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Walking and Weight and Hunger

Walked again today. Just up to the stop sign and back. A couple of hundred yards. I put on my sneakers for the first time since I wore them to the gym in February of 2020. (I’ve been wearing my walking sandals during the pandemic, but they finally bit the dust a few weeks ago.)

It feels really weird. My back hurts some, but mostly my hips are complaining. They’re not used to walking. I’m really working on my gait, keeping my feet aligned and my arms moving and not rocking back and forth. I didn’t walk far, but I walked, and it felt great.

On the other hand, my weight hasn’t budged in a while. As usual. It’s really hard to stay motivated. I generally eat between 900 and 1000 calories. Some people think this is too little, so I upped it to 1100-1300 for a few days. Back down around 1000 now. I’m getting in my daily vitamins, water (80-90 oz), protein (75-90gm). Even with some walking, my chair aerobics, and yoga. Stuck. Grrr.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, I’m hungry a lot more all of a sudden. Maybe my body is saying yes, please eat! Or maybe it’s self-sabotage. I get people advising me to eat more, or just ignore it, or drink more. Nobody really knows what to do, and nothing seems to help.

Can you tell I’m on a bit of a downer?

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Learning How To Walk Again

Can’t believe it: I’m walking more. Not a lot, but I’m walking. Out on the property, out in the world. Very short distances, but walking.

Rio tells me I have a strange gait. My feet splay out to the sides and I rock back and forth. I think it’s from years of walking with a huge belly and while in pain. I’ve been concentrating on my feet and my gait. It hurts when I walk “right. I guess it’s from years of walking “wrong”. I need to retrain those muscles.

But I’m walking!

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I Went For A Walk

After yesterday’s walking experience I decided to dabble in the amazing and elusive world of walking. Rio and I took off towards the little park that’s about 100 yards up the street. Up a gentle slop, then a steeper slope up the driveway to the park. My hips and lower back hurt, but not bad. I did not get out of breath. * We set on a bench for a few minutes, then did something I’ve loved to do before: climb on the play structure and go down the slide. Then we walked back.

Sounds simple, but it was a HUGE deal for me to just decide to go for a walk, enjoy the outdoors, and be a kid for a few minutes. I admit I got choked up. I haven’t been able to just go for a walk since about 2014.

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Oops, but yay!

So I had a doctors appointment today. It’s a reasonable length walk to get to the appointment because you have to go all the way into the main entrance and go through a Covid check and then all the way back to the clinic and up the elevator, so I generally use my scooter to get upstairs. Within the last six months I’ve been leaving the scooter in the waiting room and walking in to my appointment from there.
Today I got out of the car and started to pull my scooter out of the trunk, and realized that I had left the battery at home on the charger. Either I was going to miss the appointment, I’d be very late, or I was going to walk in. I chose to walk in.

I got upstairs, and my back was sore, but not excruciating. I got through the appointment, walked down to get an x-ray, and walked back out to the car. I am in pain, but not bad at all.

Victory!!

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Portion size is so surprising

Although the whole point of having surgery was to restrict portions, I’m still constantly surprised at how much less I eat. I ordered a fancy meal yesterday: lobster tail, green beans, cole slaw, side of crab/artichoke/spinach dip. I was able to eat 1/2 of the tail, 2 green beans, about 2 tablespoons of cole slaw, and about 1 tablespoon of the dip with 1/3 of a pita chip. I was literally too full to eat one more bite! In the past I could have eaten most, if not all, of it.

While this is great, it’s actually frustrating! It was all so good I wanted to eat more!

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NSV: Small Drape

You know the drape that the hairdresser puts around you when you get your hair cut? I went and got my hair done today, and my hairdresser said I was now in the smaller side drape. I used to be in the largest drape!

These non-scale victories aren’t huge, but with the weight coming off so slowly, they lift my spirits.

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Face to Face

Many of the applications I use at work ask for a picture. I provided a picture when I started at this company 2 years ago. I think I need to change it now, because I look different after losing 73 lbs since joining the company.

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NSV: Trash

I took the trash out today. This may not sound like a big deal, but for many years now, taking the trash bag from the kitchen to the trash cans outside has been a job for the kids or for Rio, because my back hurt so bad to even walk that short distance. Today I chose to take the trash out. It is about 30-40 yards from the front door to the trashcan. Not far, but normally that would cause me enough pain that I didn’t do it. Today I decided to do it because I was having a lower pain day. My back started hurting more right as I got back to the front door. But I did it, and it was another step in my mobility journey.