Tag Archives: pain

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DAY 107: Taking the good with the less good

You know those times where you catch your reflection in the mirror and think, “Hmm — I look thinner today!” and wonder if it’s true?  They are a precious thing.  They happen so rarely for me that I can remember each isolated incident.  I never weigh myself those days because the scale may not validate my observation, and I’d rather cling to my illusions.  (I know, I know, measurements and shit, but am I gonna bust out the tape measure every time I feel thinner?  No.  I am lazy.  I am also the world’s most inept measurer.  Every month when I take my inches, they’re barely different from the last time, yet I have cycled through 3 pants sizes [and counting!] since I started this mission.  Riddle me that.  And count your blessings I’m not building America’s bridges.)

That long-winded intro was a means of announcing that I had one of those I-look-thinner moments this morning.  I decided to wear a shirt I bought 2 months ago that was already starting to fit loosely, because it’s a shirt I really like and I may not be able to wear it much longer before it starts to hang and look silly.  Sure enough, it was a little roomier on me today, so I’m gonna have to start its farewell tour.

In the middle of the day as I was walking through the office, someone walking past me stopped in her tracks and said, “GIRL!  You are looking SLIM!”  I smiled and said thank you, and she asked, “So, are you doing it?” (her tone implied “Are you going for it??  The long haul?  The THINNESS?!”)  I responded, “Hell yeah, I’m doing it!”  Cuz, well… I’m doing it.  She said, “Yes, get it!”

That’s person #4.  🙂

The end of the day was a little les of a yippee moment.

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed a weird popping sensation in my foot with every step.  It didn’t hurt, just felt weird, and has never happened before.  For some reason, medical health professionals love me, so my podiatrist’s office got me onto the doctor’s schedule today.  Long story short, they did some x-rays and found that I have a little bone spur on my heel.  It’s not debilitating, and it’s not even painful, just something I’m very aware of when I move.  The doctor said if it didn’t hurt, we shouldn’t worry about it, but to make a follow-up in 2 weeks if there are any changes and we will try a cortisol shot.  I had sort of suspected that it was a bone spur from what I knew about them, and as an (almost formerly!) obese chick who all of a sudden started spending a lot of time on her feet, it’s not unusual that I would end up with one.  My doctor thinks it’s likely to go away on its own, and he said there’s no need to change anything I’m doing, so at least I can keep doing my usual work-outs and getting in my daily steps.  I’m so relieved about that.  I think if I had been advised to stay off of it or anything, I would have had a minor panic.  I hope it goes away soon, though.  It’s uncomfortable and just annoying.

Anyway, I have 2 Diet Bet weigh-ins coming up later this month, so I’m taking the good with the less good and continuing to work towards knocking off those goals.  Here’s hoping I can quickly heal my heel!

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DAY 92: My massage hurts!, and other first-world problems

I got a massage over the weekend as my 50-pound milestone reward.  I usually do the Swedish + deep tissue combination, cuz mama needs the de-knotting, but mama also needs the love.  As is the norm, it hurt so good and gave me results!  My range of motion in my neck is significantly better, my shoulder blades feel as if a thousand little strings keeping them taut have been cut, and I feel less physically tense overall.  These muscles have been working like dogs lately, so they needed some relief.  My neck is still a little tender from the work the masseuse did there, though, and oddly, my hip is all weird!  It feels like my legs are suddenly two different lengths.  The masseuse did say as she was massaging my hip that there was a lot of tightness there, and she spent a lot of time releasing some trigger points, but it’s kind of strange I would still have this feeling a few days later.  (I know, boo hoo, my indulgent spa treatment gave me an ouchie.  I am to be massively pitied.)  Ah, well, it’ll pass one way or another.

Unrelatedly but in a similar vein, I have become SO DEPENDENT on my Vivo Fit.  I don’t even like the little thing.  It’s like my own personal Jiminy Cricket, but less gross and more annoying.  Every time that cursed red arrow starts filling the screen, I kind of want to rip the damn thing off my arm and throw it through a wall.  Then again, I don’t know where I would be without it. It’s been crucial to my success.  The constant, albeit irritating, reminders to get off my duff and move around have been key not just to my physical improvements, but also my mental ones (future post to come on this).  Beyond that, it was the inspiration for the very first non-scale goal I set for myself:  200 miles in June.  (As of bed time last night, I was only 62 miles away from realizing that goal.  I’m gonna scorch that number, and I can’t wait.)  Even on the days where I haven’t made it to the gym, I have gone to slightly maniacal lengths to ensure that I at least get all my steps in — and Jiminy is always moving the bar higher for that, the little bastard.  In all seriousness, though, this technology owns me.  Thank you, Vivo Fit, for keeping me committed and for keeping me moving.  Best post-holidays impulse purchase I ever made.  Wireless blu-ray player, eat your heart out.

To conclude this woe-is-me jam, I offer this parting lament: all my clothes are too big (waaah!) and I keep having to buy new ones (pobrecita!).  I put my cell phone in my pants pocket at work last week, and then my pants FELL OFF.  Luckily, no one saw that happen, or they would have seen my saggy underwear about to do the same.  (Do you need a tissue to wipe away those tears of pity?)  Yesterday, I found an oh-honey pair of pants that were too small when I bought them last spring, and had completely forgotten about.  I put them on all excitedly, and they wouldn’t stay up on my hips.  (Sob!)  I know, I know, this sounds like backdoor bragging, and I guess it is, but I am also actually running out of money to support this healthiness habit I developed to replace stuffing my face and being inert.  I’m gonna need my Diet Bets to pay out right quick, because my last paycheck went to Ann Taylor Loft and my landlady may have an expectation of receiving rent from me this month.  Although, if worse comes to worst, I guess I could always take up residence in some of the old tents I used to pass off as clothes.

OK, reader, you’ve suffered enough of me.  I’m gonna go cry myself to sleep.

😉