I think I have sciatica. At 31. Ugh.

Yesterday was my first day of volunteer work at a local hospital. It included a lot of walking. I feel like my plantar fascitis is much improved after physical therapy and still using anti-inflammatories, etc, but with 6 hours of on and off walking (much less than I hope to be doing in my future career), I have this sharp stabbing pain at the back of my right hip.

I am taking it easy today. I know I will be doing some walking tomorrow at work when I walk around the building to do resident checks; and there will be some stair climbing too.

I really hope that all of these aches and pains go away with the extra weight. I will do my usual weekly check in tomorrow.

There is a woman I'm friends with on loseit who is close to her goal weight (150 or 200 pounds down, like I'm hoping to be) and recently has been doing plastic surgeries to remove extra skin. She had lap band surgery, so the weight probably came off more quickly than mine will. I hope my skin isn't that bad at the end of my journey; it would bring a whole extra set of self esteem issues. But we'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Went to see the last Harry Potter movie in the theater today. I am enchanted with the whole series again; I had lost it a little bit after reading the last book, but during parts of the movie I wanted to stand up and cheer when a favorite character had an awesome line.

I had some movie popcorn (bought by a friend) yesterday and some caramel corn (made by me) today and felt somewhat sick after eating both. I think my body is starting to reject things that aren't very good for it.

I plan on posting my weekly update tomorrow.

Couch 2 5 K Update, Aches and Pains

The morning after my first try at Couch 2 5 K, I had the worst plantar fascitis pain I've had in a long time, and also was having some sharp pain in my right knee with just walking. So, for the time being, I'm won't be trying to run anymore. I am going to wait until I get down to a more reasonable weight... what would that be? Maybe below 300 lbs? Below 250 lbs? I'm not sure. It is probably something I should try again at intervals of weight loss and see how I do, how my body responds. But right now it is sending me a pretty clear message that I should walk instead of run!

Plantar fascitis has been a frustrating thing for me to deal with. I think I experienced my first symptoms about 5 years ago. It has gotten worse and worse since then, and the more active I am on a given day the more pain I can count on the next morning. I have talked to my doctor about it. He gave me some stretching exercises to do, and suggested I buy some orthotic shoe inserts.

I bought the shoe inserts (something like this), and also bought a special pair of "orthoheel" shoes (something like this). I try to remember to stretch out my feet with the exercises he gave me at the end of the day but I admit I have been slacking a bit there lately.

I understand that the next step is to go to a podiatrist and get an injection of cortisone in the bottom of my foot, which I have heard is pretty painful but would pretty much take care of the problem as long as they get it (guided by myself) in the right place.

If that doesn't work there is also a surgery to consider. Rather not go there!

I've also seen various products online...foot exercisers that are supposed to strengthen your foot muscles and in so doing lessen the pain, and splints that are designed to stretch your foot while you sleep. My doctor didn't mention these things, but I sometimes wonder if they would help. I also hope that once I get down to a more reasonable weight, maybe that will ease some of the strain on my foot, but I know that even very slim athletes get plantar fascitis, so that's not the entire root of the issue.