Exercise ...

Exercise, the experts say.

It's an important element of pain management for fibromyalgia.

Best done in the morning.

O.K.

I'll do that.

Sure.

So I drag my sorry ass out of bed this morning, after seeing every hour and a half all night long until 3:30am (then I slept right through 'til 5:30am -- woo hoo, yay for me I managed two hours straight!).

Returned to bed with my coffee and newspapers and at 7:00am I started preparing muffins for us to have with our breakfast (a rare treat in this household).

And whilst the muffins baked, I biked.

Now, last week, I had managed to get my biking up to a full eight minutes a day and I had maintained that pace even through the excessive fatigue period I experienced.

But on Monday of this week, I went all out and cleaned the porch again, getting it ready for use (finally).  And that took a lot more out of me than I had anticipated.

When I jumped on the bike later that day, the best I could do was four minutes.

This morning?

A full twelve minutes!

Did you hear me?  I biked for twelve minutes this morning.

However, I experienced the strangest phenomenon -- at the seven minute mark I thought I would have to quit because my right hip was really burning (in the bursa?).  But I kept going anyway.  The pain increased and eventually I was able to pinpoint that it was actually in the hip bone, rather than the bursa.  Then all of a sudden, there was a sensation of movement of the bone, like it had repositioned itself, and the pain stopped.

Just like that.  No more pain in the right hip.  So I continued biking and made it to the twelve minute mark, at which point I figured I'd better not push the envelope.

We also went shopping this morning, running errands in town, and that involved a fair amount of walking (during which both hips were yelling at me to stop).

So I guess I've had my work-out for today.

Now, the experts say that fibromyalgics should strive to exercise every other day, giving their muscles a day of rest.  So tomorrow, I'll not bike (have to go for that steroid shot anyway).

But once I have clearance to go after that shot (24 hours later), I'll be hitting the bike every other morning before breakfast.

With any luck, by the time the benefits of the shot wear off, I'll be well on my way to meeting the weight loss goal that I've set for myself.