Amanda Kate Hall – Celebrating the Small Wins
Amanda Kate Hall has SCA6 and exercising has always been a big part of her life. She is still very active and enjoys dancing with her beloved animals. Amanda highlights the importance of celebrating the small wins.
Before my diagnosis, I owned a fitness and nutrition studio where I worked with clients for about twelve years. All of my hobbies included some type of exercise. I raced with a cycling team, rock climbed, ran a marathon and many half marathons, did Olympic lifting… you get the picture. My very last trail run ended in a bad fall, after that my neurologist said no more running.
Now I have a spin bike and I’m looking into a recumbent trike for rides outside. I closed my business when COVID hit. My wife and I own a raw cat food company and I help out in the office when I can.
I very much love dancing in my kitchen with my animals. Naps are my savior, without them, things go haywire and I’m basically useless. I still try and move with intention in one way or another 4-5 days a week, sometimes it’s a walk, lifting weights or riding the spin bike.
SCA6 has been very humbling. My whole life I’ve been able to accomplish any physical challenge I put my mind to, I loved the process of overcoming things that seemed impossible. Now I’ve had to learn that mind over matter no longer works in that way. Some days I will have big plans but I will get hit with a migraine and have to adapt. I celebrate the small wins and appreciate the good days.
Because I’m still at a place with my symptoms that are pretty manageable people do not necessarily know how much I might be struggling on any given day and I’ve had to educate friends, family, and strangers to be more aware that when someone is struggling it might not be obvious.
Try not to compare current day you with past you, it’s not helpful in any way. I wake up every day ready to accept what I can and cannot do on that day specifically. And do not get caught up in toxic positivity, we have really bad days, Ataxia sucks and that’s the truth, don’t feel like you have to “be positive” in order to make other people comfortable.
Thank you Amanda Kate Hall for your inspiring words and for educating others about Ataxia!
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