Strolling...

2008 - Stroll - 36x60

A few Xmas's ago, actually 10-15 ago, I was gifted with a fun sweatshirt which announced that I was a: Mouse Potato! Back then, most women of a certain age had 'real' lives which had nothing, or very little, to do with computers (which advertised finer points for ladies as the ability to file recipes easily.)

Fast forward to today and I find my 'mouse potato' tendencies have mushroomed. Aside from time given to family and career, I have caved to the computer beast to the point of being a slave... a frozen, motionless... slave.

Not complaining about the slave part... hey! I learn stuff! I LOVE learning stuff! It's the motionless part that must be corrected. Living with a sports nut (a ranked Master swimmer with big baskets of medals,) mother and grandmother to avid sports persons of all ages, plus the current ongoing periphial Olympics throughout the house, make me even more aware of my lack of daily movement. Gotta do something about that!

My 'sport' is walking. When we lived at the lakehouse back in the early 80's, I walked the 2.5 hilly miles around the lake every morning... even ran part way. When we moved to NOLA, I walked the neighborhood and golfcourse early every morning... doing 3 miles in under 45 minutes and hardly breaking a sweat. I was in my 40's and never looked or felt better!

Somewhere along the way, I kinda let it slide... and slide. When we moved to Alabama, I signed up for aerobics at the Y... I was keeping up pretty well but began to develop hitches in my get-a-long... to the point that physical therapy was needed for both foot and shoulder... so the Y was forsaken... I don't suffer indoor track loops very well, the a/c is nice but I gotta see a change of scenery! The hills here are too steep for casual walking, though frequent steep repeats at the lake house has paid dividends in my ability to climb without pause or passing out.

Purpose of this post? My committment to do more walking. I was going to proclaim that with every post, I would add a PS noting my most recent walk, be it a simple hill repeat from the bottom of our cul-de-sac (it's a very steep hill!) or a trip to a near by walking trail. I was even going to count a fast buggy push up and down every aisle at Wal-Mart... but no... I'll forgo the details and make it a private committment... trusting that I will follow through. You do trust me, don't you?

They say exercise helps stimulate memory... remind me if I forget...

(Was having a time coming up with a title for above painting but it seems to fit the current commitment to self improvement...)