, it’s took me a while to build myself back up, but I did. I am back to doing workouts five days a week and like the past, I don’t give any excuse why they aren’t done. They’re not the most intensive things anymore, I do have to sit through most of it, but I continue to move and that’s what’s important. So today my self-love is what I do for my body and what I’ve done for many years now. Today I rock!!!!