One of my favorite times of the day is when I am able to pull out my special shoes, put on my toe socks, and go job a trail at my local park. It is truly the one time of the day I am able to just kick back and enjoy the peace of the outdoors. It is that peace that I feel that worried me the most when I heard I was going to need an ostomy. It was not the fear of the surgery, but the thought of not having that special time for myself when I am able to run through my hard day and find a great time of rejuvenation. That is why I am so happy to tell you that running is 100% possible with a stoma. It was in no way a hindrance to my favorite part of my life. That small 30 minutes to an hour every other day still happens. Now it is a little different now, but it still happens. So I just want to give you a little hope and maybe a hint or two at how to enjoy running or get on track to doing it as well. My journey didn't just happen right after surgery. I wish I would have been able to do that but I had a lot to learn. The new lifestyle change that everyone told me it would be was not acceptable. Instead of a lifestyle change, I decided I would not accept mediocrity. I decided that I would learn how to get the gear that would allow me to live normally. The history records show that I didn't have to have a massive lifestyle change. People have had stoma's for hundreds of years or more and they have lived incredible normal lives. I love the fact that others have gone before me and done what I wanted. So I followed their footsteps and their lives. That is where you should start as well. Find people that do what you want to do and also have a stoma. Learn how they did it and how they are able to succeed at it. Read their posts and blogs and learn from their mistakes. If they are willing to share it then you won't have to actually make the same failures that they did. It is because of this that I am so grateful for them. My hero Jack Holst is one of the best athletes in the world and he has a stoma. He ran an Iron Man Competition and it gave me hope. He did it with a regular amount of stoma gear and it was just the stuff that worked well for him. In 12 hours he ran a marathon, biked 100 miles, and swam two miles. It was an amazing act and it showed me that as long as I worked out slowly and got my body safely into shape that I could accomplish my daily or every other day jogs at my favorite park too. I love the fact that I am able to get out and jog now, but I started slow. I started walking around my home. Then I started adding in hills and elevation. Then I started on the elliptical and then finally jogging. It was a great way to learn and I wouldn't have done it any other way.
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