Gettin It!!

Im her. Im the girl who i used to roll my eyes at, the one who i was so annoyed by because i didnt wanna hear about how amazing she felt after her run, or how great it felt to finally finish a 5 minute plank, the one who Instagrammed a picture of her healthy breakfast and was overly proud of her mile before 9am. Im her. Im the girl who hashtags things like #gymlife and #healthyliving and who preaches the benefits of even a small workout to her friends and family. Im her. Im the girl who does all this and more because all of a sudden im the girl who just went rock climbing and hiking and running up hills when my last appointment at Loyola Medical Center just barely put me on hold on the transplant list with a 32% lung function. 

My newfound active lifestyle isnt all that new ive been doing yoga for quite some time now and ive been trying to stay as active as i can, being on oxygen it was admittedly harder and the motivation was sometimes tough to come by. Its hard. Its taxing. Its hurts. Its worth it. In a few weeks i go back to my transplant clinic and ill do another lung function test and i cant wait to see what kind of numbers show up on that paper when im done!! 

I wanted to start doing a few posts about my fitness and health journey because i get a lot of messages about it, people asking how i went from top of the transplant list to being inactive on it in a matter of months (although a big part of that was having collapsing lungs), how i went from constant 24/7 oxygen to only needing it during tough days and when im sleeping. I used to honestly hate people like me i really didnt think that exercise at this point would do me too much good i thought i was too sick and if i could just get new lungs everything would be fine but the difference ive seen in my life has been absolutely incredible. I had pretty much given up but signing papers to be officially listed scared me into really working hard and changing my life for the better!!

its hard to say that this will work for everyone because CF is a very specialized disease, every case is wildly different and no matter what kind of work you put into your body the bugs that call it home can still destroy you overnight with no warning, however the stronger you are the better your chances are when you need to fight back!! Post transplant is hard on the body, the muscles and bones take a beating so strengthening them now means a faster and easier recovery when it is my time for new lungs.

My goal now is to push my transplant date back as far as one can possibly push it back, ive been living this life to the fullest lately and im not ready to end that!!!