Monday, January 7, 2008

Just how much?

Do you ever wonder just exactly how much time and energy you'd have to expend to keep your body in shape? Not necessarily have abs of steel but to keep yourself tone enough that you wouldn't feel guilty on those days where you just have to sit down with a tub of ice cream? I have been in physical therapy for about a month now and I think I've figured out how to keep myself where I'm at (which is more tone than I was prior to the brain surgery and almost 10 lbs lighter). It's between 2-3 hours of light aerobics (like walking) and a bit of core/toning exercises a week. See now all you need is a bit of trauma and pt/ot and you too can figure out what it takes. Something I do not recommend to anyone unless they have a ton of free time and stellar health insurance. We pay for ours (private health insurance bites, it's expensive and doesn't cover what it should for the cost) and have received a bill from just about every doctor I've seen and none of it has been covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield yet. BTW, emergency brain surgery on a holiday runs about $75,000 if anyone wanted to know. I haven't even got a bill for the hospitalization or the inpatient therapy afterwards though and I think those bills are even higher than the surgery itself. But the care was wonderful and I am alive and fully functional. Well worth whatever they end up billing me. Every therapist I've seen looks at my chart or hears what I had done and says "Wow, you're damn lucky". Worth whatever they want to charge...

2 comments:

aweesan said...

All I know is, I got sucked into watching 2 of the episodes of "Biggest Loser". It's amazing how much energy it takes to reverse what we do to ourselves when we don't pull in the reins. If you feel you need some motivation, check out that show once. Seriously.

After seeing what my dad had gone through health-wise, I'm doing what I can now to help prevent against some of what nature has dealt the family. Sure I joke about the donning of a Winter Pelt this year, but working out and eating right are things that I usually practice and feel just not right when I don't do them.

My pal Mike who works for Apex Fitness sent me a video that I think you'd enjoy-- I'll email it and you can post since I can't on this forum.

Thanks for the reminder!

Amanda said...

Its also tough trying to fit in any kind of exercise when your schedule is already full. The thing I try is to eat as healty as I can and my husband and I play volleyball once a week. I know after that, I still feel like I can do more, but who has the time.