Ride for a Q'ure!

One of the biggest (pun intended) and worst parts of Cushing's Disease is the weight gain. What people don't understand however that as easily as you can gain weight with Cushings because of high cortisol levels.. that's just as hard as it is to LOSE weight!!! The media has poopoo'd the idea that weight gain can be because of hormones because for awhile so many folks tried to use that as an 'excuse' and likewise with genetics. "I'm fat?! Well it's not my fault, I have bad genes and my hormones are crazy!".. so the shift was taken away from these ideas so that the individual again had to become responsible for their choices, for their weight and for their overall health. However, there are instances where weight really is beyond your control: Cushings. For myself and nearly all of my fellow Cushies, the harder you try losing weight, the faster you gain. Now I'm not saying the because of this you get free reign to eat whatever you want and never leave the couch, on the contrary, doing so would just leave us all even sicker than we are!! Because of our disease we try our hardest to do whatever it takes to improve our health since the disease and tumors seem to be running the show!!

So anyway, now that my cortisol WAS coming down, my endo had told me that it was time to try exercising again. In the past I've tried when my cortisol was very high and all that happened was that I gained weight. As a result she told me to stop trying because I was doing more harm than good. Now that it was lower again, I got the go-ahead to try again. I tried walking the treadmill but without proper help to manage my pain, walking is just too damn hard so I got on the bike one day. (We have a recumbent stationary bike). And to my surprise, it was much easier to ride for a few minutes than to walk! Why didn't I think of it sooner?! But I knew my motivation would run out quickly, so I came up with the idea for "Beth's Ride for a Q'ure!" I want another tattoo very badly, but of course don't really have the money for it, so I thought that I would ask for help! So for every 50kms that I ride, I ask for a sponsor to give me $10! By the end of 2000kms, I should have $400 which would be about enough for a tattoo and the one I want to get is a portrait of Quincy, hence the "Q'ure" part... I'm riding towards better strength and health and also towards a tattoo of my Q! I will likely get it on my left arm somewhere. That's where he sleeps most of the time, tucked snuggly under my left arm.. so this way I will always have him with me even when he's not with me! As I write this I'm at 47 kms, so very close to meeting my first goal! This challenge has really helped keep me motivated because I know that I will not only be letting myself down if I fail, but now I am accountable to many other people too! So I think I can, I know I can, and I WILL!!


Here's a link to my challenge on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/events/277514258980880/


I still need sponsors, so please sign up to support me, or you can just say you're "Going" to show your support as well! Every little bit helps keep me peddlin' away!