THERAPY POOLS AND OBJECT LESSON CHIC
Take a load off!
That’s an invitation around here. Other places too, I guess. As usual, my spin on it requires a backstory or two.
Back in the day, I was a pretty skinny little girl. My grandmother used to take my mother aside and caution her. “Oh honey, if Kara Beth doesn’t start eating more, she’s going to dry up and blow away!”
Fast-forward twenty years. On a visit to that same grandmother, she gaped at me and exclaimed, “Oh honey! You’ve gotten awful fleshy, haven’t you?”
Somewhere between dryin’ up and gettin’ fleshy, I had a few kids. At that point, my metabolism stopped working – or at least that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!
The Bible talks about line upon line, precept upon precept. My weight gain was probably due to cookie upon cookie as well as the hormone disconnect. Anyway, as everyone knows, these days as much as I would like to self-identify as svelte, I am, alas, a little fat girl! And I HATE it when all the doctors’ reports say ‘OBESE’! Though I do have to say like my friend, Marjorie, always said – “I don’t sweat much for a fat girl!” That’s a plus.
Which leads me to today’s problem.
I had my throat slit in January. I am sort of disappointed that the scar is healing so nicely. To explain the wound, I had a great story planned with pirates, swords, stormy seas, and gold doubloons. Oh well, it’s a moot point. Half my thyroid ended up in biohazard container somewhere. (Where does junk like that end up? A landfill? Creepy!)
So I’m going to a lovely endocrinologist. Like other doctors throughout my adult life, she insists that diet and exercise are the keys to weight loss. (I doubt she has the same idea of a Mediterranean Diet as I do – olives and dates with every meal!) You’d think as smart as doctors are, they’d come up with a magic potion! I need to put on my fairy godmother hat, grab my wand, and see what I can conjure up!
But in the meantime –
As I’ve said before, I love to swim. The local hospital’s wellness center pool is now clean and warm. I rejoined. I limped into the water this morning and stepped gingerly down the stairs into the pool. Both knees are in pretty bad shape – from falls – because of multitasking. Getting into the water really takes the load off the old, aching joints!
I had a great epiphany this morning as I moved from the weightlessness of the water and back onto the firm concrete and felt the gravity press my weight down onto my knees.
Preaching Alert!
Jesus said cast all our cares on Him. When I am loaded down with daily troubles, my spirit feels heavy. When I ask God to help me with all my problems, it’s like when I step into the water and feel relief. If I am dumb enough to start worrying again or doubting God’s ability to help me, I feel the pressure like I felt this morning. Not a good choice.
Everyone who has been to my house knows that my decorating style is “object-lesson chic”. I use things to remind me to pray, but that’s a blog for another day. I’ll just say that going in and out of the pool will be my daily reminder to give my worries with God – and leave them there!
Blessings! KB
Nerd Alert – This is really some useful knowledge. One internet site stated that for every pound of being overweight, there are 4 pounds of extra pressure on the knees. WebMD cited researcher Stephen P Messier, PhD. saying “for every 10 pounds lost, each knee would be subjected to 48,000 pounds less in compressive load.” Not sure the math matches since it was comparing two different measurements, but it is interesting … frightening … upsetting … and certainly challenging information to encourage me to take the load off!
