FALL-WINTER 2023 Shopping Fun and Frustrations!!!!

I hear ya. Need my treats in order to stay sane.

That's a good amount of walking. In 2021 or 2022 I challenged myself to million step May. Just to make the math a bit easier I actually wanted to do it in 4 weeks. Worked out to around 36,00 steps a day or approximately 18 miles per day. My ankles, which werent great before, were rubbish after. These days I try to stay between 15,000 and 20,000 a day. All this to say, dont give yourself a secondary injury. Take care, I would miss you if you werent around.

You walk 18 miles per day? Omg, how do you do that? 5 miles is a comfortable distance for me. I did 4 miles today but I had to take some Tylenol because my legs were hurting too much from yesterday. 18 miles is way out of my range but there's a 12 mile walk that I'd like to do. I had decided that it was too much for me but maybe I'll try it this weekend. I need to find out if there is a park on the way where I can rest if I need to. I think there is but I don't remember where it is. There are plenty of places where I can get some water. Ideally, I'd like to be able to do the walk without stopping but I'm not sure if that's possible.

LOL I did that for a month. Most days I try to stay between 7-10 miles (this is cumulative walking through the whole day). Though in the summer that naturally creeps up a bit, but I really do try to keep it to less than 12 miles per day. As long as I can ice my ankles at some point and do my morning PT, I am usually OK.

I'd go stir crazy at a desk job.

The worst thing about walking is that I love fast food and the only place close enough to me is Carls Jr which isn't my favorite. Every other place is at least a 4 mile round trip. I tried a Mexican place on Tuesday that was a mile away but it was expensive and not that good. I have two grocery stores that are pretty close so I go there mostly. There's a Ralphs that's 3 miles away but it's a tough walk so I haven't gone there yet. Panera is a little closer than Ralphs but it's still too long of a walk for bagels. It's a little after 3 so I have to jump in the shower and then go over to Vons. No idea what I'll get. Vons is so expensive that a loaf of bread can eat up my budget lol.

Would a bicycle work; maybe a three-wheeled one for safety? They can get pricey but there are some that aren't too bad and you might be able to find a used one.

I was in the middle of a train crossing yesterday and all of the sudden the bells started ringing and the red light came on so I tried to run to the other side but I couldn't do it. I couldn't even hop. I haven't tried to run in a few years. I was hoping that since I'm not in as much pain now that my hip would be better but it's not. Trying to ride a bicycle is much more painful than trying to run so I don't want to attempt that. I started to get some hip pain today so I've got to watch it with the walking.

Have you ever tried an elliptical? There is a "bike" version. No idea what its called but I see a guy in the neighborhood going around on what's basically a mobile elliptical. That might be gentler on hips. I'd expect they are pricier just because they are so rare but maybe someone is selling one near you?

I looked at a picture of one and started cracking up. It's the one where you stand up, right? Not the one where your head is on the ground and your feet are up in the air? Both of those would kill me lol. I'm lucky to be able to walk so I'm not complaining about the things I can't do. My balance has been off since my open-heart surgery. I can't walk in a straight line. I can't avoid things. I'll see a shrub in the way and instead of moving I'll walk right into it. Or I'll walk into the brick wall. Over and over again. I see it but my body won't react or it goes in a direction that I don't want it to. When I get vertigo (something else that I never had before my open-heart surgery) it gets 10x worse. I walk like I'm drunk and it's so annoying. That's why I freak out over the bikes and scooters on the sidewalk. Those guys are flying by at 30 mph and I can't avoid them. I haven't been hit yet but I can definitely see it happening one day. I've been in the hospital many times for vertigo but it's another dead end. They've done a brain cat scan and brain mri and they were normal. The nerve meds I took when my neuropathy flared up brought on the vertigo attack from hell. It was like a bad LSD trip that wouldn't end (or at least what I'm told a bad LSD trip is like).

Another alternative would be a recumbent tricycle. I believe I've heard those are gentle on joints so maybe easier on hips? Also, safer because of three wheels so no need for good balance and maybe even safer if bumping into things.

I looked at a picture of one and started cracking up. It's the one where you stand up, right? Not the one where your head is on the ground and your feet are up in the air? Both of those would kill me lol. I'm lucky to be able to walk so I'm not complaining about the things I can't do. My balance has been off since my open-heart surgery. I can't walk in a straight line. I can't avoid things. I'll see a shrub in the way and instead of moving I'll walk right into it. Or I'll walk into the brick wall. Over and over again. I see it but my body won't react or it goes in a direction that I don't want it to. When I get vertigo (something else that I never had before my open-heart surgery) it gets 10x worse. I walk like I'm drunk and it's so annoying. That's why I freak out over the bikes and scooters on the sidewalk. Those guys are flying by at 30 mph and I can't avoid them. I haven't been hit yet but I can definitely see it happening one day. I've been in the hospital many times for vertigo but it's another dead end. They've done a brain cat scan and brain mri and they were normal. The nerve meds I took when my neuropathy flared up brought on the vertigo attack from hell. It was like a bad LSD trip that wouldn't end (or at least what I'm told a bad LSD trip is like).

Yeah the verticle ones. I admit they look

Strange thought but have you seen an ENT and/ or audiologist about the vertigo?

And I get when you mean about seeing an obstacle but being unable to avoid. I strangely do it with things on the ground when I am on my bike. I see a stone/ screw/ whatever in my path and I am just unable to change my path. I have no idea what that's about for me though.

My ENT doctor sent me to an audiologist last summer and a couple of days later I was in the hospital with vertigo. That's when I had the brain cat scan and mri. They couldn't figure out what was wrong so they sent me home. That wasn't a great trip because I also had significant heart problems.

I went on 2 walks yesterday. Both of them were 4 miles. We've got a storm coming in with rain for the next 3 days so I wanted to do as much walking as I could. I'm starting to get pain in my right hip that I've never had before. My left hip is the bad one. I may have to cool it on the walking. I have flat feet so there's a lot of impact on my body and I don't want to have hip problems.

I shopped at Wags in the morning and walked home with a bag of stuff. It wasn't easy. I didn't realize that toothpaste is so heavy. It's not heavy going out to your car but it is when you're walking 2 miles with it.

RA has a good ad this week. Ravi posted that he did a $51 mm but I'm sure most of it is Ibotta. I see a mm deal for me (it's not $51 lol) but it's not anything I use and RA is too far to walk to so I'm out. I have double boosters at Wags but I can't figure out how to get to $30. I can't do Colgate because I'm using the Colgate RR's to minimize my oop. There's no stock of $3 Crest and I have no Febreze dq's. There's a Febreze bogo mq but I don't do paper coupons anymore. I glanced at the CVS ad but I didn't see anything. I noticed that the Colgate toothpaste dq excludes clearance. It could be a bad sign of things to come.

A suggestion for carrying things home while walking; have you considered using a back back? If only for some of the items, it would make the load more distributed.

Also, I can understand the painful right hip. Even if you don't realize it, since the left hip is your bad one, you may be putting more emphasis on the right one or possibly start walking differently after a while, hence the right one becomes painful. Not sure what can be done to alleviate this so not really helpful, just a reason why it may be happening.

Take care and stay dry with the rains coming.