Feeling A Little Blue

      I've been doing really well walking the lake trail. I did take Saturday off. I didn't even do skateboard Saturday. I've been putting in the miles, and really just needed a rest. A couple of times I was able to get out on the trail early enough to make two laps, which is just short of a 5 mile walk, but with the distance I park from the trail it's probably an actual 5 mile walk.

 

     That big lake is the one I walk around. You can see the trail just at the edge of the lake. It's pretty wide. That red X is where I park my car, so I have to walk all the way from there, which is were the exercise trail is to the lake trail. I figure it's probably a 10th to a 15th of a mile extra walk one way. Put that together an you get about an extra quarter mile to add to the 4.74 miles that is a double loop.

     The two mornings I got out early enough for the double loop, it was dark. The first day had the extra spookiness of fog. Spookiness aside, it's really relaxing being out there at that time of the morning, which is about an hour and a half before sunrise.

     Both of these pictures were taken at the same location only on different days. The fog was great, but it did get me soaked, so I got to experience what it would be like walking out there in the rain and then getting dried off when the sun rose. My ankle is feeling really good, and I think I'm going to step up the schedule, but still work slowly. About midweek, I'm going to give running a go, but only a very short distance each day. If you look at the map and you see that big right angle in the lake, the horizontal line is where the gate is. It's just at the edge of left field of the baseball diamond. That perpendicular line which is the longest straight stretch is where I'm going to try to run. From the gate to the tip of the dinosaurs nose is a half mile, so that stretch is probably just short of a quarter mile. My goal is to get that whole stretch in, but if I feel the slightest bit of pain, I'm shutting it down. If I can get that distance down with no pain, I'll work on expanding my distance every few days. I'll of course let you know who it goes.

     I really need to share my meal with you from Friday. It was pretty incredible tasting. Oh, a little weight update coming just after this. I decided to smidge the carb bar a little on Friday, but I limited the fat and upped the protein so it will all work out, plus the carbs I chose are pretty friendly to me. First off is the burgers. I made a bacon, egg, and cheese burger that I'm going to frankly say was the best burger I've ever eaten. It was real simple too. Bacon in the oven, but not over done, still a little floppy, then fried up the burgers and a couple of eggs. The eggs were over easy, and then placed on the burgers while they finished cooking. I placed a slice of sharp white cheddar on each egg, and then broke the bacon in half and put two broken halves on each burger.

 

     There's only one burger in the picture cause I didn't think about getting a picture until after I finished that. I've never eaten fried eggs before, Ive always had scrambled. I was always freaked out by the runny yoke. I was wrong. The yolk running down when it broke had a creamy flavor that I didn't expect, and I'm now in love with fried eggs over scrambled. Oh, I'll still do scrambled eggs, but I have a new weapon in my arsenal now. The fries are where the carbs get dicey. They aren't just normal fries though, they are veggie fries, made with a blend of cauliflower and potatoes, they add some ranch and bacon seasoning to them for a little extra kick. You do have that cauliflower flavor hit you, but I'm used to it and rather like it, so it's not a problem for me. They are really good. No matter what anyone says, they are only slightly healthier than regular fries, but that really isn't saying much.. The thing I've found for myself is that if I have the occasional starchy carb, it really helps me out. It's like a booster for my metabolism. This is where the weight update comes in. I hoped on the scale Friday for a weight check. It was the first time in about a week and a half, so I really didn't know what to expect. I was down another pound. I hit 163.4. So the weight is still coming off. I think once I get running again, I can kick it into another gear and lose weight a little faster, but I'm happy with 1 pound in 2 weeks. 

     Now for the reason for the title. I dyed my beard blue, and finally got it right. The color came out perfect this time and I'm pretty happy about it. Take a look for yourself.

 

     I think I'll keep that color for a little while, and then go back to the purple, maybe do a half and half at some point, that might be pretty wild.

     Time for Favorite Song of the Week. I discovered the band way late in the game, and I'm bummed I didn't find out about them sooner. I missed out on so much time I could be listening to them. For the most part it's just two guys, but they do use a full band. The singer/songwriter Eric Burton is an old soul. You can hear it in his songs. He teamed up with producer and guitarist Adrian Quesada to form Black Pumas, and I'm so glad that they did. The whole album is great with original songs and a few covers. It is just good old fashioned soul music with a little rock & roll thrown in. Listen to this song and then look up the album and give it a try. This is a sit down on a Friday night kind of album. Here is Black Pumas with their first single "Colors".

     You can't listen to that and then tell me that it doesn't just hit you in a place that makes you feel good. If you do, well then we just can't be friends. 

     I'm still on my social media blackout, well, it's mostly Facebook blackout. I have ventured into Instagram and Twitter sporadically, but not anywhere near as much as I did before. I have to tell you, that i really don't miss any of it.

     I'm finally going to be eligible for the vaccine starting tomorrow, so I'm going to be on the Publix portal at 7 (which the changed the time so that I couldn't get on it Friday) in the morning. I'm hoping to book an appointment for this week. I'll take whichever vaccine I can get. I don't care at this point. The 3 that are out now have differing percentages as to how effective they are, but they are all 100% effective against hospitalization and serious illness. What that means is, that for example with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine it's like 70% effective, that's not an exact number I can't recall what it is off hand. Anyway, if you fall in the 30% you can catch the virus, but what it does do is makes it so when you do catch it, it's only a mild form of it. I'll take that over dying any day. What I'm saying here is, go get the vaccine as soon as you can.

      That's all for this week. I'm hoping next week will be full of information about getting the vaccine. Peace in and goodnight.

Find Your Smile

      The last two weeks have been hard. Which is why I didn't write last week. That was part of a social media self-imposed blackout for me. For the most part I'm taking a two week minimum break from most social media. I don't really consider YouTube social media since I never go through comments, so that eliminates most of the problem. I'm dipping my toes back into Instagram this week, but I'll be limiting my time there as well. I just need time away from the doom scrolling and negativity that comes from certain outlets. I think you know the main culprit in this, but I'll be kind and not name it for once.

     With the injury to my ankle being worse than I first thought it would be, the recovery process has been brutal. Resting it and sitting around was very bad for my mental state, and got to a breaking point about a week ago. I won't go into the dark spiral fully, but I will say that it was a call to action. I did have to suck up that fact that I needed to rest my foot, but getting off social media was also a big help in getting my head on straight. I can give you a very good update on the foot. As of about the middle of last week, I'm walking pain free. I have also resumed walking the trail. The big lake trail and not the exercise trail. I'm still wary of that one because it has exposed roots on the trial, and even though I'm pain free, my ankle is not 100%. If I step on a rock and my ankle rolls a tiny bit, I can feel pain like a deep bone bruise. I have not began running again yet either. I'm going to take my time and wait probably another few weeks before I give it a try again. When I do, I'll be focusing on all those things I should have been focusing on before this all happened. Foot fall, stride length, body position, all that good stuff. The goal is to heal fully, learn from these mistakes, change my approach, and overcome in order to succeed. I want to show you a few pictures of the trail I'm walking now before I get into a little more on how I'm taking care of my ankle. This is the new trail I found.

     You can see just how wide and flat it is. You get the added bonus of the great scenery, but this is what the trail looks like when I hit it at 6 in the morning.

     Yeah, it's a bit scary, but so peaceful. There is no one on the trail at that time of the morning, and I can get in a few kilometers before the heat of the day.

     Back to the ankle now. As you know, I've been wrapping my ankle. That is something I still do before I go on the walk. I have to make sure there is support for it. The first few days I wore spongy shoes to absorb any type of shock I might get, I'm now back to the minimalist shoes and they feel even better than they did before. I was icing my ankle every evening, but I've been able to cut down to just when I think I need it. Usually that's if I feel a dull throb in my ankle after my walk, which at this point, I' haven't felt in two days now. I plan on wrapping my ankle until after I start running again, so that is just something that is going to be a part of my life for the next month or so. It's ok, I've gotten pretty good at wrapping it. I do wear a compression sleeve the rest of the day after my walk and remove it when I go to sleep. So far this has been all working out really good, so I don't plan on changing it up until I have a reason to.

     Right now my schedule is taking Monday as a rest day, with the rest of the week being trail days. I have added something into that schedule that I've been wanting to do for a long time, and that is throw a skateboarding day in there. I decided Saturday morning is the day for that. Skate Saturday is what it will hence forth be known. I was a little worried when I went out yesterday morning, once again at 6 in the morning, to the big church parking lot near my house. The fear of my ankle hurting was looming over me for sure, but once I kicked off for the first time everything was good. The good thing for me is that I ride a skateboard all wrong. I kick goofy footed and ride backwards. Most people kick with their front foothill keeping their primary foot on the back of the board to steer. I plant my right foot (bad ankle) on the mid front of the board and kick with my back foot which is also the foot I steer with. You see, it's a complete mess, but that is the way I learned and I don't think I can ever correct it, the good thing about it is, that my right foot (bad ankle) is always in a stable position, so I didn't have any problem with my ankle in the hour I skated around. I don't do tricks, never really learned, so it is all about cruising, so there really isn't a whole lot of danger to re-injuring my ankle, it's just about doing something that I've always loved doing, and that is just riding on a skateboard. I did have one mishap, when I lost my balance, and took a minor fall, but proper falling technique came back to me instantly and I only ended up with a small skate scuff on the knee. I'm wearing it as a badge of honor right now.

     It's a small maybe quarter size raspberry, that does hurt but it puts a smile on my face. That is the thing about doing something that you love, the bad isn't really that bad, and the last few days have been about getting myself smile back. For a while nothing was making me happy, and I can say that little wound actually makes me happy, as masochistic as that may sound. It's not really about the pain, it's about how it happened. There is also the fact that tiny little raspberry won't keep me sitting down for days at a time.

     A couple more photos before I get to Favorite Thing of the Week. The first is an ice cream I forgot to tell you about. I found this at my local grocer and it is made from avocados. It was really good, not keto friendly, but it is vegan, non GMO, and organic. They had two flavors I think but I went with this dark chocolate. It was really smooth and creamy, and can stand up with any traditional ice cream on the market, so if you can find it, give it a try. 

     The final picture is of the poor little Shnuggie. She has her occasional cheek swelling again, where that sack fills with blood. This is still a left over affect from her ear surgery. This time I got to it early and wrapped her up as soon as I saw it starting to seep, instead of waiting for it to rupture to take care of it. The latter usually involves the clean up of what could resemble a murder scene, so to avoid that disaster I'm hoping that it will all drain into the gauze and paper towels and I'll only have to treat and bandage it after with a minor clean up on her instead of all over the house. 

 

     She's not at all happy about it, but she's still cute though.

     Time for FSOTW. That's right the song is back. I was torn between two songs, but I'm going to go with the fun one as opposed to the informative one this week. I just need that extra smile this week and this one provides it. I introduced you to Leo not too long ago. He's the one that does metal covers of songs. He took one of my favorite ABBA songs and put his metal twist on it, and it's just fun, so here is Frog Leap Studio with ABBA's hit song "Gimme Gimme Gimme".

     Come on that had to put a smile on your face, I know it did mine. Ok last thing. You may have seen this as a link on Facebook. I'm still not back on there, but I did post this remotely. I plan on being off there for at least another week, but it could very well be much longer. If you need to get a hold of me, you can always use the email address at the top of this blog, or head over to my Instagram. Peace in and goodnight.

The Pain Is Bad, But The Resting Is Unbearable

      My ankle is killing me, but I do think it's getting better. I've been resting it since Wednesday, which may be even more painful than the actual pain. Sitting around with weight off my ankle for as much as possible is a complete drain on my psyche.  I'm not 100% sure what is wrong, but I've narrowed it down to 3 things, none of which are real good. Best case scenario is a form of bursitis. If that's the case I might be back to hitting the exercise trail in a couple of weeks. More on the exercise trail in a bit. Not a great scenario, is an inflamed tendon/ligament/cartilage. This scenario is resting my ankle for about 8 weeks. This means it will heal, but it may take a real toll on my mental state. Worst case scenario, torn ligament or broken bone. Both of these would require surgery, which isn't a possibility for me, which means in order for it to heal to a point that it no longer constantly hurts, could be months, and it would never fully be the same or pain free again. I'm doing my best to keep that last one out of my mind. I do think this is a compression injury which would be the bursitis (best case) or inflammation (not great). The fact that the rest has shown me some improvement is leaning me more towards bursitis, which would mean a couple of weeks, but I do have a tendency for quick healing, so there is the potential I could be back on the trail by the end of the week. Here is the so far. The swelling that was localized to just below my ankle joint is gone. The pain is still sharp at times, but is getting less prevalent and more focused. Where I went wrong, besides not resting it, was putting heat to it. I've switched to icing my ankle which has made a discernible difference. I did have a couple of days where I thought the rest was backsliding it and making it worse, but that ended yesterday when I began seeing noticeable improvement including the absence of swelling. I do feel that it is more stiff now, but that could just be it repairing itself, and the flexibility will return once I'm back on it pain free again. I'll let you know.

     Now for the exercise trail. As you know I've been hitting a calisthenics trail, but I found another trail nearby in the same recreational area. This new trail is twice as long, with out the exercise stops, but it is a wider walking/biking trail that goes around a large lake. Since it's wider it is also more flat with no tree roots sticking up. Those alone were causing me a lot of pain when I would hit them in stride. Once I get back to full strength I'll be hitting that trail from no on. I'll still hit the other one, but that one will be for my calisthenics days. I'll hit the long trail at first light and then go over to the exercise trail and walk it while hitting the stops. Regardless of how healthy my ankle ends up feeling, I'm planning on wrapping it for support for the first month or so after it heals. I just want to give it more time to get as strong as possible.

     I think I might be making this one short this week, so that brings me to Favorite Thing of the Week. I found this picture with a caption on Twitter calling it an optical illusion and I fell for it completely. The thing is, this isn't some designed optical illusion, it just happens to be a photograph that came out that way. When you look at this photo, the first thing you will see is a man running into a snowy forest.

     If you look a little closer, you will see what it actually is. A large black dog running towards the cameraperson from the snowy forest. This is one of those pictures I really wish I took. I am also positive that this was a mere accident. Happy accidents as Bob Ross would put them always end up being some of the best things, which is way this is my Favorite Thing of the Week.

     Before I go I do have to mention one last thing. I said last week that I was taking this week off of healthy proper eating and just enjoy myself. Well that last til Wednesday as well. I did get to try some things that are new that I wanted to try, like the Lady Gaga Oreos, but it all came down to my body not liking taking that big of a break and I was back to healthy proper eating after that day. I'm still planning on the 28 day cycle, but it isn't starting until tomorrow morning. Even though I didn't have lose eating the whole week, I'm chalking it up to a relaxed eating week and I'll get serious tomorrow, even though the last 4 days have been just as strict as I was eating previously. I will also say that I felt better immediately upon going back to the strict eating. 

     That's all I got for this week. Still letting the new story simmer, but it will be coming. Peace in and goodnight.