About Fogdog's Weight Loss

Don't Focus on the Goal...

If you've followed this blog you know that I've struggled for many years with improving my health. I've finally reached a point where I've managed to maintain a small amount of success. Now it's time to take the next step, but I believe it requires a new way of thinking.

Instead of trying to get healthy, why not shift focus toward learning how to build healthy habits instead. Follow me as I try to teach myself how to Engineer healthy habits that will allow me to take my health to the next level. Let's see where this experiment goes!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Day #93 - A Tough Decision

I'm giving up walking!  No, not permanently, but for at least a week.  In fact I'm also going to stay off my elliptical trainer as well.  I made this decision today after another miserable night's sleep.  About 15 days ago I talked about having some pain in my left knee.  It only comes at night when I'm sleeping, the rest of the day I'm fine, but it wakes me up and I can't afford to disrupt my sleep.

I think I strained it while I was remodeling the bathroom.  During that week I carried a lot of heavy things up and down stairs and that's when it started hurting.  For the last 15 days I was hoping it would start to improve but it hasn't.  I didn't want it to be an excuse to not exercise, but after 15 days and no improvement, it's time to try something different.

I have noticed that it hurts more on the days that I walk more.  Yesterday I walked about 2.5 miles plus did a mile on the elliptical and I was in agony all night long, waking about every hour to put some Icy Hot on for temporary relief.  I'm going to try to rest it for a week and just see if it improves.  If not I may have to go to a doctor. 

However, I have not forgotten my commitment from yesterday.  I'm not going to walk but I can still get at least 10 minutes of exercise every day.  I'm not going to be able to do cardio as I only have an elliptical and treadmill and both require knee movement.  Instead I will just focus on strength training with nothing that requires loading my knee (like squats or lunges).  Today I did my 10 minutes; I picked 4 weight exercises and did each one for a minute.  I did all 4 in a circuit and then took a 1 minute rest.  2 circuits and my 10 minutes were done.  The nice thing about this mthod is that I can do 3 or 4 circuits when I have more time and don't have to change anything.

This situation is not ideal, but I would rather miss my walk for a week than I would continue on waking up each night with knee pain.  Hopefully this will work.  Unfortunately my rest begins tomorrow; I didn't make this decision until my walk at lunchtime.  On to Day #94.

Stay Strong!

15 comments:

  1. Good decision. Always listen to your body.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I probably should have done this 2 weeks ago, but I didn't want to lose my momentum.

      Delete
  2. I need to learn this lesson dude. I had to order a back brace to see if it takes the pain away in my back when I walk and if that doesn't work, I don't know what I'm going to do. At least you've substituted strength training for walking, I may have to do the same thing. It's not an excuse when it comes to injury. Keep up the fight dude!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's tough, I always broke my strength training out into 3 sections, Upper body, Core, and Lower body. Almost all of my lower body exercises involve bending the knees so they are all out for now.

      Delete
  3. I too have to be really be careful with my knees. It's what happen when you have an excess amount of weight and your bones get workout. I know that for me running a long time on pavement, all the pounding has really did a bad job.

    I don't know if you do but I would take Calcium, it is not a quick fix but on a very long run, it will be so beneficial. Did you know that their is a significant number of men that die within a year of hips replacement? So take care of your bones my friend.

    I don't know if you do, but I found that wearing a knee brace was really helping me when I had problems.

    Also when you are walking, do you wear good walking shoes (NOT the Walmart one). This is an area where more money spend will bring a big pay off.

    If I was you, I would still get on the elliptical not for the cardio but on a slow motion. Your knee will not suffer from the pounding and still move a little which help it in healing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Richard, I actually wore a brace today just for the extra support.

      Delete
  4. Pain is definitely your body's way of telling you to back off. I hope that staying away from the walking for a little while works! You're awesome for your resolve to continue to exercise. Way to go!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks, I hope it works too, I hate going to the doctor.

      Delete