Monday, October 12, 2015

Exercising With Epilepsy

Sorry I sorta fell off the face of the earth, but I am back. I've been quite a busy Sara.

Recently I got this thing called a Fitbit, which I have come to love. It motivates me to exercise, which is something I have needed for a long time. It keeps track of a lot of things, depending on the Fitbit you choose to get. I got the Fitbit Charge which has a lot of options. For me, it keeps track of my steps, calories burned, staircases climbed, active minutes, sleep and miles. There are other things it is able to keep track of such as: food, water, etc. The Fitbit is fun because you can "compete" with family members and friends. There are challenges you can complete, which is a great motivation.

When I first got the Fitbit, it was extremely hard for me. A trigger for seizures is exercise, which has limited it for me. For the first week or so, I would have a few seizures every time I exercised, which was not fun. It made me not want to exercise anymore, and brought out more insecurities than I already had about my epilepsy. As I continued to exercise, I had less seizures. My body was getting used to it, which has been very helpful.

Today was a good day. I was a bit anxious around noon, and I thought I would go walk around the block to get my energy out. I walked around the block, and decided to walk around some more, being that I needed more steps on my Fitbit to meet my 10,000 steps a day goal. I decided to walk more, and ended up going from 3,000 steps to 10,000. It felt amazing to meet my goal and be able to think about life.

I rewarded myself by taking a nap when I got home and eating chocolate.

It's nice being able to forget I have epilepsy sometimes.