So last summer, for most of the time I wore sandles, flipflops, and bare feet as much as possible. Then fall came along and I started to wear my sneakers again, and gather wood, and do heavy work to prepare for winter, and sometime round about late September I started having this foot pain all the time.

I never recalled any specific injury I could have done to it, so I stayed off of it a bit, and would just go along doing the things that needed to be done…the pain never went away.

By the time winter came, no matter what I wore on my foot, it hurt, and I could hardly walk or stand on my foot for longer than 20 minutes without extreme pain, tingly-ness, and inability to walk. Eventually, by Christmas time, when I’d be on my foot for more than 10 minutes I would have EXTREME burning pain in the front and side thigh muscle on the same leg as the painful foot.

Looking back now, I can’t believe the amount of pain I worked through, chopping wood on the splitter sitting on the ground,  gathering wood in the middle of the night, sitting on a cardboard box, to rest my leg and foot. Over the winter I’ve let so many things just go, and I have a lot of stuff to catch up with because I left it go, due to the pain ( which is pretty bad when as an ADD person, I let things go “til later” anyway)

I have always had hip pain since my early 20’s come and go on the same side as the foot and leg pain, and so, with the increased pain on the same side, my hip would hurt too.

So, due to all of this, when we would go shopping since like about mid December, I had to resort to using a shopping buggy/scooter, to allow myself the ability to get through the trip.

I actually hated it, people really are rude to people in those things, and I can tell you, they are difficult to manoeuvrer and do what you need and want to do in them. I’ve never been rude to people using them before, but I can tell you I have a new appreciation for people who use them, if you hate being near those shoppers when in a store, I challenge you to drive a mile in there shoes and do a WHOLE shopping trip you normally do without such a need, and don’t allow yourself to park any farther than 3 foot steps away from what you need to get to. People also judge you, like they are looking you over and if you appear healthy in their mind, they scoff at you like your just a lazy ass and get annoyed with you being in their rushed way. AND totally FORGET about going down an isle where more then 1 other person is with a cart.

Anyway….since I made the correlation of the twofold problem I had with my foot, and took action to correct the issues, my foot has slowly been getting better.

No thanks to the medical professionals I went to, who totally misdiagnosed me, I figured out by researching athletic foot/running websites that i had 1. been wearing my shoes for too long, and wore then out which was causing my already tendency to walk on the outside of my feet, much worse, and was misaligning my foot every time I walked. AND due to this repetitive misalignment, i hurt my foot and was aggravating a plantar faciatis issue. Also because of the wrong diagnosis I was improperly taping my foot to support my heel, when what I needed to do was tape my foot to relieve the stretching of my tendons in my arch and heel.

So, since I figured it out and starting taping my foot the right way, got new sneakers that stop my tendency to walk on the outside of my foot, and make me walk more flat on my foot, my foot has slowly been getting better. Naturally, when barefoot, my big tore hardly ever hits the floor, unless I pay attention and change my walking. So there is pain in my foot when retraining my foot to sit a different way. before I would try to avoid that pain, and revert back to the damaging natural tendency to walk, basically creating a circle of inevitable pain.

I have been doing the Gazelle now for a month ( less 3 days) and it kills my foot sometimes, so I stop and rest my foot, but I try to do 2 miles every time I get on it, and I try to do a minimum of 10 KLM a week.

Since all of these changes, I have had the following benefits.

1. the pain in my thigh is completely gone
2. I can stand, walk, work outside for longer periods now before I need to rest my foot.
3. my hip pain is almost non existent ( except for a few days where every joint in my body made me painfully aware of it’s movement)
4. the pain in my shoulders and neck is much much less. where i had constant pain before, now I have intermittent pain when I lift heavy things or use the chainsaw for too long. doing the Gazelle is helping with this I think, because once you get on it it forces you into a correct posture to keep your balance, and it is helping the numbness and twitches that I have had going on for months. ( the twitches are still there, but less frequent)

I’m pretty happy about all of this. In the last month I started to use the scooter shopping buggy less and less, when we were in stores shopping.

2 weeks ago I needed one if we were shopping for more than a half hour, but tonight we went to a Home Depot, a Wal-mart, 2 large grocery stores, and a Lowes for some household needs and grocery items, and I did not use a shopping buggy/scooter anywhere!

My leg never hurt, my hip didn’t hurt, and my foot is moderately sore from the trip, but anywhere near as sore as it had been say in December, from just starting in the kitchen to cook a meal at the stove.

I have not lost a single pound in the month of doing the gazelle, but i have gone down a pant size, and since muscle weighs more than fat, I can tell that as I’ve been burning fat/stored fuel, I’ve gained muscle/strengthened muscle.

I didn’t start this for weight loss, I did it for being healthier, and hopefully pain free. I’m going to continue, because I’m happy to be back to actively intentionally exercising, it’s been 5 years since I really have been.So, I know I can expect the added side effect of weight loss from intentional exercise to keep limber and pain free.

I’m trying to contain my joy over it, because when I feel like I have “accomplished” something, I tend to back off.

But i’m feeling pretty awesome right now…and I do feel different in that I feel good about this progress, but I don’t want to stop.

I can honestly say that the hearts and comments here make me feel good about my efforts, and keep me going, and are a part of what motivates me to get on and go, even when I mentally don’t want to do it.

So, please don’t stop being my cheerleaders