What Happens When I Overdo It

Ever since COVID hit, I haven’t really been active. I wasn’t the most active person before, but I’ve barely even done yoga since March. I know I should be, I just can’t find the energy or the motivation to do so.

I put my abilities to the test and decided to go downtown to visit one of my favorite stores that was closing its doors forever (thanks, COVID).

The day of

This was 3 days ago at the time of writing this. My friend and I headed to downtown Toronto and parked about an hour’s walk from the store. We wanted to do this as safely as possible (no public transit) so that meant walking was in the plans for me.

Back when I was on Remicade, I was able to do day trips with quite a minimal recovery time. Maybe a day to two days, but it was more fatigue than pain.

Luckily on this particular day, it was our final day of warm, sunny weather. I was in a great mood and I was happy to finally have a change of scenery. The walk to the store was about 4km and I was able to make it there no problem. The walk back to the car was another story.

I’ll admit I wasn’t wearing the proper shoes to be doing this much walking in. I was wearing converse. That was a big mistake I made. Not too far in on the walk back, the pain really started to kick in.

My feet were hurting, my back was hurting, my pelvis was hurting. Just about everything, really. I was quickly becoming exhausted and realizing that this was maybe a bit too much of a journey for me. We finally got back to the car and I couldn’t wait to get home and go straight to bed.

The days after

That night, I went to sleep and woke up around 6:30 am and I could barely move. My hips and legs felt like they were made from stone. I grabbed my cane and made my way to the bathroom and back, very slowly. I realized that an 8km walk after not doing much exercise for months was NOT a great idea.

I ended up needing my cane for 2 full days, hobbling around my house, and needing help getting in and out of bed most of the time. I was absolutely exhausted and felt physically sick as well. Just a feeling of nausea hiding in the background. I also had a headache for an entire day on the second day after the outing. I was not having a good time.

My takeaway

So, if you take anything away from this article, please remember your limits. Don’t overdo yourself and make yourself suffer for days afterward. If I could have done this differently, I probably would have walked one way and Ubered the other.

I wanted to believe I could do what I used to be able to do, but as it turned out, that’s not possible, at least not without a little work and practice beforehand.