Prehabilitation

Confession:  the news that by surgery planned for 5 July had been bumped to 19 July was an emotional blow.  I felt like the wind had been knocked out of my sails; totally deflated and drifting off into limbo land where hours pass, little happens, nothing is achieved…

But the lethargy started to lift with real life and cyber support from family and friends, and a day out in Bristol at the private view/opening of the Royal Photographic Society’s Summer Exhibition - in which I have a print - has helped get me get back on track.  

Rather than get stressed again about the further delay, I’m going to start “prehabilitation”.  This is defined as “a process of improving the functional capacity of a patient prior to a surgical procedure so the patient can withstand any post operative inactivity and associated decline”.  In other words, to get you to a better place physically before you have an operation.  

You do this by:

Improving your diet

For me, that means trying not to respond to stress by eating comfort foods like chocolate and savoury snacks which spoil my appetite for healthy meals

Cutting down on alcohol

I usually restrict my alcohol intake to a bottle of wine at weekends and a drink on special occasions, so I’m already below the recommended limit. But maybe I should experiment with some mocktail recipes…

Stop smoking

I stopped that years ago whilst pregnant, so already ticking that box

Increasing activity

One of the upsides of lockdowns was going out everyday for a walk.  With the easing of restrictions, I lost that daily habit. I’m going to try to revive it, aiming to walk at least 5km/3 miles every day.  I’m posting on Strava, calling them Prehabilitation walks.  Give me some kudos so I keep going!