I'm dejected that exercise is so hard. I'm doing a very gentle, conservative workout, and yet i am still a wreck, with aches and pains, especially in my neck and feet. I will probably give up. I usually do.

I can't get to my chores because i am so physically devastated by exercise. It makes me grieve, because i used to be an athlete, before bipolar meds and menopause. I *LOVE* doing exercise, it's just the recovery that is so punishing.

I've read about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). That's where you can do a lot of exercise, and it feels good while you are doing it, but you get intense muscle soreness after, which gets worse before it gets better. I guess that's what i have going on. It's compounded now by the muscle-wasting of menopause. This is the first time i've tried to exercise in menopause and it has been a rude awakening.

So disappointed because i love dressing up like a ballet dancer and going to our pretty gym and studying myself in the full-height mirror while i practice my body lines as i do my ballet poses. It's very good for my self-esteem because my distorted body image shrinks to reality-size and i see i am NOT a hideous beast, i am just an overweight woman who nevertheless has good flexibility and can make the pretty movements of a ballet dancer.

Just one more thing to grieve.