My mission is to make life an on-going chain reaction of many a simple moment of happiness. When I'm firmly grounded in a happy everyday routine of life, I become happier and my joints follow suit.
Therefore, I find it best to take the "holistic" approach to my joint pain management, meaning I take into consideration all aspects of my life's needs: psychological, physical, social and environmental. When one or more aspects of the needs are not being met, I know I will become imbalanced and unhappy with my life and it's my job to make sure to correct it for me.
I want to lay out both short-term and long-term plans for each of these categories:
Everyday cardio/weight-lifting workouts and moves that correct malfunctioning body structures and build muscle strength where it's imbalanced and weak.
Physical Recovery Plan
Relaxing and stretching achey/tight/shortened muscles and tendons to promote healing and lengthening. Manual Bodywork Therapy, Therapeutic Massages, Body Rolling, Stretching, Icing, Heat pads, Floating in the pool, followed by lots and lots of Rest and Water.
Diet Plan
Anti-inflammatory foods everyday and in moderation. I gain weight when my joint pain is in full swing (triggering a vicious cycle of putting more stress on my unhappy joints), so my goal here is to reduce inflammation and also to control my healthy weight/fat mass level.
Work Plan
I spend 1/3 of my life at my work, so I better make sure I am happy there.
Condition of Living Plan
Building a home sweet home from scratch again after a big trans-continental move to NYC is proving a massive headache.
Feel-Good Life Plan
Making Friends, Socializing, Family Stuff, Volunteering, Artist's Dates, Beauty Regimen, Dressing well, etc.
I realized that I have to constantly review and revise my plans and goals, because they change as my mind and body grow and change. i.e. A workout plan that worked for me 4 years ago may not work for my changed body now. I have to keep assessing my body and mind changes and personalize the game plan for what I now have.
Since these things are hard to accurately measure just by the way I feel, it helps to have some consistant tools to use as a guideline.
I use Burns Depression Checklist and Burns Anxiety Index for measuring my mood/depression, I used it with my psychotherapist 4 years ago and I believe it's still considered the standard.
I'll copy the BDC here for a peak- Print a few out and measure yourself once a week. Both BDC and BAI pdf files are available for download on the internet too.
Burn’s Depression Checklist
Copyright © 1984 by David D. Burns, M.D. (Revised, 1996)
Score each questions to indicate how much you have experienced each symptom during the past week, including today.
0- Not at all
1- Somewhat
2- Moderate
3- A lot
4- Extremely
Thoughts and Feelings
1. Feeling sad or down in the dumps
2. Feeling unhappy or blue
3. Crying spells or tearfulness
4. Feeling discouraged
5. Feeling hopeless
6. Low self-esteem
7. Feeling worthless or inadequate
8. Guilt or shame
9. Criticizing yourself or blaming others
10. Difficulty making decisions
Activities and Personal Relationships
11. Loss of interest in family, friends or colleagues
12. Loneliness
13. Spending less time with family or friends
14. Loss of motivation
15. Loss of interest in work or other activities
16. Avoiding work or other activities
17. Loss of pleasure or satisfaction in life
18. Feeling tired
19. Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
20. Decreased or increased appetite
21. Loss of interest in sex
22.Worrying about your health
Suicidal Urges
23. Do you have any suicidal thoughts?
24. Would you like to end your life?
25. Do you have a plan for harming yourself?
Add All Scores Here: _________
Date: ______________________
Total Score
0-5 no depression
6-10 normal but unhappy
11-25 mild depression
26-50 moderate depression
51-75 severe depression
76-100 extreme depression
* Anyone with a persistent score above 10 may benefit from professional treatment. Anyone with suicidal feelings should seek an immediate consultation with a mental health professional.
For my body, I used to visit my Physical Therapist every week and have him assess my structural progress (my pelvis/sacrum is tilted and twisted to my right) but have since then stopped going for personal/financial reasons and am looking for a different game plan. For now I simply keep an everyday journal/log of the way each joints feel, and also do same routine of Yamuna Body Rolling on my hips/upper legs to asses the pain/tightness level.
here is a sample of my own checklist today:
July 8th 2012
L Knee - mild to fine
R Knee - stiffness and feeling wobbly, some pulling at the inner lower tendon
L Sacroiliac Joint - mild to sore
R Sacroiliac Joint - stiffness, mild pain and soreness
L Iliopsoas - mild pain and tightness
R Iliopsoas - mild tightness
L Hip Joint - mild to fine
R Hip Joint - mild pain
L IT Band - mild tightness
R IT Band - mild pulling at the hip
Misc. - Stiff neck and R shoulder from staying up late last night watching Kyle XY :( Back and arm muscles slightly sore (in a good way) from yesterday's arm/back weight lifting.
Overall - mild. Yay :)
Workout - Concentrated on lots of Psoas stretches and R hip pushes. Little hip YBR.
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