I really want to get in shape, but I find it really difficult to accept some of the limitations from recent health issues. I quite literally have lost the ability to push through the pain, because if I do that, I incapacitate myself, and the more I do it, the worse I become until I may not be able to recover at all. I have to choose, every time, to stop before the 'pain' that I used to push through even shows up.
Our culture does not really have a solution for this, I've realized. We have a 'suck it up and keep going' kind of attitude. There is not a lot of support for being able to have the strength to see what you want to do and NOT do it, because you know that this is what your body requires of you.
Sucking it up and STOPPING is just as hard as sucking it up and moving forward; I didn't understand that until I had to face it myself. It takes just as much self-control for me to stop and sit my butt down, no matter how much I was enjoying moving around, than it ever did for me to keep running for another five minutes, or do another few push ups. Maybe even more, honestly.
I'm trying to remind myself of the reason I'm doing this in the first place: I want to be healthy. That means that many times, I have to accept that doing more is causing me damage I can't recover from. So I have to dig in and find the grit and determination to do what my body needs, and simply stop and rest.