My Challenge for the Holiday Season

Last year I joined a group called Elf for Health.  I was paired up with 3 different Elves who I helped motivate and who helped motivate me.  To be honest one of the elves fizzled out but Gretchen and Lyndi were great.  We would email each other on a daily basis trying to keep motivated.  When Gretchen's and my third elves didn't follow through, we were each other's elves for the last 2 weeks.

This year, they've shortened the challenge from 6 weeks to 4 weeks so we'll finish the challenge right before Christmas which is good.  People get so busy once Christmas rolls around that it's hard to keep track of your elf.  

I'm a little nervous though because some of the challenges are physical in nature and I have to be extremely careful especially since August.  My pinched nerve started acting up at the end of our Super trip because of how much strain I put on it with all of my walking between the beach and Folly and then visiting Atlanta and Huntsville.  I was seriously out of alignment when we got back and could barely walk.  Yuck! 

Then in late September/early October, I had another relapse where my leg would almost give out.  This was happening at work and I have to walk to get from place to place.  (My room is isolated from everyone else.)  So I'll participate with those but may have to modify how much I do.

As you can see I don't do a lot of exercise because of that darn pinched nerve.  When I was 12 years old, I broke both bones in the bottom part of my left leg.  I was in casts from February to June of my 7th grade year.  Twenty years and five months later, the pinched nerve started acting up.  I could barely walk at times which is not good for my job because I'm a special education teacher and would have to walk from classroom to classroom for inclusion or pick up students for intervention.  There were times when  I would be in a second grade classroom sitting on the floor barely able to get up.  

It now acts up at times with irregularity.  I walked all around Chicago on a trip in 2012 and it did not act up.  I go on my super trip this past July/August and it acted up.  

When I was in college 20 years ago, I would walk everywhere.  Even though I ate a lot of fast food (worked at McDonalds and got free food), I was fit because of all of the walking.  I miss being able to do that without the possibility of the pinched nerve getting in the way.

Anyway I'm going to go into this challenge with gusto and modify some of the challenges to what I am capable of doing.



If you are interested in this challenge, check out the Lean Green Bean for more information.  You need to sign up for the first round by Friday , November 22.