Stupid shoes, pain, and stalling out (a weight loss post)

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Like a lot of overweight people, I wear running shoes. (Cut for triggery weight discussion) I’m clearly not a jogger, but my weight puts strain on my feet and running shoes are pretty much the only footwear with the padding to protect them.

But I hate them. Why do running shoes all have to look like ridiculous cgi spaceships? Seriously, they’re shiny, or weird mesh textures, or have crazy colors or whatever. They look stupid. If I could get through the day wearing something simple, I’d be much happier. I’m not talking penny loafers here. A pair of Vans or some other skate shoe would be fine.

For the record, I don’t hate running shoes as a thing. People who find them comfortable while running should wear them happily, and people who are happy to strut around in little space ships should do so; I don’t judge. But I don’t run and I feel like they’re part of the fat guy uniform I’d like to shed.

The running shoes I have now are not quite a year old. I bought them when my weight was at it’s highest, just above 300 lbs. Now that I’ve lost 35 of those pounds, I have a lot less pain. A lot less.

But is it time to give up running shoes? Yesterday was the second Friday in a row that I walked out of a shoe store without a purchase, because I’m still 270 and I’m not anywhere near ready to revisit that kind of pain again. Basically, I chickened out.

Worse, I’ve been hovering around 265-270 since just before Thanksgiving. My weight loss program has hit a plateau–which is perfectly natural–and I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to start making progress again.

But I also have a little voice in my head telling me that I may never make significant progress again, and do I really want to return to the pain levels I had last year?

So I didn’t not buy new shoes yesterday as planned. For a little while longer, I’m going to keep on wearing the dumb tattered running shoes I have on now. When I hit 245, I’ll take a chance on non-stupid shoes. That’s a decent short-term goal and reward on the long march to 205.

This whole thing reminds me of the issues I had when we came out of our financial troubles a few years ago. Just turning on the heat in the middle of winter seemed like such a big deal, and the pain I was avoiding then was financial, not physical.

Anyway, I have a second post to do on weight loss, but it will have to wait until I hear back from my doctor. (There’s nothing alarming going on.) Also, it’s nearly 11:30 and I haven’t written more than a 100 words yet. That’s a bad sign for today’s productivity. Off to work.