You’re a spoonie.

But you’ve got to exercise.

But not everyone can just hope on a treadmill. This of us with fibro or ME even get the kind of pain you might feel after running for your life, from going down a flight of stairs.

But maybe you’d like to try a Little exercise because you want to be healthier, you miss it, you like the way it feels.

But. You’re a spoonie. How are you supposed to exercise when you have fatigue?

Or exercise hurts?

Or triggers a reaction in your body that research prices and all doctors aren’t aware of yet?

How do you stay healthy and active when exercise makes you sick?

One of the illnesses I have is made worse by physical strain, including exercise.

Sometimes just walking to the bathroom or taking a shower wipes me out for the day.

But I’m also overweight and sedentary.

Even on the days where I can manage 20 minutes in my reclined bike or a short walk, that might take up my activity budget for the entire day.

I literally cannot even.

So what’s a spoonie to do?

Like every chronically ill person? I got creative.

I have three things I do.

They are very sometimes-y, as in sometimes it’s awesome and sometimes I’m kidding myself.

First thing, you’ve probably heard before.

I fall asleep in my exercise clothes. Just as comfy as pajamas. A lot of my pajamas ARE exercise clothes. Yoga pants especially.

Second?

I get as much activity as I can around the house.m, but if I have the spoons, I do it the long way until I get to that day’s step goal.

To do this, I took a week to see what my average step total is. Some phones have built-in step counters. (for the iPhone, looked for “steps” in the Health lab. I figured if Ininew what my average was on a flare day and a regular day?

On regular days I can focus on increase, with flares I sometimes avoid it getting worse by staying within my step limit.

Then I do what I can to increase it 10% a week. My initial average was 275. Then it crept up to 445, then one day it was 2000. I never could have dreamed it.

Third thing that really helped when it was warm enough?

Instead of trying to walk around the neighborhood, I walk around in circles in my backyard.

My phone will keep track of my steps so I’ll know how far I walked. I’m not in danger of unwanted interactions with ableds or men whose intentions I may not be sure about.

Some days even light activity is too much

On those days I don’t push myself.

Otherwise I’ll just be down longer, it’s silly. What usually wipes me out is a cold or flu, which I basically have all winter long.

On those days I focus on standing for a minute. as often as I can, no less than once every 20 minutes during waking hours.

That’s how long it takes for the muscles you’re not using when sitting or reclining to stop burning calories.

Fourth, (I know. I said three), I exercise in small increments.

The best shape I’ve been in for a long time was when my brother was training me. He helped me break my big meal (since I could only go downstairs once per day) into many smaller ones.

During that adventure, he planned an exercise program with interval training. That’s where during regular exercise, you go as hard as you can for a minute or so.

So I ported that idea over to spoonieness.

I can I walk in place for 2 minutes. 3 times an hour over 4 hours that’s 24 minutes.

Not the greatest? But on days when you have to lay down literally most of your waking hours?

Every little bit helps.

It’s not just about burning calories. It’s about fighting all the crap a sedentary life tries to do to kill you.

I don’t know about you but I have enough problems with my health.

This next one is only helpful if you were able to increase your activity

Get some kind of low pressure exercise contraption. I like the ones with the steps you can use sitting down, under your desk.

A dumbbell  works too. I have an exercise ball.

It helps with spreading the activity out over the day. And for some reason, seeing a low pressure exercise gadget makes me feel like it’s not such a big to-do.

I don’t need my tennis shoes or to change into a swimsuit. I just go.

Whatever the low pressure thing is, di