January Progress Report

After wearing minimal shoes so much, I forget how bulky normal shoes are.  Coming down the stairs in my slushy parking lot shoes, I tripped on my own feet and fell over.  The ankle itself seems fine, but I had some swelling in the foot itself, and have not been happy about putting on snug stiff shoes.  Arms were a little sore, but it's not anything range of motion exercises didn't fix.  After a week everything seems to be healing, but it's frustrating to feel I've been set back three weeks in my walking ablity.

I have been overall making improvements.  My arches hardly ever hurt now.  I have a very nearly running gait at a snail's pace instead of a normal walk, stepping ball-first nearly beneath me, and leaning forward when I need to pick up speed.  I am starting to feel that I can walk wherever I need to as long as I'm willing to be patient with myself and go as slow as I need to.

One odd thing is that hard smooth surfaces now feel softer than lumpy soft surfaces.  I noted this near the end of a shopping trip when moving between the linoleum isles and the carpeted display area.

I am starting to feel that I can put weight on my heels again, which I have avoided since starting this experiment.  My heels may be ready for it, but my knees and ankles were not quite happy doing it for long.  I'll keep practicing occasionally when I'm feeling good.

I started a workout log at dailymile.com.  Sure I could have tracked that in this blog, but it will have more detailed minucia than I expect readers here to wish to bother with.  So far I've been logging .25 mile walks, which is better than nothing and will hopefully help me form a habit.

Overall doing well and making enough progress to be hopeful.  I hope to keep up the regular walking even if the distance is short, and slowly expand that.