Stop! Recuperation Time!

(Stop! Recuperation Time! You know... a play on "Stop! Hammer Time!" 😅)

My body is broken. And thanks to the Summer school holidays, I can now sit back, relax, and let my body heal after all I've put it through this year. School doesn't actually end til this Friday, but since my son had his class party yesterday -- Wednesday -- and my body is in pain, I figured he could have the last two days of school off and commence the holidays!

Every week-day I walk anywhere between 6km and 12km. My partner is a taxi driver so if he see's me while not on a job, I'll get picked up. And in the afternoons we'll wait for him at one of our local parks. But most days it's around 9km as I walk to and from the school, and back to the school again before waiting at the park.

I've twisted my mid-foot twice, and continued walking on it whilst drowning in anti-inflammatories to numb to pain. I tripped over on the gutter of the road and literally fell flat on my arse once. I was attacked by magpies for the first time in years due to not being familiar with this flock yet.

I've walked in pouring rain. Thunderstorms. High humidity. Beneath the glaring sun. I've been sunburnt a few times despite wearing sunscreen.

Despite walking all of my life because I've never had a licence or a car, for the first time this year I started getting blisters on my feet. Bandaids wrapped around my toes did nothing. I bought the most expensive hiking shoes I've ever bought, hoping they would help my feet. They didn't. Finally, after my toes were cracked and bleeding, I tried toe socks. They saved me. But in the last couple of weeks they stopped working so well and my pinky toes were starting to get wretched again.

This week, for the first time in literally years, I suffered from thigh chafing. And kept walking with it, exacerbating it, because I had no choice.

I'm so glad I can put my feet up and let them recover from their blisters and corns. Allow my legs to recover from chafing. To finally allow my midfoot to heal after nearly breaking it twice.

But. What annoys me the most. Is the fact that I walk so freakin' much but I don't lose weight.

I don't eat breakfast, because I'm not hungry in the mornings -- I am fueled by coffee. I rarely eat lunch because if I do, I'm too full to eat dinner and dinner is my favourite food of the day! And we've been making a conscious effort over the past 6 months to make sure dinner is always healthy. A plate-full of vegetables with a serve of protein. No potato. No pasta. Rarely bread. Rarely rice.

Snacks are corn chips and salsa, popcorn, less-than-100-calories Weis icecreams for after dinner.

Thinking of just accepting that I'm fat. I have to have a healthy internal system - I exercise daily! And we'll just enjoy the damned pasta and potato.

And it's December! I'm going to eat all the trifle, white christmas, rum balls, christmas food, and drink all the cocktails! It's the one time of year I really enjoy food and I'm going to actually enjoy it!

Stupid fat belly and flappy flabby arms and thicccccc thighs that cause me to go through several pairs of pants due to thigh-rubbing causing threadbare tears in my pants which in turn causes friction-burn on my legs.

Anyway. My body has 6-7 weeks to get back into an unbroken state. And I think I might finally embrace my middle-age and buy some leggings and old-people clothes to walk in instead of jeans and flowing blouses. I always try to take pride in my appearance, but after the past few months I think I'll settle for comfort instead.