The Tradeoff

I've written about my Sciatic nerve problem ad naseum and my walking to help it and get better along with getting fitter again, having been a regular jogger and hiker. In the last two months I've increased the walking from the distance I walked for 3 months of 5.5-6.5 miles to 7.5-8.5 miles.

And while the increase has helped the exercise, especially getting the legs stronger and fitter, as well as slowly losing the fat I've gained over the last few years of health issues and not exercising regularly let alone frequently, it's come with a tradeoff.

The tradeoff is that at the shorter distance I was getting a good exercise but I had reached the maximum gain except as an aerobic exercise where I could walk faster to a point the body stopped improving. I was also feeling generally good physically, but I didn't see any improvement in the lower back and Sciatic nerve.

I had planned to add other exercises, like weight training along with some stretching I do now, but those impact and sometimes hurt the lower back as I've learned from some stretching lifting, situps, etc or stair climbing. The added distance helps that and improves the lower back.

The tradeoff is that while the longer distance are better physically it's come at a price of feeling physically tired, often sore, and always mentally tired, usually the rest of the day. It seems I have a quota of combined physical and mental energy and the longer distances drains the quota where there's little left for anything else.

In short, it's been hard work just to work on anything related to the Mt. Rainier photo guide where I'm long behind on projects and the regular monthly stuff is late again. Reading is a chore and chores just aren't being done outside of the minimum like the laundry, cleaning, etc.

The idea is that like the increase from 3-4 miles to 5.5-6.5 miles which took a month or so for my body to get used to it and feel better physically and mentally,  I was hoping the new increase would do the same, but two months later, it hasn't, yet anyway.

The other part is that I'm losing the fat I've gained, but almost everywhere on the body except my abdomen, aka stomach. That fat hugs me like it really loves me and doesn't want to leave. It is slowly reducing but not very fast where the fat elsewhere is reducing visibly and rather fast too.

That's the story for now. Life is a tradeoff, and we all make decisions accordingly.