I’ve always been big on being someone who leads by example, and that has been a big part of my identity as a coach / trainer. I never ask my clients to do anything I couldn’t or wouldn’t do myself. I have always strived to “Walk The Talk”.

What happens, though, when you CAN’T “Walk The Talk”?

Over the past three months I have struggled with some often-debilitating foot issues. The current theory is that, on top of my gout (which I have struggled with on and off since age 30), I have Morton’s neuroma type issues in BOTH feet. This is after ruling out (through X-rays) stress fractures and (through assessment by a podiatrist) metatarsalgia or plantar plate tears. It was the podiatrist’s opinion because of exactly where I was experiencing the pain when he was probing around that the issues are neuroma-related (though not “classical” Morton’s neuroma because they’re mainly in the space between the 2nd and 3rd toes rather than between the 3rd and 4th toes).

These issues have limited normal movement since mid-April and on several occasions have caused severe enough pain that it hurts to bear weight at all (and I am usually standing for 6 hours per day in my work). Walking or any other repeated movement requiring any drive or flexion / extension through my feet causes the pain to ramp up faster over the course of the day, as does lifting or carrying any significant load. Add to that the fact that the inflammation in my feet due to these issues has also triggered full-blown gout attacks on at least two occasions, and I’ve had stretches of days at a time where the pain from either the neuromas or the gout or both have made sleep near-impossible.

I’ve also been dealing with some persistent fatigue and compromised work capacity as a possible result of a COVID-19 infection near the beginning of this period, where I’ve been finding myself completely gassed from pretty simple tasks.

Along the way, we’ve also had a number of stressful challenges around our household and with our family that I’ve had to deal with, making it really hard to regroup and get my head right.

So, in short, I am currently a trainer who doesn’t work out, and after three months of forced inactivity, I am within a few pounds of the heaviest I have ever been in my adult life.

This has been a blow to my ego, and with no definite end in sight has made me question my identity as a coach and athlete at several points over the last few months. While I feel that I’ve mostly been able to maintain a pretty even keel given the pressures and challenges I’ve been facing (for which I largely credit the lessons I’ve learned from Stoic philosophy as distilled in the book “The Obstacle Is The Way” by Ryan Holiday), I have gotten very “doom and gloom” at times and I’m sure haven’t been the best person to be around when going through those periods.

Well, recognizing all that, now the time has come for me to “Walk The Talk” in a different way.

When my clients have found themselves focusing on the negatives of challenges they have faced, I have often coached them to focus on what they CAN do, but I have realized I have been a bit of a hypocrite with that myself lately.

While I haven’t been 100% “woe is me” and dwelling on the things I can’t do, I have just been treading water rather than actively looking for a path forward and exploring what I can do to improve.

So - time to regroup. For the next while, there will be three main areas of focus:

Eat Better - I’ve really let my nutrition slide over the last few months, so I’m going to work my way back to a better approach following the same “BTG Essentials of Healthy Eating” principles I coach with my clients. Getting that dialed back in will help me get my body weight moving in the right direction despite my reduced activity levels.

On top of that, I also need to consider being more mindful of the things in my diet that can be triggers for my gout, despite the fact that those dietary triggers haven’t historically been issues for me. I’m accepting that my body has changed over the last eighteen years and it’s possible I may now be more susceptible to those triggers, so I’ll be trying to minimize or eliminate those over time.
Move More - this stuff with my feet ain’t going away anytime soon, so I need to take a different approach and start doubling down on the stuff I still can do without much weight-bearing or dynamic foot movement / loading (so my upper body should end up pretty jacked…LOL).

For the best health outcomes and attaining and maintaining a healthy body weight, I have found that daily physical activity is key, so I’m going to make an effort to do something every day.
Work The Problem - I need to do the things I can to help resolve my foot issues (hopefully) so that I can at least put my mind at rest that I’m trying something.

I have physio booked to see if laser therapy and other modalities can help with the neuromas, and regular appointments with my RMT to work on the soft tissues in my feet, ankles and calves which I suspect to be the root cause of the problems. I also need to stay on top of some maintenance work - stretching, SMR (rolling, massaging) and other things to make sure I’m not just letting time undo the work between my appointments.

I’ve also taken the step of getting onto a daily prescription medication to help control my higher than normal uric acid levels which can lead to gout attacks if unchecked, alongside a host of other issues that have recently been causatively linked to hyperuricemia. I’m working with my doctor and getting bloodwork done on a regular basis to get the dosage dialed in. So far, it hasn’t helped me avoid any attacks (in similar fashion to the last time I went this route), but it’s early days yet and we’re still at the minimum dosage.

Ultimately, the goal is to be able to get back to the same kinds of activities I enjoyed before all this shit started. I want to get back to trail running, Spartan Races, and the high-intensity explosive work in the gym that I love to do.

It’s possible, however, that things will never be quite the same with my feet, but I won’t know that unless I try all the things I can to fix the issue first. If I’m not successful with that, I’ll have to reassess and figure out what to do, but I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.

So, I’ve got a productive path forward that will allow me to “Walk The Talk” in a slightly different way than I used to. We’ll see where that gets me. ;)