Walk on by ...

Grrrr ... never good to start with a grrr but I will end with a hurrah!! Have been motivated through various means, people & “life wheels” (yes, yes I know) to get off my butt & start making changes to the things I want to change in my life. Spent the morning at the optician & have another key health check lined up. But amusing as it was (eyebrow raising more than belly laugh), if I’m honest, the WeightWatchers recipes episode got to me. I AM overweight these days, and by quite a lot. But as I am rubbish at diets, I need to do the ‘move more’ (obviously along with some ‘eat less’) However I have been in the wars lately & frankly unable to move more. Post the March stress fracture fiasco, my attempts to fix things did not go well. My brush with a ‘Gait Specialist’ was not a good one. Aside from the fact that every time I went for my hideously expensive (BUPA – phew!) appointment (and I was each time very much ON TIME) she would keep me waiting for at least 25 if not 30 minutes and I just got cross & so lost the will. To both listen to her & also use the hideously uncomfortable and expensive (think a pair of Emma Hope loafers ...) orthotic things I got given. So I have been half heartedly stuffing them into boots & walking for 45 mins & coming home in crippled agony as my hip was being pushed out of joint. Not surprisingly I have pretty much given up with them. But I really need to get out and move a lot more – and as I don’t want to either bugger my back OR break my foot again, I need a workable solution. So today I went to our local running shop “Run to Live” (big plug) and told my sorry story to an incredibly kind, patient & intelligent woman who helped me big time. She did all the things – and more - the gait person had charged me over £200 for, for FREE. And also gave me some brilliant common sense advice. She watched me walk with shoes, without shoes. With trainers on their own (amazingly comfortable) and with trainers with orthotic things in. Amazingly uncomfortable but her view was they did make me walk better. Hey ho. And she sat me down & told me – you are NOT as fit as you were 3 years ago. You have to go down 300 notches and start small & slow!! Like just walk to the post-box in your new trainers with hideous things in, i.e. walk for 5 mins. But do it every day till it feels OK. Then increase and ... yeah yeah I know. Fitness for dummies - hurrah!