IWalkEveryDay

Back in the saddle.  Went down the road after breakfast.  Beautiful spring day. Found the first flowers of spring in a marshy area.  Little yellow things the girls call dandelions, but aren’t.

I didn’t have easy access to the internet during our travels (OH, WV, NC and home via D.C. and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry).  Walks varied from suburban landscapes through ticky-tacky houses, to pacing inside during ice storms, to wooded NC gravel roads, to the beach in Cape May, NJ.  I missed 3 days – Christmas Eve and 2 travel days. 

 The cool thing I’ve noticed is that now when I get up and start walking across a room, I can feel my body ramping up.  I start to move, and my body starts to put it in gear.  Without thinking about it, my pace picks up and I feel ready to go-girl-go.  If I’m just going across the room to pick up a book or grab a load of laundry, I have to pull back and consciously stop.  If not, I’d be ready to go out the door or start doing laps across the house. 

It’s nice to feel motivated, without trying.

Back on daily posts, as of today.

We’re getting ready to leave for 2 1/2 weeks for the holidays, and the girls had their Christmas pageant at school.  Consequently, it was a busy day.

I came home from the pageant and hopped back to work on some client things I need to get out tomorrow.  Once again, I didn’t get a walk in before dark.  But this time, I remembered earlier and made good on my promise to myself to walk somehow.  So, after the girls were in bed, I paced around the house. 

I had some things I was still gathering for the trip, so I had some back and forth for that.  At times when I stopped to put something away, I’d keep moving my legs.  But mostly, I walked – even reading a book for quite a while, since the scenery in the house isn’t nearly as interesting as outside. 

It was interesting how after only a couple of minutes of constant motion you feel different than you do normally moving about.  It seems like I move around a good bit during the day.  But I stop and start.  I’ve realized that it’s not often that I keep moving without interruption for more than a minute or two.  I may be moving around for 10 or 15 minutes picking things up or unpacking from a trip, but there are always little breaks in the action.  It’s neat how staying moving feels.

The really cool thing is, I remembered, and I walked. Click!

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.

How soon good intentions go awry!  I fell off the wagon yesterday, so to speak.  It was around 3:30 and I got a call from a client that kept me on the phone until after dark.  I told myself I’d walk for 20 minutes in the house or in the yard, throwing in a few stair climbs for fun.  After supper and putting the girls to bed, I jumped back into work to prep for a meeting the next day.  At 10:00 p.m. I quit and went to bed.  As I was reading a Judge Dee novel to put myself to sleep, I realized I hadn’t walked.  Lesson learned – walk earlier in the day, at the first chance you get.

 On the bright side, I did walk a bit delivering holiday party fruits and veggies to my daughter’s classroom.  Her class is at the end of a long building, so I got in 5-6 minutes of walking doing that.  But, I’m back on the horse today and going out as soon as I post this.  (Mixing my metaphors.)

It got to be 4:20 and I wasn’t finished with what I wanted to get done before walking.  But dusk was coming soon, so instead of putting it off until tomorrow, I stopped, went downstairs and walked. 

Gray and rainy.  Yesterday, it was in the low 20’s. Today, up to the low 40’s.  All the snow is melting and there’s mist in the woods and over the pavement of the road.  Very beautiful in a minimalist sort of way.  Went just beyond the curve from yesterday.

It was nice walking in the light rain.  The sound of the raindrops on the umbrella, alternating with the heels of my boots hitting the sand on the road, was soothing. 

Tomorrow I’ve got to try lacing the Sorel’s. I’m guessing I’ll want to use hiking books or something less bulky than the snow boots.  But these are warm and have good traction.  The downside is that they’re too big (great for slipping on and off quickly, but they tend to pull my socks down and make walking harder).  Actually tying them might help, or hikers might be the answer.  I’ll keep experimenting. 

 I feel great.  I can feel my breath going deeper in my chest when I’m at rest.  I tend to be a shallow breather, unless I focus on it.  It will be great if this leads me to breath deeper without thinking about it.

Walked to the curve just before the last hill.  Chilly out and was in down, wool hat and Sorel’s.  Hadn’t walked for 5-6 days.  Boots felt heavy and left thigh/calf especially were achey from the get-go. 

 Snow on the ground, beautiful woods views.  Just past the first drive I felt a thump-thump on my gloved-fingers and found the neighbor’s dog just behind me.  She walked the rest of the way with me.

 Played outside in the snow with the girls after getting back – I’d told them I’d be gone 20 minutes and if they were dressed and ready to go when we got back, we’d play.  Lo and behold, they were in the kitchen in snowsuits and boots when I got back! 

I helped El on with her mittens.  She asked me about my walk.  I told her it was nice and that I was going to walk every day – that I hadn’t told anyone but her and  she should ask me every night if I had walked.  She wanted to share it with Emily and I told her we would in a few days.

I stretched reaching down to my toes 3-4 times as the girls tried to make snowballs (too powdery) and sledded.  Then I walked through the yard to the shed and pulled El up and down the slight hill 2 times, so I got a fun cool-down.  Felt so energized that I remembered to do the yoga moves for my shoulder right before bed.

 Great start to my new lifestyle.