The good, the bad and the ugly

A year ago my foot started to hurt.  I brushed it aside, laid off the exercise for a while (reading between the lines, I quit exercise for a while) and let it heal on it's own.  No need to go see a doctor!  It was just great.  Fast forward to this year.  To last week.   Tuesday I felt a twinge of an ache in my food.  I paid attention to it and within about 50 hours had admitted defeat. I admitted that I had an issue.   I panicked about taking a break from exercise.  I didn't want to stop.  I did lay off the exercise but I immediately made a doctors appointment.  I had to figure out for sure what I was dealing with.  I had to get better so I could get back out there and move.     Will it ever cease to amaze me that I'm actually liking and WANT to exercise????  What  different a year and a whole different mental attitude makes!  It's a good thing (oh heavens, I sound like Martha Stewart now...yes, you my shoot me as soon as I'm done this post!)

Now for the bad.  I did go to the doctor.  He was amused at my coming in so soon. He knows that I typically wait until it's unbearable.  He knows that I typically 'self heal'.  He's ok with that, so he knew that there was a difference in me to come in at the first twinge of an issue.  I sat there and told him my symptoms....including the symptoms from last years issues, which I thought was behind me but have kicked in full force in the last week.   He listened and then moved forward.  He held my foot in his hand and pressed his finger into the side of my heel.  I think I raised about 2 feet off the chair!  He did it a few more times with me yelping louder each time.  He grinned  (I think sadistically at my pain) and said "Oh yeah, that's definitely plantar fasciitis" . He then turned my foot to the side and ran his finger down and area on my foot.  My foot tingled and burned at the contact.  Yeah, he had found the source of the other pain. "That's Tarsal Tunnel".   Tarsal tunnel?   Yeah, it's just like carpal tunnel.....only it's in your foot.  Lucky me.  So the verdict?    Basically we have to get the plantar fasciitis under control.  He believes that the tarsal tunnel was only acting up again due to my weird gait with this plantar fasciitis thing (I haven't really had any issues with the tarsal tunnel pain in quite a few months...other than a twinge here and there).  To get the plantar fasciitis under control he recommends an arch support to take the pressure off that heel...or more specifically the tendon.  He also recommends no high impact (goodbye running and zumba) and severely limiting the low impact stuff.  He said that the typical person recovers in about 4-6 weeks.  I'm already about a week into the 'no high impact routine"  So HOPEFULLY!    What does this mean for me?   He recommended swimming.  I don't have a pool at my fingertips, so I asked about biking and got the 'that would be great" and then I brought up the elliptical at the gym.  He agreed that that would also be a great exercise for me in the interim.    So 4-6 weeks of limited activity.  That puts me RIGHT at my next scheduled 5K.  I have already registered for the donut alley rally.   The race that I've been planning on doing for quite some time.  Hmmmmm

And now for the ugly.   I could expound on the things I ate yesterday.  But lets just say that it was a BAD day.  I knowingly at a higher caloric lunch.  I was ok with that decision.  However, I was planning on eating a very low calorie (heavy on fruits and veggies) dinner.  I got involved in a household project and when 9PM rolled around and I hadn't eaten dinner yet, I didn't do well and just gorged on food.   Grilled cheese, cottage cheese and apple butter, strawberry shortcake and baked doritos.  Not bad in the grand scheme of things, but bad when you couple that with Mexican (ohhh yummy Mexican food) it wasn't a pretty picture!     Not a failure....just a day. Moving onward!