Lise adapted her approach to exercise and works within her limitations.

Transcript

I found one thing with heart failure is that I – you’re always told what you can’t do, can’t do, can’t do, can’t do, can’t do and that’s so hard to deal with first too.  All of a sudden, it’s like OK, I’ve got my hiking taken away from me. I got you know my yoga taken away from me. I got so much taken away from me in the beginning, and then I went into this spiral of depression. And then when I finally came out of it – not came out of it, but when I finally said I can’t do this anymore. I just – I need to live my life – then you learn how to work with your limitations. Like I didn’t give up my travelling. I just made sure that I travelled – that there was an elevator there. Or that our room was on a ground floor. I made sure that I always had a backpack full of protein bars that didn’t have a lot of salt in them so that I didn’t get hungry during the day and have to go get crappy fast food. So you learn your limitations. And I was so upset about like having to give up my hiking. And so what I ended up taking up was kayaking. Which sounds strange because everybody’s like ‘You can kayak?’ And I can kayak. And I do pretty damn good. I have to have somebody load my kayak and unload it. And I have to have somebody hold my kayak when I get in it. And I can’t kayak alone. So I know my limitations there and I accept them.

---

Go back