"No... to the Pain"

I hurt. It's a good hurt, because it means I'm making a change from the unfit slob I've been for twenty years into a - if not skinny and svelte - fit person in my forties. But it hurts. I understand the differences between "burn" and "pain" and I'm on the edge between the two - or was at 2:30 this afternoon. Now I'm just to "sore".

I know my friend and exercise-mentor will not allow me to injure myself, even if it does feel as though I'm about to lose my feet below the ankles. In fact, she's kicked me out of tomorrow's session so I don't overdo and actually do some damage. Which is, according to my doctor at my followup visit today, a sign of a good trainer - one who pays attention to her client and her client's strengths and weaknesses.

Anyway, the reason I hurt so much more today than I did yesterday is because I was doing my best to have good posture while on our brisk walk. This is hard, partly because I'm very overweight and partly because I carry that weight in places that make my back want to sway in order to compensate. So when I walk with my hips tilted forward to where they should be, I use muscles I've not used properly in oh, about nine years. In my adolescence, this was known as "the second day of ski season", when you woke up the morning after the first day of ski season and realize that noneof those muscles had been  used in nine months to a year. Ow.

On the up side, this is as I said, good pain, and I did not have to use my asthma inhaler either day, which is huge. My doc says to keep up the good work on the weight loss and fitness fronts, and that all my levels of everything are fine except iron (as usual) and Vitamin D (I'm a Seattleite). And Abby's checkup went if anything even better - she's no longer "overweight" for her height/age/build/gender - and the only recurring issues are the nut allergy and a fear of dogs. I've seen worse.

And at least we haven't been mostly dead all day.