Ever since I got back from conference I have been getting back into playing Pokemon GO, and found it to be a good motivator to get me to go for walks! Walking is really exhausting for me and can also be painful depending on how my joints/muscles are behaving that day.
Regardless, I have been trying to walk a bit more. Keeping my leg muscles strong is important for helping with my POTS symptoms; strong leg muscles can counteract the blood pooling issue to a certain extent. Also, I just miss being outside in my neighborhood more. I went for walks all the time as a teen.
Silly as it may sound, playing Pokemon GO on my phone really does help me to get up and walk even when I don’t feel like it. There is a lovely little park around the corner from my house that happens to have two Pokemon Gyms and four PokeStops. I can walk laps in the park to collect items and catch Pokemon, taking rests on benches as needed. There is of course also the egg hatching part of the game that will hatch an egg after you walk a certain distance. It all makes going for walks more fun and distracts me from the pain and discomfort my body might be feeling.
That being said, I may have overdone it in the past week or two. For a bit there I was going for a walk every day, and my foot got screwed up. The ball of my right foot likes to pop out of place pretty frequently, and walking on it so much made it really painful. I have taped it up and rested it for a couple days, so now it is feeling much better. I have a hard time finding a balance between moving my body enough that I prevent de-conditioning, while also avoiding moving around so much that I hurt myself.
Regardless, I will continue my Poke-walks, maybe just not every single day this time!
cyberneticrose 