It’s day 7. Yesterday was unremarkable due to the fact that my walking was replaced by some shopping walking (30 mins) and a visit to my girls at gym which, I am very happy to announce, was far more pleasant than the last.
Today however I have discovered a couple of interesting things.
First, I can once again pick things up with my toes on my right foot. This is pretty major since I don’t always have my grabby tool with me when I need to pick something up. I can reach my bent leg on either side so now I am officially ambidextrous again with the foot grab.
Second, my foot is now strong enough that I can take my running shoes off without using my hands. This means I can lift my toe high enough and push hard enough to leverage off my left shoe with my right foot. Both good signs I think!
I spent some time trying to figure out a way to do curls without stressing my back. This is a tough one to do if I am trying to have zero impact. I can use the bench but the incline is too low and I am far from being able to raise the bench by myself. I may try out some bands but I still need some way of stabilizing and supporting my elbow to prevent the load from transferring to my spine. I am also mentally wrangling with how to do any kind of shoulder exercise and wondering how long it will be until I can do pullups again.
I walked to Blacks to get photos at lunchtime, it’s been beautiful weather here recently and the forecast is for another 7 days of sunny warmth. I may actually get a tan this year! The walk was only 2.2km but before I left I was having serious hip pains. They went away during the walk but after last night laying awake due to pain in both my hips I am starting to wonder exactly what is causing it. I took some tylenol but it seems that the best thing for the pain is more mobility. Unfortunately if that is what is causing the pain then I am in a real pickle!
I made some caramelized onions in the crock pot last night and some pork tenderloins and eye of round in the smoker today. The tenderloins were in for 1 hour of heat, 3 hours of smoke and 1 more hour of heat and came out amazing. The eye of round is still in the smoker after 5 hours getting one last hour of heat.