My Weight Loss Toolbox: Walking Shoes and Walking Socks

My Weight Loss Toolbox:

Food/Calorie Journal
Scale
Walking App
Meal Calendar
Digital Food Scale that Weighs in Grams
Weekly, Detailed, Shopping List
Walking Buddy (My Daughter & My Dogs)
Yeti 36oz Rambler
Walking Shoes and Walking Socks

Let’s explore these one at a time.

Question:

How do you cause pain in your shoulder blades, lower back, hips, buttocks, ankles, heels, tops of your feet, and balls of your feet, all at the same time?
Answer:
By hiking 6 miles with these:

These were my hiking boots.  I had them for a little over 3 years.  I was well aware these boots were worn out and overdue for replacement – I even had a replacement pair purchased – but I wasn’t ready to give them up.  Those boots have walked over one thousand miles with me.  They have been to Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Vermont and now Pennsylvania.  They have been an excellent hiking tool.  I slip them on, and I know how they feel.  I know which socks work best with the boots depending on the hike I have planned.  They cost over $50, so thus I consider them “expensive” (I know full well hiking boots are expensive – I just do not like spending money).  It is not just the monetary cost but the environmental cost (impact) nags at me as well.  What energy and resources were used to create, ship, and distribute these boots?  What will it cost the Earth to dismantle them – break them down into something unrecognizable of its current state so that the matter can be used again?  I do not want to throw things out that are not ready because I do not want to waste anything.  I do not want to waste money, resources, or the time it takes to pick out a replacement pair.

But it is time to replace these boots.  I thought about resoling the boots, as I have done this before with a pair of dress boots.  However, not only are these boots worn down and making me hurt, but they are too big.  Too big?  Why did you buy boots that are too big?!  Well, I probably purchased them a half size too big – as they were on the Cabela’s clearance rack and I needed a new pair of walking boots.  I had gone through my previous pair in about four months.  I remember.  I was shocked how quickly I destroyed them!  But I was around 270 pounds when I purchased my pictured boots and my four-month boots, and I think my four-month boots were designed for a lighter hiker in mind.  270 pounds being said, my feet were bigger when I purchased these boots.  Since I have lost my weight (152 pounds from my beginning weight, so roughly 120 pounds since I purchased the boots pictured) my feet have shrunk quite a bit.  With substantial wear and tear from use (wear on more than just the soles), the stretching of these boots, shrinking feet and a clearance purchase a half a size too big, my boots are not worth resoling.  I will have to see if I can use them in a different way.

And you know what else happened besides all these pains throughout my body?  I did an awesome six-mile hike with my family and old dog, Jude. 

I also packed a simple trail lunch for the family consisting of:

8 baby carrots (roughly 85g) = 30 calories
Pineapple cup = 60 calories Gelatin cup (off brand Jell-O) = 5 calories
PB&J sandwich (with peanut butter powder and reduced calorie bread) = 175 calories
Weighed out peanuts, cranberries, and Penguins (Aldi’s version of Goldfish) = 440 calories
Cheese stick = 80 calories
Lollipop = 60 calories
Energy drink = 10 calories
Plenty of water = 0 calories
Total = 860 calories
This was not my healthiest trail lunch; I am aware of it.  But I love trail lunches – they make me happy!

Little more than halfway through the walk my feet felt like they were on fire and the pains started to set in.  I knew it was my boots.  But we were doing a down-and-back walk.  Luckily, we had already turned around and my overused boots did not ruin the hike by forcing me to shorten it.  So, I gimped along back to the car.  I could feel the blisters forming under the tough skin of my feet.  (I do not have pretty feet).  My body was irritated and I could feel it.  And the scale let me know about it too.

Using a calculator that I Googled quickly, I found that at 157.4 pounds (at the morning of the walk), my body, with a sedentary lifestyle, would burn 1,675 calories.  Per Google Fit, my hike should have burned 552 calories.  Adding these two numbers together, using the calories in calories out method, I should have been able to consume 2,227 calories before I gained weight.  *(This is rough, crude math – no individually tailored health science behind it).

1,675 calories burned sitting around
+
552 calories burned on the hike
———————————————-
= 2,227 calories I can consume with no fluctuation in weight.

I consumed 2,550 calories that day.  So I should have gained weight.

2,550 calories consumed
–
2,227 calorie allotment
——————————–
= 323 calorie overage

Each pound of fat is supposed to equal 3,500 calories.
323 < 3,500.
So I should have gained weight, but nowhere near a pound.  Within that 24-hour period, during the time which I hiked 6 miles with bad boots, I gained 1.6 pounds.  Using the calories-in calories-out method, this just does not make sense!  The math here is clearly flawed!  Even if I would not have hiked and only sat around, I still did not consume the 3,500 calories necessary to produce 1 pound!

Yes, the calories you take in need to be less than the calories you burn, but in this instance, my body was suffering from weight gain due to swelling.  I thought I would see a small improvement on the scale – which I have seen in the past after a hike like this with, albeit better daily diet – but that day the swelling from improper boots robbed me of my gratification on the scale.  I know in a previous post I said not to go out and buy workout clothes right away when starting a new life routine to lose weight, and I stand by that.  I mean it.  Starting out, one should not run out and buy a bunch of clothes that you probably do not need right away.  But I am not starting out.  I am not going to fluctuate much in weight and size anymore.  I need a pair of boots or shoes that are not going to cause me trouble when I am walking – and the same goes for you!  Purchasing the pieces when you need them is a wiser decision than purchasing everything right away and wasting money on pieces you may not need.  My feet coverings have been the most important clothing piece when it comes to losing weight, closely followed by my bra (which I have had to replace 3 times when I have upper body pains and spasms due my chest shrinking so much the bra is useless).  But I had new boots squirreled away and I got to bring them out and get them ready for use! 

You can see that my new boots do not touch the ground at the heel.  It is by design.  My old boots were supposed to touch the ground at the heel, and well, we can see they did not.  It is blissful putting a new pair of hiking boots on.  I feel taller and ready to move.  I will have to break them in a bit, little by little, before I start on a tough or longer hike, but I am looking forward to using them.

Socks!  In the beginning of my weight loss journey, I found that sock were more important to me than shoes.  I was a secretary in a pharmacy at the beginning of my weight loss and one of the pharmacists kept talking about all the running he did at the gym.  I do not run.  I hate running.  Anymore, I would need a lot of clothing support to keep my body all together if I ran because my skin does not do its job anymore and my body moves when and where it shouldn’t.  (I have a lot of extra skin – it happens).  Anyway, he kept talking about his successful runs and how great he felt. 

I was content with walking my dogs, but my feet were not happy.  I would get blister after blister on my feet.  There was a time where I had a triple blister – a blister formed under a blister that formed under a blister.  It was frustrating and vile.  I was pissed!  Here I was, trying to get healthy, and the only thing my body wanted to do was stay unhealthy!  My body fought me every step of the way.  I had rashes and rubs that needed creams and adjustments to clothes.  I had sun burns and allergy flair ups.  And exhaustion.  But you learn to love the exhaustion.  There is a high you get off of it.  And then you crave it.  But my feet hurt and were miserable and that was the worst.  I asked the pharmacist what socks he wore.  (The pharmacist looked to be in good health – stable weight and no visible issues).  He looked at me, a touch confused and responded, “just any normal pair.”  I was a bit bummed he didn’t have a secret that would have unlocked a world of hurt free walks for me.  But no, nothing to share. 

What I can tell you is this:  Now that I am at a better weight, I can wear just about any socks I want to on a walk three miles or less.  I have worn dress socks and fuzzy house socks with no issues.  Anything over three miles and I should look for my cotton socks or better yet my hiking socks.  It the beginning I needed hiking socks.  I went to Gander Mountain and Cabela’s and picked up a couple of pairs.  Get a small variety.  I purchased different thicknesses and brands.  Different seasons and walks will call for a preference to different socks.  You will find a brand that works well for you and when you do, I would suggest sticking with it in the beginning.  I purchased roughly 12-15 pairs of hiking boot socks and walking socks in the past 5 years.  I still have 8 or 9 pairs.  I have walked several thousand miles in the pursuit of losing weight and many of these beginning socks are still being used.  Hiking socks were not a perfect solution.  I still got blisters and my body still ached after walking and hiking – but do you blame it?  That much weight coming down on that small of surface area (feet) over and over and over again, when all my body wanted to do was rest.  Yeah, I am going to hurt.  Hiking socks helped prevent blisters and fatigue on some walks but not all.  I also found that I needed to bring a spare pair of hiking socks with me on walks I knew were going to be long.  I would throw the spare pair and a plastic bag in my hiking bag.  When my socks got soaked from all the sweating during the walk, I would sit down somewhere, take off my shoes/boots and socks, drink some water, eat a snack, put the old socks in the plastic bag and store them in my hiking bag and put the dry, clean pair of socks on.  I found I was able to walk more by taking care of my feet by switching out my socks on the walks.

At the absolute beginning, when I first started walking, in those first couple of months, I wore the shoes that I already had.  I just gave birth to my daughter and at the end of the pregnancy, my feet were so swollen that I could only wear open topped shoes.  Using what I already had got me in to a rhythm for walking, had me focus on socks and allowed me to lose a bit of weight before I spent money on shoes that I was going to destroy quicker that the average due to my size.

Morale of the post?  Take care of your feet while walking.  Because you need to keep moving while losing weight – regardless of whether you feel like it or whether your body is cooperating.  Many times, you are not going to feel like it and your body is actively going to work against you.  But you need to keep going.  So get a good pair of socks and shoes and get moving!

*Right after I wrote out this post, my walking shoes gave out on me too. Now I need to go and buy a replacement for my walking shoes.

So that is my toolbox for weight loss success. I used these tools to get where I am and I use them every day to keep me where I am at. I do not get to “go back” to my previous lifestyle. No! I work at weight loss every day. And I am okay with that, because I changed my life instead of picking up a diet for a while. Now that my toolbox posts are complete, I think I am going to post about some awesome hikes, but I might take a tiny break in between the next post and now. But I will be back with some exciting stories and beautiful pictures!

Have a great week everyone!!