Great walk. It snowed last night and into this morning. Everything was covered in snow. The plow had been through, so it was easy walking. It felt good to be out. I am blessed to live in such a beautiful area.
The Sorel’s are much easier to walk in with the laces done. (Duh!) Best with all 4 eyes laced up – I did only 3 on the right foot. When I tied them, I bent over with my legs straight to stretch and it felt great. So lacing the boots instead of my usual slip on will help me get stretches in at the beginning and end of the walk.
As I was walking, I thought about increasing pace, increasing distance, moving on to other more strenuous exercises as I get back into shape. But really, what I want is a bit of solitude and motion every day. Those other things don’t fit the bill. I may add something else in the future, but I want to keep walking, too.
I’ve often felt inadequate with my exercise because I wasn’t fast enough or didn’t go far enough. I think there is a fallacy in our culture we’re all inculcated with. We idolize and want to emulate the rock-hard athletes that break records and devote their life to winning in their sports. Not just the winners, although winning is very important in our culture, but also the ones that are truly “good” – in shape, muscular, young, athletic, never seem to break a sweat.
But what we really need for people to improve their health is just baby steps. Get up and move, even if it is only for 20 minutes, even if it is slow compared to the athletes you read about in magazines and see in on TV. Most everyone will not be a Lance Armstrong. But they can feel so much better if they just move.
It’s like the issues of body image women face. They see ultra slim, beautiful models and actresses in the media. Companies market to them in incredible number of things to help them fix problems of the media’s creation. Many girls and women end up believing the hype that beauty is a narrow band as shown on TV an the movies. (See GET DOVE LINK)
Similarly, people feel like they are plain and homely in a fitness way if they aren’t running 10 miles or cycling for 50. I remember seeing a heavy-set woman, probably in her late ’60’s, riding one of those adult tricycles at a leisurely pace down a Florida road. My first reaction was to laugh, because we’re not conditioned to admire heavy people or people moving slowly on unusual, uncool equipment. But after that first impulse, I moved to admiration. Because she was out. She didn’t care what anybody else thought. She was doing something she enjoyed and doing it at her own pace. And she was doing it.
Not everything has to be a race and striving to beat some perceived goal.