My Journey With Health And Fitness – Changing Goals

It is a somewhat busy week for me at the condo. I have been dealing with my monthly clients but also have been working on a project for a previous client. The good news is I am hoping to have everything completed by the end of the week and then I get a bit of a break before the next batch of work comes on board. I actually don’t mind working while here because 1) the money helps pay for the condo and 2) it is much easier to have an alcohol free day when you are working.

When I came down to the condo I committed to a few goals. Firstly, I was going to not miss a single day of doing some sort of workout. Secondly, I was going to try and get to a local gym so that I could work with heavier weights so as not to lose any strength. Thirdly, I wanted to include more alcohol free days in my trips to the condo. And finally, I would build myself up to doing a 4 minute plank. It was a big list but I can be pretty goal oriented and thought I could do it.

Now things started out well. I was actually pushing myself more than I had in quite a while and for a few weeks 5 days each week I was walking at least 3 hours a day and doing an hour long online class. While I cut back on the weekends I still got in some walking. I was getting in 3 days a week at the gym as well. I was doing alcohol free days and trying on other days to limit alcohol (hard to do because of our social life down here). And, I was working on my plank.

But things kind of went south about 10 days ago. The good news is that my plantar fasciitis finally cleared up which was such a relief. However, right afterwards a whole new round of pain showed up. This was in my left foot (you know the one that has the torn tendons and partially detached ligament). It actually felt somewhat skeletal but combined with some soft tissue pain. It was almost like I had whacked my foot really hard on something. Then the next day I realized how badly swollen that foot was and recognized goals really needed to change.

I have not been working on my plank because my foot in that position really hurt. Walking has been reduced to about 45 minutes each day (though I note I have still gotten out each day). I stopped doing my online workouts and the gym became a day to day decision (because I would have to walk there). The end result is after 10 days I think things are finally improving. Today was the 1st day that I got home from my morning walk when my foot hasn’t been painful. Moreover, the swelling really seems to have diminished the past couple days. Trust me, I know much of this is because of scaling back, icing my foot frequently and using my prescription Voltaren 3 times a day.

This all just means I sort of changed the goals. Obviously I had hoped to meet my plank goal but really not horribly disappointed to miss that one. I had wanted to be able to say I didn’t miss any of my booked online classes but that was a day to day decision and deciding to cancel them all of last week was the right one (though am happy to report I did a class this morning and will try another one on Thursday). I have made it to the gym several times and push the weights I use while I am there. Most importantly I have done something every single day since I have been here.

You look at all of that and I have to say I think I’ve done pretty well. I have listened to my body telling me I needed to cut back and I did. Yet, I have not lost my momentum and plan to continue to build it up over the next few weeks. Ok, maybe the 3 hours of walking on top of a fitness class might be a bit much but I’ll see how I do for the next little while