Walking 2014

This is a summary of the walking for 2014.

January was the continuation of 2013 walking 200+ miles for the month, normally 8 miles round trip. I carried a backpack with 12-15 lbs depending on normal stuff and any groceries and often carried a grocery bag for larger stuff for the walk home.

February was more of the same until mid-month when I aggrevated my Sciatic nerve and kept walking on it for a week which only required occasional stops for about a week when it hurt too much to walk, which necessitated a 2 week rest period.

After 2 weeks of rest into March I resumed walking to aggrevate the nerve again but kept walking for a week when I blew out both shins with severe shin splints from the knee to the ankle and could barely walk at all. The diagnosis was 4-6 weeks of rest for the back and shins, meaning from late March to early May.

In May-June I got a bacterial infection in my digestive system which wasn't treatable except with time, or so they said. The infection lasted until September when I had an ear infection for which they prescribed Amoxicillin, which cured both the ear and the digestive infections.

Amoxicillin as a general, or universal, antibiotic which kills all the bacteria in the body including the natural bacteria in the digestive tract, the ones you need for digesting and processing food. After the usual 10 days your digestive tract is pretty much gone for bacteria and needs time to restore itself.

For me that last until late October I when got the seasonal flu (forgot to get a flu shot) which lasted about 3 weeks, and after a few days of feeling good I came down with an intestinal infection which they said is a common occurrence after the flu due to a weakened immune system. That last 3 weeks.

These two flus lasted until early December where the body and digestive system finally came back to some sense of normal, but a different one that before, especially the digestive system where the food sensitivities are almost totally different now as are the reactions to foods.

That said, I decided to keep the walks at 6 miles for November and December to allow the Sciatic nerve to heal, if it does, where I can get back to 8 miles walks in January 2015. This is just an idea as the Sciatic nerve pain seems to be persistent most days.

As for as weight goes, I got down to 155 in February, increased to 163 in May from the digestive infection, then dropped back to 155 by the end of July from recovering from it, almost all of the weight loss occurring in one week.

Since then I've been from 151 lbs (August) to 155 lbs (October-November) and recently I'm consistently at 153-154 now. It takes 80 miles to lose a pound, so miles was the difference to losing weight last year than this year along with the health issues adding weight to lose it again.

The goal is to get to consistently be under 150 lbs which is my goal for the New Year by March or sooner. Then I see what I can achieve with running if the body, namely the back, is willing and able. The goal there is to run 2-3 miles and walk 6 miles.

But then this year my goals and plans have been more letters in the alphabet than agent Maxwell Smart had plans to thwart his enemy. So as they say, I'll keep you posted, hopefully more current in 2015 than this year.