#hawmc / advocacy / asthma

physical activity, asthma and blogging: it all comes down to choice – #hawmc day 4

• by kerri

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I think why I health blog is too mangled and twisted and big of a story, one that is better suited for a Starbucks with iced white mochas in hand.  Regardless, let’s try it here, without the ambience and white mochas.  Even though Starbucks would be much more fun.

The time my actual blogging started was probably over five years ago. Since then I’ve had countless blogs with varying focuses, and finally, ended up here, with a .com address to my [user]name (which was thought up by my amazing friend Danielle on a joint blog we had together at one point).  So the original reason I started blogging is a mystery, maybe it is because that is what all the cool kids were doing? [Lies, actually. I’ve always been immersed in social media, and few of my real-life friends could care less about blogging].

Health blogging, and becoming a health blogger, started quite by accident. Asthma was my initial focus in health blogging, because getting thrown a chronic disease at almost-seventeen is, you know, crazy. One day I could breathe, the next day I was at my old school for a choir event and the whole breathing thing was not so easy. And then it took months to actually BE diagnosed because I didn’t have a doctor.

Almost-seventeen year olds typically think they are invincible, and to suddenly realize you’re not is hard.

I always say though, if I didn’t get asthma, I probably would still be sitting on my ass. And not doing this. This blogging thing. This kinesiology thing. This:

climbing.jpg

So why do I blog about my health?

Because one in ten Canadians has asthma, but nobody talks about it.  A tenth of the population has an incurable lung disease, but it’s been passed off as so common, so normal, for so long that people think it doesn’t matter.

Seven words: It’s not normal to have trouble breathing. And to think anything less is absolute bullshit.  No matter how common asthma is.

And at the same time, just because it’s normal to society, it’s not usable in the excuses that people try to make. My friends Natasha and Elisheva? They ran a 10K last weekend, inhalers in hand, to support an Israeli asthma organization. My friend Steve has walked three Boston Marathons with 34% of his lungs because his past and this stupid disease has destroyed them.  One by one, we are changing the standard of thinking around physical activity and asthma. Because perspective and physical activity . . . even if you’ve got a chronic disease . . . are choices.

This is why I make the choice to health blog. To reinforce to myself the choices that I make on a personal level, and hope that others who read this realize that life is about choice, even with chronic disease in the mix. Choice to do Good Things, whether that is for my body or my feelings or my mind or my heart . . . or my community.

Asthma may be a speedbump, but it is never a roadblock. I may have to choose a different route to get where I’m going. I may have to take some time off training for an exacerbation. I may have to modify how I do something . . . but can’t isn’t an option.

That message, and the next, which I’ve used in a #hawmc post already, are why I health blog. I health blog because

Perspective is crucial, positivity is essential, and ignorance is a curable disease.

#hawmc / advocacy / friends

superpowers – #hawmc day 3

• by kerri

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Teleportation. Christina at Mom of 2 Type 1s actually blogged about it this morning. And I guess I am still in that college stage she was in where teleportation would be the most badass thing ever.

Without the online health community, I probably wouldn’t really care about having the ability to teleport. Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel, and I would love to take those steps out of travelling. Just think, if I were able to teleport, I would be able to not even pack, not pay for hotels, and travel the world for a couple hours at a time then pop back home to go to bed! But without the online health community, all of you who have because of the internet become my amazing friends, I wouldn’t even care. Travelling would be cool, but I like the people the best.  I like the memories of meeting up with Rona, of meeting up with Dia when she was here. Of the thought I’ll probably get to hang out with Danielle for a bit in a few weeks when I’m in her city, and hopefully have a #KerriPower meet up in May when Kerri is in the city.

This . . . to be able to have these random meet-ups all the time would be awesome. To be able to see, face-to-face, the people who understand you the best, not only because they share your health condition, but they understand the ins and outs of it, and how it actually intertwines with your life. . . would be amazing. To be able to suddenly pop up and see Natasha or Elisheva [or any of my overseas friends] all the way across the ocean whenever we felt like it, whenever someone needed some rant-time or just to hang out, would be so awesome.

So teleporting? I would be all over that.  Meet-ups EVERYWHERE!

[Or, if not teleportation, I will totally accept an airline sponsor if I have any takers. AirCanada? WestJet? I can give you my whole pitch about the power of community and supporting people with chronic disease through education, empowerment, physical activity and relationship-building!]
#hawmc / advocacy / health + fitness / life / quotes

quotation inspiration – #hawmc day 2

• by kerri

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As irony would have it, I connected with Catherine from A Diabetic Ballerina again yesterday–she retweeted my #hawmc post right after my mom e-mailed me that she had printed the tagline from Catherine’s blog and put it on her wall at work after reading it in my e-mail signature. So good. Today, being quotation inspiration day, and Mirror Mantra Monday (hi Mike!), in searching for a quote, I decided what better to use than one of my ultimate favourites–one belonging to Catherine! Canadians unite!

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There are so many Good Things here on so many levels. Here goes.

We are here to have impact. We are here to change ourselves . . . and in turn, live with the hope that we will change the world one person at a time. Run at life full force, whether that is a physical run or a metaphorical run. Go at it. Get it. And don’t let it get away.

Movement is something that has become increasingly important to me over the last few years. “Love is a movement.” [–Switchfoot].  Connection is a movement, a daring to step beyond our own personal bubbles that far too many people seem completely okay being smothered inside.  Movement is spreading our metaphorical wings to experience what we never dreamed we would become or become capable of.  Movement is that desire to own your life. And if you, like me, and like Catherine, live with a chronic disease . . . then owning your disease is a huge part of owning your life. Owning the choices you make.  Each choice is a decision to move, and each decision to move is a choice . . . it can be cyclical.  Whether it is cyclical for the better, or the worse is a choice . . . and I hope to see the cycle, the ripple effect, be for the better.

The most literal form of the word is the one that has gained the most importance to me personally on in the last year. The movement that I choose to make physically, and the movement I hope to instil in others. And the sharing, the rippling, of this type of movement in our world. Physical activity and exercise . . . it is a choice, and it too, is cyclical. There is no such thing as can’t, and each step forward, each movement, is an impact on health and wellbeing for the better.  The movement in my classes to create a movement towards movement. The movement of the kids at work as they experience something new that they are capable of, something that they are able to accomplish while improving their health and having fun. The movement of changing the thoughts from negative to positive, and still underscoring fun.

The movement of dance–the movement of my body connected with my spirit, emotions, environment all moving, melting into one moment, one movement.

The movement to change. To reach out to touch people through whatever means possible.  Making an impact on our world. Stepping beyond the invisible comfort zone. Living in each moment in movement, not in stillness, in loudness, not in silence, in passion, not in regret.  So that when we’re dead . . . they’ll know we’ve been here.

Own it. And GO. Move.

#hawmc / advocacy / asthma / badassmatics / health + fitness / life / wellness

health time capsule – #hawmc day 1

• by kerri

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For April 2012, I’m taking another shot at completing the wegoHealth Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge. Like BEDA, or Blog EveryDay April, the aim of #HAWMC is to complete thirty health-related blog posts in thirty days. With finals and a road trip, it’ll be a tough go, but I’m going to once again try giving it my best shot . . . And hopefully complete it this time!

Health Time Capsule: Pretend you’re making a time capsule of you and your health focus that won’t be opened until 2112. What’s in it? What would people think when they found it?

Twitter – My Twitter account, as it stands now, is very health-focused, but also very diverse. Because I have asthma, I obviously follow many people with asthma [but not as many as I’d think considering 10% of Canadians have asthma]. I’d say I might even follow more people with diabetes, type one, type two, or LADA, than I do people without diabetes. I follow people with cystic fibrosis, people who have or care for people with severe food allergies, fitness and nutrition bloggers, physical activity and health organizations, people with a host of other chronic diseases such as Crohn’s and lupus, the list goes on and on.  And of course, I follow a bunch of accounts that have nothing to do with health at all.

School – I often forget to really appreciate all that university has done to amplify my focus in regard to health knowledge and current topics in health. My favourite courses thus far have been Physical Activity: Promotion and Adherence, Issues in Health and Adapted Physical Activity, because of the desire to encourage and implement positive health-related behaviours to as many people and special populations as possible. My focus thus far is always chronic disease or disability and physical activity, from a physiological, psychological and sociological perspective, so many of my courses have been able to tie into that passion.

Asthma – The first Ventolin inhaler, the one that started it all. The huge Mini-Wright Peak Flow Meter I got about a year after being diagnosed would have to be included, because it’s so ugly. I then moved forward to a little green TruZone meter and since then, a digital. The first beat-up AeroChamber. The nebulizer. And of course, the bottle from my first course of prednisone.  The chronicles of the constant inhaler switches and doctors visits in my first few years with asthma. Conversation snippets from friends far away, like Natasha, Elisheva, Steveand many more, and pictures of meeting my friend Rona in Chicago who I met through the (smallish) Twitter asthma community and has been a huge supporter for many years. A shot of the Second Cup where Dia [who not only is a badassmatic, but a kinesiologist working in adapted physical activity] and I met in Real Life for the first time. Amazing people who I never would have met if I didn’t have to live with chronic disease.

Exercise – In this I would have to include many conversations with Steve above on how to figure out making the exercise/asthma thing work. Steve has been a huge supporter of mine over the years since my asthma diagnosis [hello, the man finished multiple Boston Marathons on far less than half his lungs. So badass]. I’d throw in the first pair of Saucony shoes that made me a convert. An UnderArmour shirt which made me a convert to the tech-shirt side permanently. The encouragement of so many amazing people on Twitter.  The discussions on exercise and chronic disease via e-mail with Jay–along with his constant motivation to focus on the Good Things. And of course, my Team Asthma.ca t-shirt and the support of the Asthma Society of Canada in my crazy projects [like the TeamAsthma-based Intervention Project for Promotion and Adherence] and endeavours in advocacy through physical activity.  My motivational dailymile friends. And finally, my Fitbit, which makes me increasingly intentional about my physical-activity choices throughout the day. Because the truth is, if I didn’t have asthma, I wouldn’t have met Steve, and I’d still probably be sitting on my ass :].

Perspective – The blog posts and journal entries that encapsulate transformation in my own thinking and attitude towards living with chronic disease. Because in this journey, it all comes down to choice, and the road that it took to get me to the place where I realized that it came down to my thoughts.  With this, finally, I would enclose my personal mantra:

Perspective is crucial, positivity is essential, and ignorance is a curable disease.

health + fitness / life / wellness

moving forward.

• by kerri

Hello, exercise, I am back. Nothing like a lapse to make you really appreciate moving forward.

I would like to mention that this lapse was not a simple I-don’t-want-to-exercise lapse. It was an injury-induced rehabilitation-esque lapse, thanks to some sort of patellar tendon injury, or something of that nature.  Really the lapse started before the injury. I may not rock at nutrition, but I was doing better than, say, last year, prior to the lapse. And the journalling? I derailed on that for over two weeks. This is why Lent is not my thing. Add that this is the last Sunday before Easter and I am choosing to sleep instead of go to church. With the excuse that it is too complicated to figure out rides and it has been a long week and I would rather sleep. Honestly, I can’t seem to stick with anything anymore.

[This is Resistance, people.]

Now that I’ve finished making myself sound like a bad person who doesn’t care about anything, what am I doing about it?

  • The stir-fry thing today was a Good Thing as far as restaurant choices go. Could be worse, yes?
  • I went to the stir-fry place with my friend Jess who I have not seen for a long time. So awesome.
  • I did an hour on the trampoline today, plus ~3K walking. This needs to stick around.
  • I am done tutoring, and have wrapped up the 22-hour-work-week-while-going-to-school. Classes are [mostly] done. Good time to begin the journey again? Yes. Always a good time.
  • Paying closer attention to the Fitbit. 
    • My Fitbit friends Mike, Mike and Ashley are good motivators. [Are you on Fitbit? Add me as a friend!] I have yet to do a full post on the Fitbit, but the best thing about it is that it logs ALL of my physical activity, not just exercise. And everything adds up!
  • I am aware of the journalling issue. And I am changing the pattern.
  • Focusing on the Good Things.

Last night, when I re-opened the journal and realized the lapse I took off. In part:

it is not bad

but i am not balanced

cause i just woke / to eat some chocolate / and go straight back / i’ll go straight back to bed / where’s my head?

[where’s my head?, copeland]

body. heart. mind. spirit.

mind strong / body strong / try to find / equillibrium

[sound of winter, bush]

i.can.do.better.


I can do better.

change stops in your mind, leave the past behind, forget everything you know

make a change, let go. […]

stay on top if they let you. ’cause the change is permanent.

[fear, creed]

So, once again, going in to April, it is time to awaken.

Go.