Hi, my name is V and I'm a big spender.

A lady I work with came out of her way, into my office, to tell my that I look so much healthier.  Not thinner.  Healthier.  That made my day.  In all the years I've been trying to lose weight, it wasn't the number on the scale that really bothered me, although it did of course; it was that I didn't feel good and I thought I would feel better if I was thinner.  Hell, I DID feel better when I was thinner, so I think that is reasonable.  Unfortunately, that was before.  Before MS.  Before MS drugs.  Before allergies.  Before drug trials.  Before it was so hard to feel healthy.  Just, before.

I planned for, and took, a very long lunch break.  My first stop was Runner's World.  I was hesitant to go there since I thought I would pay more for shoes, but I wanted their expertise.  I have not had a pair of althetic shoes that really fit me great in a long time.  I've gotten rid of almost all of them as I lost weight, but have one pair left.  I noticed last night that my heel, even up the back of the heel a little, was hurting after I got home from running agility.  My heel has been moving around in my shoes for a very long time; it seems that my heel is a little narrow for the size of my foot.  It's not an issue in open shoes but I feel my heels moving in closed shoes.

At Runner's World, I told the man who was helping me that I need shoes for trail walking and for running agility; I wasn't sure I could get one pair for both activities.  He showed me how the bottom of trail shoes and running shoes are different and tried for something in between, leaning toward hiking.  I tried on a few pairs but the first pair, which were size 10.5 Asics, were the best.

I knew I was between sizes.  (Usually half sizes stop at size 10.)  The last time I remember a good fit in my althetic shoes was when I found a pair of 10.5 size BUM shoes at JC Penney Outlet, and those weren't even really athletic shoes, just super cute tennis shoes.  OMG, I hope that is not really the last time--that was about 20 years ago.  I am NOT kidding.  I remember picking them up--I worked there; it was when the store was still on Rural, before it moved to Arizona Mills; and it was before my car accident.

I took my custom insoles with me and he mentioned that they were probably making my heel sit up further in the shoe, so after I had tried the shoes on with them, I tried them without my inserts, and I think they felt better.  So my inserts really were a waste of money since I can't wear them with most of my shoes (professional and sandals) anyway.  He said the heel cup that I've tried is also making my heel sit up further in the shoe, so probably NOT helping.

He told me that his trick for my slipping heel problem is to skip the next to last hole when lacing the shoe; we tried this and the fit was perfect.  He also suggested a thing that you put in the back of your shoe that grips (like fabric?) as your foot starts to slide up so that it doesn't.  It wasn't a gel thing like I've tried in the past, but he said that it is sold at nicer department stores.

Once we decided on the Asics, he asked if I wanted to try the Vibram 5 fingers that I had asked about earlier.  He measured my foot in women's and men's sizes as I might be a little between women's sizes.  He brought me a pair and explained that I should focus on putting my big toe in first.  The right foot wasn't too difficult but the left foot needed more guidance since I don't really have full feeling in all of those toes.  It was a little weird to feel the toes individually wrapped.

Women's 42 and 10.5

I walked around in them and they were really comfortable, almost like being barefoot, but not quite.  He said they are washable and/or I can wear socks with them.  I forgot to get socks, so I might look for a pair to try, but they are fine without.  To break them in, I'm supposed to wear the shoes for a half hour at first and increase the time.  I really want to wear them for the agility trial this weekend, so I think I'll wear them tonight and tomorrow night around the house.  These shoes are actually less expensive than the others, but I can't walk trails in these.  A lady there said she wears hers about 3 times a week and I'll feel it in my calves afterwards, like when you exercise muscles you don't usually use.

I met my friend A for lunch at Babbo's, not too far from Runner's World or A's house.  She also told me how healthy I look!  We both had the chicken with roasted brussel sprouts, beets, raisins and goat cheese, mista salad (mine with no cheese) and green ice tea.  It was a great meal.  As we were talking the whole time, I noticed that I didn't eat quite as much as I would by myself but I still ate most of it.

She is having (has been having) some health issues and we discussed diet and her thoughts about the possibility of Candida.  A candida diet (part of the strictest MS diets I researched when I was diagnosed) eliminates all sugar.  I was thinking how hard that would be for me to do, but I've done it in small increments before, AND I would have thought what I'm doing now is too hard but I'm doing it anyway.  I woke up this morning with a new "zit" on my upper chest and wondered when I saw it, did I eat something that caused that.  Now I'm wondering if it was sugar and if I'm going to have to reduce my sugar even more.

I didn't realize that her husband is allergic to corn, peanuts, and tomatoes.  It's really amazing, and maybe a little disheartening, how many people are having these diet issues.  I'm encouraged by more awareness but wish it wasn't so sensationalized sometimes.  Yes, wheat is messing a lot of us up, but the evils of wheat--is that necessary?  And I should clarify, it's disheartening to me because nothing is being done from the top to address the issue; we all have to do our own research and then spend unbelievable amounts of time weeding through the food products to find decent products to consume.

We also talked about our dogs.  She thought it couldn't hurt to try the earplugs idea on Teka, but I should try it in practice first to see if she will actually pay attention to my body language enough for that to work.  She thought I should not get discouraged by a huge gap in Q's (qualifying scores) in Excellent; that it is a huge difference from Open to Excellent for Cassi.  And me.  She didn't really seem to think either of them needed to be moved to preferred but that I should probably be jumping them in class at the height they run in trials.  Right now Cassi jumps 20" in class and 24" in trials; we don't really set the bars higher than 20" in class for whatever reason, maybe to reduce the number of height changes.  And to give me a break, Teka only jumps 20" (her trial jump height) on nights we do exercises if our whole group is at 20"; otherwise, and on course nights, she jumps 16" so I get a break between them running.  It's something to consider.

We talked about family too, but that's just more of the same, right?  She thought my "shoes in the closet" story was hilarious though.  No, I have not told that on my blog and am unlikely to tell it here since I cannot protect the identity of the involved party or parties.  But I am totally going to put that in my memoir if I ever write one!