Day 20: I've Got Some Good News; I've Got Some Bad News

OK, so the good news first.  On day 8, I did my Week 1 weigh-in, and I'd lost 3 lbs (303-300 lbs).  Yay!

While cool, there's probably some variance in there.  In the past, I've seen my weight vary by several pounds throughout the day, so it's entirely possible that my initial weigh-in was high, and my Week 1 weigh-in was low.  Over time, that variance evens out, but I know enough about how my weight can fluctuate throughout the day to not get too excited, or too disappointed over any single weigh in.

I walked 14.6 miles in week 1, and climbed 448 steps.  That's not bad, for a start. but my goal at this point in my program (and where I feel I'll begin to lose weight, and get healthy) is to be walking around 25 miles per week, and climbing around 600 steps per week.  I understand I'll have to build to that point (boy, do I ever understand that, as you'll see as you read on), but that activity level just doesn't add up to a legitimate 3 lb Week 1 weight loss.

With all the bad crap that's happened lately, though; I'll take it.

And now, the bad news: my feet and knees are screwed up!

In my last post, on Day 5, I posted about the dizzy spell I had while out walking.  That really freaked me out.  I felt out-of-sorts for the next several days.  On Day 6, I did the stairs at work before leaving, and walked Lily a mile that night, but I still felt strange, and just a little bit dizzy while doing so.  My feet hurt, too.

I decided to take Day 7 off.  I felt better on Day 8, and did two miles.  The foot pain persisted, and I felt a little twinge in my left knee.  I got a half-mile into my walk with Lily on Day 9 when I began to feel pain in my left knee that was exactly like the pain associated with the ligament strains in my knees in Fat Guy Walking 1.0 back in 2006.  As soon as I felt that, I made the decision to put the entire program on hold, right then and there.  I turned around, and slowly limped home.

I'm writing this 11 days later, on Day 20.  In that time, I haven't walked, I haven't climbed any stairs, I haven't even walked Lily, and that hurts.  She loves her daily walks, and not giving them to her breaks my heart, but I simply cannot allow these injuries to get worse.  I am absolutely determined to continue my program, but I am on total rest until the knee and foot problems are fully resolved.

In that time, my knees have gotten a little better, but despite my staying off of my feet as much as possible, they've actually gotten worse.  The pain is in my heels, and in the balls of my feet.  At it's worst, the ball-of-foot pain has even caused pain and numbness in my toes.  The pain is actually at it's worst when I first get up in the morning; I can barely walk.  As the day progresses, and I move around, the pain abates.  If I'm off my feet for 30 minutes, or more, though, the pain actually gets worse for awhile.

I've done a good bit of research on this, and I'm pretty sure my heel pain is plantar fasciitis, and my ball of foot pain is metatarsalgia, and Morton's neuroma.  The primary recommendations for treatment of these conditions are rest, and shoe inserts.  I'd already gone to Dr. Scoll's gel inserts, and have added metatarsal and ball of foot pads, but so far, no good.  A friend of mine swears by a place called Ideal Feet, but their inserts are really expensive.  I'll check them out if things don't improve soon.

What really pisses me off about this is, it is all my fault.  I was living my life, which included a lot of time on my feet, and walking Lily a mile a day with no foot problems whatsoever.  I decided to start a walking program, so, as I always do, I jumped in whole-hog and overdid it; not just in the amount of walking I did, but in adding in climbing the stairs at work, parking as far as possible from the entrance at work (more than 2/10 of a mile), etc.  All of that, and more, would have been fine, but they needed to be added in gradually, giving my body  a chance to adjust.  According to the multiple Ideal Weight calculators and charts I've checked, I should weigh between 160 (RIDICULOUS), and 247lbs (too much).  While those are extremes, most place my ideal weight between 180 and 210 lbs.  Split the difference, and you get 195lbs.  That means I'm carrying more than 100lbs of extra weight, and my feet and knees have to support all of it.  It should have been no surprise to me that so quickly adding so much more stress to the feet and knees having to carry all that dead weight caused problems.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

When my feet and knees are healed, and I get back to this, I'm going to do so on a very specific schedule, with a gradual ramp up in mileage and additional activities.

Oh, and my week 3 weigh-in?  I went from 300 to 301 lbs.



 

Day 5: You Spin Me 'Round (Like A Record)

1:44 pm

So, at the end of my last post, I was heading out the door for my walk.  I've split my 3.6 mile daily course into 2 parts; 1.5 miles with my dog, Lily, then the plan is to swing back by the house, drop her off, and walk the other 2.1 miles at my target 3 mph pace.  Due to the foot and shin pain I was having, I was going to reassess after Lily's 1.5 mile leg, and decide whether to go on.

Before I left, I remembered I'd had some foot pain the first time I'd done my walking program back in 2006 (Fat Guy Walking 1.0) and had bought some Dr Sholl's gel insoles, and still had some.  The shoes I wear are Nike Air Max Copious (http://www.academy.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_10051_89686_-1__?N=610945419&kwid=ps_cse&cid=CSE%7CGoogle&gclid=CNWJlJyD27oCFUlp7AodQxAAcw)

Of course, they're half the price I paid for them a year ago, now.  They're fine, but comparing their insoles to the Dr. Scholl's replacements, I could see the replacements were much more substantial; better cushioned, and softer, so I put them in, and gave it a try.

Big difference.  I immediately noticed how much more comfortable the shoes were, and my heel, ball-of-foot and shin pain were much less pronounced.  As the walk wore on, the pain diminished even further.  Lily and I both enjoyed her walk, leaving me with a decision to make by the time we got back home at the conclusion of her leg of the walk.  Stop, or go on?

Have you ever Tin Cup?  It's one of my favorites movies.  There's a scene in the movie where Rene Russo, playing Tin Cup's new girlfriend, is talking to Linda Hart, who plays his stripper ex-girlfriend, about a decision he's in the process of making: lay up, or go for it?


Doreen:  No, no, no.  This is what always happens.  He's going for it.
Molly:  Go for it!
Doreen: Molly, get a grip.  He only needs par to tie.  Tell him to lay up.
Molly:  Go for it, Roy!  Just knock it on!
Doreen:  This is why we broke up.  He always went for it.
Molly:  My problem is, I've never been with a man who went for it.
Doreen: Honey, he's your guy.



Maybe it's why I love the movie so much, but I'm the guy who goes for it.  I'm absolutely terrible when it comes to sticking with something day-by-day, but when I reach a decision point, and one choice is more conservative, and the other is more daring, I'm always compelled to take the high-risk road.  In poker, they say if you don't know whether to raise, or fold, you should fold.  I don't do a lot of folding.

So, there I was, with less painful, but still sore feet and shins, having to decide whether to push on, or make the conservative, but probably smarter choice and call it a day.  I remembered the experience I'd had with trying to push through the pain with my knees back during Fat Guy Walking 1.0, and decided to lay up, and went to bed.

I felt like a quitter, but when I got up 8 hours later, my feet and shins felt better than they had the day before, so it appears to have been a good decision.  I went to work, hit the stairs in the parking garage afterwards, and on the way home, stopped and picked up a pair of Dr Scholl's Active Series Insoles:

http://www.drscholls.com/Products/ActiveSeriesInsoles

The insoles I had, while new, were 7 years old; they don't even make them anymore.  These are much more substantial, and the difference was immediately noticeable when Lily and I went for our walk.  They felt great!

About a mile into our walk, I suddenly became very dizzy.  I was completely lucid, my mind was totally clear, but I could barely stand, and began sweating profusely.  I was in front of a house that is for sale, and vacant, so I carefully made my way over to the porch, and sat down for 15 minutes, or so.  When the dizziness faded somewhat, I unsteadily made my way home.  There was no question as to whether I was going to push on, we quit at 1.6 miles.  I went to bed, and when I got up, I felt better, but still a little strange.

We'll see.    

Day 3: Reality Check: "Are You Hurt, or Are You Injured?"

4:57 am:

I got home from work about 30 minutes ago, it's time to go for my walk, and I'm sore.

My heels, and especially the balls of my feet, hurt, as do my shins.  When I don't wear shoes, it actually feels like the area between my third and fourth toes is swollen, on both feet.  The pain in my shins feels like it could be the beginning of shin splints.  My knees and the outsides of my quads are also stiff and just a little bit sore, too.

I've clearly jumped into this too hard.  I didn't have a choice on Day 1; I had to drop my car off at the garage, and it is 3.5 miles from my house.  I had to either walk home, or not.  My original plan was to walk home from dropping it off, but ride a bus back to pick it up.  There was a problem with the repair, though, and they had to keep my car overnight.  I saw that as an opportunity, and on Day 2, I walked over to pick it up; another 3.5 mile walk.  Yay!

I was off work on Day 1, but I worked on Day 2 (last night).  That night, I also added what I believe will be an important part of my program; stairs.  There's a 5-storey parking garage at work.  After work last night, I climbed those 112 stairsteps.  I didn't run up them, I didn't take them two at a time, I just climbed the stairs in a normal, steady manner.  By the time I got to the final flight, I was feeling it (in a good way) in my quads and glutes, and was breathing a bit heavily.  After I'd finished, my legs and feet weren't nearly as sore, and only got sore again after I'd sat for awhile, which leads me to believe at least part, if not most of my soreness is simply due to lactic acid buildup.  If that's the case, then I'm OK.

That's the question.  This is where the rubber meets the road.  Everyone's heard a coach ask a player "Are you hurt, or are you injured?"  If you're hurt, you can push through it, but if you're injured, you need to back off right now.

I've had some experience with this.  Back in 2006, I was well into Fat Guy Walking 1.0, and I was cooking.  I was losing weight, I was feeling better, and every health metric I measured was improving.  I walked a course every day of about 3.5 miles, and finished it in about 70 minutes.  A nice, brisk walking pace of right at 3 miles per hour.  I'd reached a point where it didn't make me sore, didn't tire me out, and of course, I couldn't have that!

I have this competitive side that has caused me many problems over the years, and it didn't fail me here.  I started seeing if I could beat my previous time; cutting it to 1:05, 1:00, 55 minutes .... before long, I was wearing a stopwatch around my neck and shooting for 52:30 (4 miles per hour).  Then I set my sights on 50:00.  As I closed in on my goal, my knees started to get sore.  Despite the fact that I've had problems in the past with my ACLs, I decided to push through the pain.  It persisted.  It got worse.  My knees hurt all the time.  I got a couple of McDavid knee braces, and they were awesome, while I was wearing them, at least.

When I wasn't wearing them, though, my knees hurt!  I ended up wearing them not only while walking, but at work, too.  They stabilized my knees enough for me to continue my walking program, but my knees weren't getting any better.

Finally, I went to an orthopedist, and he jumped all over me, telling me if I didn't STOP my walking program immediately, there was every chance I would tear one, or both of my weakened ACLs, and require surgery.  He said many times, the body communicates with us very plainly, and pain is the plainest, clearest communication of all.  I listened, and completely backed off of my walking program.  It took months for my knees to heal.

And so that's the dilemma I face now.  If this is just soreness from starting an exercise program a bit too aggressively, then the thing to do is to push through it.  If my body is telling me I'm injuring myself, I need to back off, if not stop altogether, immediately.

Looking at my priorities, the first, by a mile, is Lily's (my dog) getting her walk.  Over the past three years, she has blown out both of her rear knees (they're called "stifles"), and required surgeries on both; first one, and when she was nearly fully healed from that, she tore the Canine Cruciate Ligament (CCL) (the dog version of our ACL) in the other.  I stupidly spent nearly a year trying a non-surgical method to treat it.  Here she is in her brace.

  It didn't work, and in February, 2013, the CCL tore completely, requiring surgery on that stifle, too.

She rehabbed well, but the fact is, she's got a lifespan of 15 years, tops, and she's spent nearly 3 of those years in pain, and not getting her beloved walks, so even if I have to rent a Hoverround, Lily gets her walk every day.

Surprisingly, my second priority is the steps at work.  Your legs are big muscles; engaging them in anaerobic exercise gives you good results at fat burning, quickly; I like the burn I feel in my butt and legs after walking up just 5 flights of stairs.  Also, the sign of aging I've noticed most has been weakness and unsteadiness in my legs and knees.  I really don't like the feeling, and believe working the stairs will help with that.  Third, despite the fact that my body mass index (BMI) of 35.9 qualifies me as being "Obese Level II (Serious)" http://www.robertorizzi.com/bmi.htm, I have always had skinny legs, and a non-existent butt.  I once had a stranger stop and ask me if I was sick.  When I told her I wasn't, the nice, little old lady whom I'd never seen before in my life said, "Well, you sure look like you've been taking noassatall, cause you've got no ass at all!" and walked away cackling with glee.  I like the idea of an exercise that not only takes fat off my middle, but works my chicken legs and nonexistent ass, too.

 (27 years ago .... some parts are bigger, but the buns and sticks aren't)

So, the plan I've arrived at for my walks is this;  With her knees still rehabbing, Lily can't go the full distance with me; probably never will be able to again.  Our daily walk has been just about a mile, and I've found a way to split my course where I can go with Lily for about 1.4 miles while swinging back by my house to drop her off, then finish the course.  I'm going to hit the road, get Lily her walk, then see how I feel when I get back here to her drop-off point.  If I feel really good when we get back, I'll continue.  If not, I'll leave it at that, and reassess day-by day.

Time to get to it.

Day 1: Version 4.0: 4th Time's A Charm!

Day 1

The Stats:

Male

57 years old

6'5"

303 lbs

303 lbs?  Wow.

How in the hell did I get here?

The Backstory:

I hate exercise.  Always have.  Even as a young kid, I would always have rather been reading a good book than doing anything else.  I played with the kids in the neighborhood, I played sports, but I always preferred my quiet, alone time.

I was blessed with a fast metabolism, and was naturally lean until I hit my mid 30s.  This was me at age 7.  

Check out that 6-pack!

I graduated high school standing 6'5", weighing 164 lbs, and wearing 29" waist Levis (36" inseam.)  Try finding those in 1976!

At 21, I weighed 180 lbs, and wore 30/36 Levis.  Of all the sports I'd played as a kid, the one I'd enjoyed most was running.  I ran cross country in high school, and after high school, ran regularly with a few friends; probably 20 miles per week.  I was in pretty good shape.  Here I am at a club on Halloween:  

(I'm the one dressed as a member of The Village People, not the one in the diaper)

By age 25, I weighed 190 lbs, and wore 31/36 Levis.  In the pic below, I'm playing with my niece.  After having (inevitably) reverted back to my sedentary state for a few years, I'd been running every day again, and hitting the gym and dojo regularly.  I was probably in the best shape of my life.  

No love handles! (yet)

It was around that time that I went back to school, working full time as I went.  No time for any physical activity, but a great metabolism worked in my favor.  By age 30, I weighed 200 lbs, wore 32/36 Levis.  By this time, I'd become very involved in my career, and hadn't worked out, or ran in years.  Aside from playing in a softball league (where much beer was consumed), I was pretty much sedentary, although there was some activity dictated by my busy career, as you can see below.

(I'm the one in the blue sweater with the sweeeet mullet)

By age 33, the downhill slide had started.  I only weighed 210, but I was in horrible shape.  My Levis were 34/36, and you can see my face was beginning to get fleshy.  The 34 waist pants are a bit misleading, as by this time, there was a gut starting to hang over my belt.  Despite the fact that I was clearly hammered in this pic, alcohol wasn't really a contributing factor; I didn't drink often, or much, and never have.

Now THAT is big hair!

OK, so maybe I drank A LITTLE more frequently in those days.  What can I say?  My friends were bad influences on me.

By age 35, I was at 225, 36/36 Levis, with some serious double chin action starting, and a full-blown muffin-top over my jeans.

(my gut is sucked in so hard my eyeballs hurt)

It got progressively worse from there, and surprise, surprise, there are no more pictures!  For some reason, I'd begun seriously avoiding the camera around this time.

(OK, maybe a few more pictures, but the camera-shyness is evident)

(Or I might find them embarrassing for other reasons ................ The sweater, not Michael Bolton, mean girl!) 

I'll delve more into my backstory in later posts.  How I got here isn't as important as what I'm gonna do about it.

The Plan:

It's pretty simple:

1.  Get off my ass

2.  Eat better (and less)

3.  Cut back on The Nectar Of The Gods

(12 oz can of Mountain Dew, chilled to 38 degrees, CANNONBALLED!  Hot Damn!)

This sounds like a pretty vague plan, but I know it works.  In the Summer of 2006, I embarked on Fat Guy Walking 1.0.  I walked between 3, and 4 miles per day, ate a 12" Subway turkey sub (no cheese), with just spicy mustard, onions, and black pepper, and a couple of bowls of Special K with Red Berries each day, and limited myself to no more than 4 cans of The Nectar Of The Gods per day.

15 weeks, later I'd walked 300 miles, and lost 30lbs (293 to 263).  My blood pressure had gone from 139/82 to 118/77, my resting heart rate had gone from 84 to 60, my BMI had gone from 34.7 to 31.2, and I'd lost 3 inches off my belly at the navel.

Of course, I didn't stick with it.  I never do.  I have a great excuse (*cough* bullshit *cough*) that I'll go into in later posts, but the point here is, based on that success, I feel confident the plan I've outlined above will work, and there are reasons it's as vague as it is.  Again, I'll go into that further in later posts.

Today, I got off my ass.  I took my dog, Lily for her usual 1 mile walk  Her walks are for her, not me, so we go at her pace, with lots of stops along the way for investigating interesting smells, chasing rabbits, and cats, digging into the many mole mounds along the way to see if she can "make friends" with a varmint, etc.  Experience has taught me that walking her doesn't count as fitness/weight loss/health improvement, but it is activity, and Fat Guy Walking Rule # 1 is: "Any step taken is better than a step not taken".

I had to drop my car off for servicing today, though, and chose to use that as an opportunity for fitness, so, instead of taking the bus back home, I hoofed it; a little over 3 miles.

I also denied myself The Nectar Of The Gods several times, drinking water, instead.

It's a start.  I'm proud of it.  Now let's work on tomorrow.

Fat Guy Walking Rule #1 is: "One day at a time".