Is this Cool or What?

So much great news from todays expedition with Bart.

First news is that we had lunch and I ordered a wrap. They didn't have wraps on the menu, but he said I could order any sandwich and have it put in a wrap. I ordered a chicken sandwich and it came in a tortilla (lots less carbs). BUT he filled the plate with fries, which I did not order. I decided I could allow myself to have 10. And I stopped at ten and left the rest on the plate. I then cut the wrap in half and ate only half of it, saving the rest for tomorrow's lunch.

Second victory has to do with our shopping trip. But first, some background. If you have known me for any period of time you know that I have had trouble with my back since 1989. My pain has fluctuated with my weight but has been very weak. In fact, standing or walking for more than a few minutes has often resulted in such excruciating pain that I have had to sit down.

About 3 months ago I decided that I wanted to work hard to get in better shape so that I could walk without intense pain. Today I shopped, standing up and not leaning on a cart, for an hour. We probably walked over a half mile in the mall going from store to store. It was so nice not to be in horrible pain. I enjoyed our shopping so much more when I wasn't constantly thinking about my pain.

After the mall, Bart wanted to go to Whole Foods, one of his favorite stores. I sat in the car and attempted to blog from there on my phone unsuccessfully. Then we went to Lake Calhoun. We sat in the sun and admired the beautiful day. The weather was perfect -- bright sun, cool breeze, blue skies. I suggested that we walk a while and we were going to turn around if I started to feel too much pain. After a while i started to feel some tension in my back, but it wasn't really
pain. I said I thought maybe we could make it a quarter of a mile around. We made it a quarter of a mile around and I still felt OK. So we kept walking.

I got to the point where I thought maybe I was pushing it and we should turn back and we saw a placard with a map of the lake. It turns out we were just about at the half way point and the distance of our walk was 3.1 miles! So we had no choice. Turning back, or going forward would mean the same thing. So we walked. And we only rested a couple of times for a few minutes. We walked 3.1 miles!!!!! It was an amazing feeling. Bart was shocked as he used to be the one who was dragging me around places when I was in too much pain to make it.

I don't know that I'm ready to walk for an hour and 30 minutes straight (with 2 breaks) again for a while, but it felt SO good to say I had accomplished such a feat. And even though my back is a little sore tonight, it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

And on top of it all, we had a great time together, talking the whole time about stuff that we never have time to talk about. It is really fun accomplishing hard things at my age. I don't know when the last time was, if ever, that I walked 3.1 miles. I'm smiling.