About two years ago, I decided I wanted to get in better shape — not just for myself, but also for my children. Obviously, the healthier I am, the healthier my family is. As my children have gotten older, I’ve come to the same realization most people of my generation have come to: kids these days don’t spend as much time outdoors. Most are attached to all things tech and are generally less active than we were at their age. So I chose to hit the gym to set a better example for my children. I can’t expect them to want to maintain an active lifestyle if I’m not doing the same.
I knew that getting into a workout routine was going to be hard for me. I think I like the idea of working out, but in reality, I don’t enjoy it. Sometimes I really do think my body doesn’t release endorphins like it’s supposed to during exercise. Okay, that’s just one of the many things I kept telling myself to justify quitting after two weeks of working out.
So here is a list, in no way exhaustive, of my justifications for not working out:
- I am way too tired.
- I have three beautiful daughters under the age of six. Any parent reading this needs no further explanation.
- A Starbucks Skinny Mint Mocha Frappuccino, with no whip — as if that helps — tastes so much better than a protein shake.
- I have too much going on at work. Being my own boss is great, but you work all the time.
- Binge-watching the entire Game of Thrones series in a weekend with my husband sounds so much better than getting off the couch for anything.
- I didn’t get enough sleep.
- Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream.
- Vacuuming every day — yes, I LOVE to vacuum — counts as exercise.
- Being a Girl Scout troop leader at a meeting with twenty girls surely counts as a cardio session.
- Hey, my Fitbit clocks a thousand steps easily while I sit and fold never-ending piles of laundry.
And the list goes on. And on.
So the point of this blog was to talk about another reason I used as an excuse to get out of exercising: I couldn’t do a jumping jack, jump rope, or do a burpee — who am I kidding, I still don’t think I can do more than 10 burpees — without peeing myself. It generally wasn’t that dramatic, but it was enough to stop me from finishing my small group lessons with a personal trainer whenever I saw jump ropes set out in the class or the words “Jumping Jacks — 1 min x 3.”
However, after committing to hitting the gym five days a week for three months, I decided I wasn’t going to let a bit of leaking stop me from attaining my goal of being more active. I came up with what I thought was the best plan ever: wear a liner and only wear plain black leggings. This worked for a while, but then the Athleta catalogs would arrive in the mail, and Lululemon would have one of its rare sales, and I found myself wanting to wear leggings with fun colors — not just solid black.
About a year into the gym routine, while wearing one of my many pairs of black leggings, I ended up with an awful sinus infection that left me coughing — my husband lovingly called it hacking — for over two weeks. This was the breaking point for me. I couldn’t tell you how many times I had to go change because I would leak a little bit with each cough.
Shortly thereafter, I was having dinner with some girlfriends, and the conversation somehow veered into the topic of leaking while working out, coughing, sneezing, and so on. None of us had huge issues with it, but it was definitely an annoying issue to have. By the end of laughing about it, I think we all realized that the issue was more common than we had allowed ourselves to think and that it was not necessarily something we just had to live with. “The prize of birthing babies,” as we put it.
Now that I realized I wasn’t alone in my struggles, I felt I could speak more openly with my husband about it. My husband is a board-certified OB/GYN. You’d think I would have told him, but after he delivered all three of our babies, I felt that some things should remain a mystery. Over the years, I had heard him talk about various options, including slings and mesh. And who hasn’t seen a law firm advertising on TV: “If you or a loved one have had ‘xyz’ as a result of mesh, you may be entitled to compensation. Act now.” Long story short — clearly not — he researched non-surgical solutions for stress urinary incontinence, which is a fancy way of saying you pee when you sneeze or work out. He came upon a procedure called VIVEVE and believed it could help me and many other women in his OB/GYN practice.
So the machine arrived, and I was patient zero. I have to admit that I was unsure of what to expect. The procedure was about 45 minutes long and, in my experience, was not painful at all. I didn’t even have any soreness. After the first couple of minutes, once I figured out what the procedure would feel like, I was able to relax, joke around with my husband and his nurses, and feel anxious to see whether I would truly benefit from the procedure.
I have no patience, so a couple of days after the procedure, I picked up my daughter’s jump rope to see what might happen. I was shocked — no issues with leaking. I was told what to expect and the timeline of those expectations, and I followed the curve almost exactly. After two weeks, the immediate benefits wore off, and I had some leaking while working out — more like spotting — but nothing that would keep me from wearing my celebratory Lululemon Align leggings in Chambray, a light blue color. About one to three months after the procedure, I was back to my initial results, where I really didn’t need to think about the issue when working out.
Basically, the VIVEVE procedure effectively took away one of my justifications for not making the effort to hit the gym. Darn!
I know this isn’t a glamorous topic, especially for my first-ever blog, but I’ve come to realize that it’s not just me who has this issue. I truly feel that this procedure may help others in my situation. It has changed my life in that I don’t have to worry as much about always having a liner available, bringing a change of pants, or planning around the issue. Just know that there is an option available. In my experience, it didn’t hurt, it didn’t take long, and it gave me an extra bit of confidence and security. All it takes is a phone call to get educated about the issue and possible solutions.
Until next time,
Tejal