Keeping Up Appearances (Or Not)

One of the prettier things on a walk.

Alright, friends. Exercise is ugly business.

Yesterday, I was leaving our subdivision (via car), and there were these two 20-something young women speed-walking down the sidewalk. They were adorable. Bouncy ponytails, matching outfits, barely breaking a sweat - I bet their legs were even shaved.

So why is it that when I walk, I look like I feel like some sort of porpoise shoved into spandex? (Hey, it used to be a whale, so that's progress!) I bought some cute-colored exercise gear, down to the bright pink socks. I wear slimming black on the bottom. I have a kicky little headband for my hair. 

Tonight was really a winner (so far) for the category of Ugliest Walk. I left home at Prime Gnat Time. That's right - gnats - really thick along my walking route, getting up my nostrils, getting in my eyes, making me wave in front of my face like some sort of royal idiot who failed waving class. I'm really surprised no one driving by waved back to me. 

Also, it was (apparently) Prime Allergy Time. Snot everywhere. Grossness galore. Sorry, shirt! Sorry, everyone driving by watching me wipe my nose!

And I tried out my new armband phone-holder thingie for the first time tonight. I felt like it would make me feel and look really cool. Mainly, it made me very aware of just how much my upper arms sweat when I walk - the damn thing kept sliding down until I tightened it, and then wondered if I'd cut off circulation in my arm (I didn't). 

I came home and made the mistake of glancing in the mirror. OH THE HORROR. Red face. Hair a gnatty mess. Arms also gnatty. Mosquito bites in some unfortunate places. 

This is not an attractive activity.

In spite of all that, I am so very happy tonight - so very proud of myself for pushing through the gnats and inclines and red-facedness because I walked my furthest distance yet this evening. I scheduled it out, I thought ahead about how far I wanted to go and how long it would take, and then I did it. My walk tonight made me feel - more than ever before - as if achieving a 5K is within my grasp. And that is huge for me.

Sometimes, hard work ain't pretty. But still - worth it in the end!

Patches of Shade

Friends, it is officially hot here in North Texas.

This is only the beginning. We're at June 21st - the beginning of summer meteorologically - and this is only the beginning. Right now, we're hovering right around the 90° mark with a fair amount of humidity, but also nice afternoon breezes. Soon enough, we'll be 10° higher, with more humidity. Soon after that, we'll be 20° higher (a.k.a., "Hell") and the humidity will be...ugh. And the winds will go away. Far, far away.

Why this weather report? Well, here's what I've become in my newly-formed exercising self: an evening walker. I used to exercise in the morning. When I exercised before, I used to drag my butt out of bed, drag myself to the gym, get ready for work at the gym, and then go to work. I felt so damn proud of myself for making all that effort int he morning. Problem is, it didn't stick because I'm not really a morning person. (That's one reason. The other is that I don't really like gyms. I'm more of a coffee shop person in the morning. But I digress...)

So, in this latest charge, I've become an evening walker and I really, really enjoy it. There is something serene about ending my day with the relative serenity of walking and I feel even more proud of myself when I manage to walk off a really poopy day. Turns out exercise is good for body and soul - HUH.

I am blessed that many of my evenings easily allow me to include this exercise. My church folks aren't so much into evening meetings, so those and other evening events are few and far between, and other evening work is usually pretty flexible. (Hallelujah.)

This week, however, we've been hosting our annual Vacation Bible School from 6:30 to 8:45 each evening. It's been a struggle for me, honestly, to figure out meals, let alone exercise. And so while VBS has all been great fun, I have to say that I got to a point this week where I was missing my walks. So, yesterday, I was determined to get in a good walk before VBS. And I did.

Here's the deal: walking at 3pm is much different than 8pm. MUCH. You can be very glad they didn't find me on the side of the road (under the faded sign), lying in a huge pool of my own sweat, because I was truly almost there. (Lesson: hydrate better!) The route I selected - well, I thought it had more shade than it did. I was wrong. Oh well.

Today, undaunted, I struck out again around 3pm. SCREW YOU, SUNSHINE! It felt great - for the first five minutes - and then....UUUUUUGH. I started having visions of being prepared to walk through the desert for miles on end if I needed to... (as if....)

I had decided on more of a neighborhood route than yesterday, chosen on purpose because I knew that a neighborhood would provide more shade. And it eventually did. I found myself walking from patch to patch of shade, relishing the sun when it hit my face and the wind when it blew in my hair. You see, I've never really been much of a hot weather person (even living in Texas almost all my life) - hot weather is for sitting next to or in a pool, not for exercising in, for goodness' sake!

But if I am going to do this - if I'm really going to make this all work for me - I'm going to have to get out there in the daylight sometimes. Yes, we have a treadmill and I use that at times, too. But there is nothing quite like an outdoor walk - nothing like alternating my way along sunny sidewalks and shady patches.

Soon, VBS will be over with and I will reclaim my evening walking time. But I'm really glad I got out there and claimed some of the afternoon sunshine (and shade), too.

"If you see a faded sign by the side of the road..."

I will begin by making my Big Announcement for this week:

I GOT A NEW PHONE!

Like, finally. Like, it's about damn time. 

My old crap phone has been the subject of many discussions and much laughter among my friends, and the subject of some frustration and cussing on my part for the past six months or so. The thing really hardly functioned as a phone, let alone doing anything else these supposedly-smart things are supposed to do.

So, I finally had an upgrade available and so you better believe that I was all over it. With fervor, baby. Send me the iPhone and do it quickly. 

The happiness of owning a phone that actually functions is quite profound. I had forgotten what it was like to have things like Facebook and Twitter actually, you know, work on my phone. I had forgotten what it was like to punch a button on the screen and have the phone call actually, you know, end. Craziness, I tell you.

Imagine my joy at being able to load apps onto the phone that don't make it freeze up or make the battery fizzle out. Imagine my joy at thinking of ways to integrate this new little thing into my life, my routines, my ministry, and - now - even my workouts. SUCH GREAT REJOICING.

I ended up settling on an app that lets me program in different routes and then helps me follow them (remember - still learning my way around some of these places!). Using the computer, I quickly created six or seven different routes based on distances, and when I checked my phone - there they were! When I want to go for a walk/run, I hit "START," a voice confirms that I'm starting, my MOVE! playlist starts, and off I go!

I tried it for the first time tonight. I've had a long day. I mean - long. Fabulous and filled with stuff I loved, but long. How fantastic to be driving home, thinking, "Oh, good! I'll be home in time for a good walk around the neighborhood!" What a change from, "Oh, good! I'll be home in time for...[insert TV re-runs here]!" And because the phone still has that novelty thing going for it, I was excited to try out this new app along with my walk.

The playlist was also a new one for me: newly-set-up this week, not broken in yet at all. I had found lots of good, upbeat music for my playlist and it did, in fact, propel me. 

Until...ugh...I hit a point...

It's hot. It's humid. My leg is starting to tighten up. The mosquitoes are biting. Ugh.

I kept going. And at one point, when I thought I might just fall over, a new song started, a song that instantly made me smile because it took me so. far. back. Like - to LP's, my friends. Because, I did, indeed, at one point, have a long-play record of the B-52's singing "Love Shack."

The song is really quite hilarious. It makes sense and doesn't all at the same time. And there I was, walking along through suburbia, trying not to sing at the top of my lungs, smiling like some crazy person because I remember so many times of belting this song out at the top of my lungs in my room. At school dances. Later, at wedding receptions of friends. 

It lifted me. It seems silly, I realize, to say that about any song from the 1980's. But that song was followed by "Money for Nothing" by the Dire Straits, and I flashed even further back, to the genesis of MTV, the beginning of cable television. And those memories took me all the way home, to my back porch, where I stretched a bit before heading inside.

That's what I'm learning in all this, I guess. Motivation comes from one place, but also a thousand places. It comes from inside, but also a thousand outside places. It comes from my own spirit, pushing me forward, but also from great music, fun memories, supportive friends and family, a helpful phone, and a thousand other places. 

"If you see a faded sign by the side of the road," there I'll be, walking past it, trying not to sing "Love Shack" at the top of my lungs. And smiling like a crazy person.

Momentum

A body in motion tends to stay in motion; a body at rest tends to stay at rest...right?

I guess I'm getting more accustomed to motion. It's been several days since I've walked, and I was starting to get a bit panicked about that tonight. I felt like momentum was trying to slip away from me (or maybe it was walking away?) and so I was bound and determined NOT to let it get away!

We were out running some errands tonight and got dinner out, too. I was dismayed to lose the daylight hours, because I was really in the mood to walk the neighborhood, but didn't really want to after dark. Fortunately for my momentum, we have a treadmill! We came home, I asked Hubby to take care of feeding the dog, I changed my clothes and shoes, and went upstairs for 36 minutes and 1.53 miles plus stretching.

It felt great!

I came downstairs and needed to make a pronouncement. This is what Hubbies are for, right? Pronouncing things to? I set it up just right..."Honey, I need to tell you something and I need you to realize that it might not be a big thing for you, but for me, it is..."And he stopped and waited...

"I jogged for a full minute and a half," I announced.

That didn't garner any real joyful enthusiasm from him, but before he said anything, he looked at my face. He saw that I was serious. And then he offered his words of loving support.

You really have to love and support people where they're at. Tonight, I jogged a full minute and a half. The part I haven't said yet is that first, I wanted to stop after a minute, but I didn't. I kept going that extra thirty seconds. The second thing is that I really do think that's the longest I've ever run in my life at one time. MAYBE in middle school I ran for that long, but I doubt it. And tonight, I did it.

It felt great!

And so, momentum, you are my friend right now. You are helping me move and I am grateful.