I am trying to figure out what I need to do about my ankle. It is stiff and sore, and I am limping more than I’m not limping. This makes it difficult to exercise, and if I’m not exercising, I’m not losing weight.
I broke my ankle in the last days of 1997, and I started the new year with surgery and four days in the hospital. I remember after the surgery, my doctor told me I would never run again. My ankle just wouldn’t work that way.
This, to me, was unacceptable. I was a mom of three, and I HAD to be able to run. I kept imagining one of my children being in a dangerous situation that required me to run and save my child. How could I do that if I couldn’t run?
Since that first surgery, I’ve had two more surgeries on my ankle and a lot of rehabilitation, but it has been a while.
Other than saving my child, I didn’t really care that I wouldn’t be able to run. I wasn’t really a runner to begin with. In fact, I hated running. I was slow and unenthusiastic about running. But that was back when I was skinny, and now I’m not skinny, and I thought I could run.
It turns out I can’t. Oh, I can do it. I just pay for it, and the cost is high. And if you saw me doing it, you might not really think I was running. My ankle just doesn’t bend, and when I try to force it, I limp.
In fact, I haven’t tried to run in several weeks, and I am still limping. It is to the point where I am thinking about making an appointment. I know I have a lot of scar tissue on the front of my ankle joint, which further limits my ankle’s ability to bend. I am thinking that some day in the future I am going to need ankle-replacement surgery or something.
In the meantime, I need to keep exercising and losing weight. Excess weight does not help my ankle. I just never realized how much of a barrier my ankle could be to my attempts at weight loss.
So, I’m not a runner, but I can walk. And I can walk faster than what I have been doing. So that is my plan. I will walk, and I will have bursts of very fast walking that is just this shy of running. It will allow me to pump up the calorie-burn without further injuring my foot.
And I need to make an appointment with a doctor to discuss my ankle. That is a step I can take today.
I do not remember where I heard this, but I heard somewhere that walking is just as beneficial as running. Walking is also better for you because running can cause damage to ankles and knees. Not that I am a fitness expert but I did stay at the Holiday Inn Express last night!