Walking

I've been walking for pretty much a year now. It's been an interesting learning curve. I got started walking when we ended up having only one vehicle. It seemed like not that big a deal to walk home from work each day. I didn't want to have to live by my husband's schedule for when he could pick me up. I soon learned that I loved the solitude of that hour after school. I walked through the entire year. I wasn't sure it was possible, but I learned it is surprisingly quite possible to walk all year round where I live.

For the last six weeks I've kind of fallen off the band wagon. I wanted to see how many months I could string together 100 km/month. I only got two in. We got a second vehicle and while I had promised myself I'd continue walking to or from work, I haven't. It's just so convenient to take the van for the ten minutes it takes to drive there versus the hour to walk. I told myself I'd get up early and walk - but it seems that morning seminary and early swim practices have the best of me. There's no getting up earlier to fit anything else in. I could have done it after school, but kids activities, evening engagements and more pushed that out. It's almost summer and my schedule is much more free and so I plan to do a lot of walking this summer. Once again I will have to figure out how to continue the trend in the fall. I'm not going to worry about that just yet.

The other funny thing is that I started a group on Facebook. A couple gals at work wanted to join me in the 100 km/month goal. We decided we'd keep ourselves accountable by reporting on Facebook. Then a few more people joined, and a few more. It got to be a much larger group than I'd ever planned on. Bizarre! Now there are a bunch of keeners on there who seem to get to 100 by the 20th of the month easily - and it drives me crazy! It's totally de-motivating to me. So strange. I'd leave the group if I hadn't started it. I pretty much just watch it, rather than participate now.

The experts say you should find a friend to exercise with. That did help me last summer, for sure. However, I've always known I am pretty much a solitude exerciser. Even when I've gone through spurts where I attended exercise classes, I really wasn't much into the social aspect of it. When I go to a gym I put on head phones and live in my own world. I'm the same with walking. A few people have tried to get me to walk with them. Now and then I can fit it in, but mostly I haven't had time and really would rather walk on my own anyway.

This summer my goal is to walk at least 6 km daily, and will try for 10. I also plan to add in some yoga and weights. I've lost some weight this year and toned up, and would like to get to a new level. I've remained pretty much the same for about six months - so I'm grateful to have the time and space to take it up a notch. Yea to summer!