Ouch.

Let's talk a little about pain.

When I just spent my time sitting on my butt all day, my body hurt.  My back, my shoulders, my head, my legs, my knees, my feet.  Everything hurt.  It also hurt to look in the mirror and see the bloated and paste-colored man that my lifestyle had produced.  My life was encompassed with pain.

Today, I feel a different kind of pain (in addition to all of those other pains, which haven't subsided yet).  My calves still hurt a bit from the lower body workout I did on Wednesday, a fact that makes going up and down the stairs at home a little less comfortable.  Far worse is the pain I feel in my shoulders, back, triceps, and biceps.  The upper body workout I did on Friday is leaving its mark in the form of DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness.  Yesterday wasn't so bad, but today is just painful.  Every little move, every stretch - it all hurts.

While it may seem like I am complaining, I actually feel a little pleasure in the fact that my muscles are sore in this way.  I think of it like this: in order for the other pain to subside, it has to be counterbalanced with a different kind of pain.  The difference being, of course, that DOMS is temporary.  My previous aches and pains were anything but temporary; in fact, continued progression down that path would have eventually led to my early death.

My pain before was the pain of protracted suicide.  My pain today is the pain of progress.