One of my goals in being in Dubai is to practice moderation. I am failing. Miserably. I went to the dictionary to look up the definition – the practice of avoiding extremes. In the fibromyalgia world practicing moderation is huge. At Mayo I remember attending a great talk by a wonderful Nurse Practitioner where she demonstrated the art of moderation using test tubes filled with colored water. Feel good and use up all your colored water in one day and the rest of the week you have no more colored water….duh! Feel good and only use up 20% of your colored water and you have so much more the rest of the week. No kidding. I sat there nodding, yes, I understand the concept, yes, I think I can do that. Reality? I suck at moderation.
The practice of moderation has been SO frustrating for me, especially since coming to Dubai. I start to feel better, and then BOOM, I go a hundred steps backward. I have gone from being able to walk 10 to 20 minutes to 2 miles. Yeah me! But the next day? I can still walk – just not even 1 mile.
For my birthday we had a lovely staycation at the Sofitel at Dubai Mall. Jim was doing his best to remember moderation (he is my biggest support and cheerleader) but even with his best, the largest mall in the world is still the largest mall in the world and it takes a bit to get back and forth from your hotel! We went over to look at the skating rink as I had it in my head I wanted to ice skate on my birthday and that ended up being about a 5000 step walk alone! On my birthday we were very cautious with the steps. We went to the gold souk in the morning (lots of gold, all kinds of forms, amazing) and got back for a bit of a rest. We had the shuttle drive take us to the entrance of the mall closest to the ice rink. Smart eh? Put on the skates – it was awful. The first pair of skates had something wrong with the blades and at first I thought it was me – but then decided that even if I hadn’t skated in 15 years I couldn’t be THAT bad. After one lap around I came back in and switched skates. The second pair confirmed it was indeed the skates, however, skating was simply too much. Should I have done it? I don’t know. I wanted to do it or at least try. F’ing moderation. I stopped and we were off to a lovely dinner and I tried to forget about all that.
When I worked full-time there was never any moderation. It was a crazy schedule of non-stop work and movement. I was texting with my niece Nicole and mentioned I was having trouble with moderation and she sent a “LOL” and said – “It’s a Keller thing”. Yes – it is a Keller thing. But I know so many others have this same issue. Mothers who work full-time and then take care of families. People who work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Those in school and also working. I know I am just one little person with this “moderation thing”.
In my Mayo group, now meeting every 2 weeks, we end our session by stating the goal we will be working toward until we meet next. One of mine is always moderation. Looking back, it probably should have always been moderation. Better late than never!
