I just noticed that my last blog post was a little bleak, and yet today although I’m still faced with several of the same ongoing challenges … dare I say I’m actually feeling pretty ok?
I think I attribute almost all of it to exercise, believe it or not. Last weekend I took Ollie for our first walk doing the old 3.5 mile loop around our neighborhood that Cleo and I used to take long ago before the kids were born, and even though we were both definitely dragging by the time we found our way back home about 80 minutes later, it was a profound sense of accomplishment that I haven’t felt about really anything physical in a long time!
It certainly helped that afterwards I took a dip in the pool – all by myself … in 86 degree water – which is a bit less than the 90 degrees that I’ve been enjoying with the kids during the day, but after a long walk dripping with sweat and muscles aching, it was pretty much the perfect way to wrap up an evening.
In fact, last night I did my second walk after resting for a couple of days and despite the air being a little cooler, it was still pretty freaking awesome – there was actually steam coming off of the water while I was floating around because the water itself was 85 degrees while the air was something like 65!
Anyways, one thing I realized while I was unwinding last night was all of the benefits that taking the time to do this even just a couple of days a week gave me. I’ve made a couple of chapters’ progress in the book that I’m listening to, which itself is also inspirational. It’s given me time to decompress my brain and work through problems while I’m walking. It’s also just really relaxing, with blissful quiet and the stars twinkling overhead.
Plus, needless to say Ollie loves it! Saturday night we saw some deer that really threw him off guard, and last night we saw some cranes just chilling in a pond by the sidewalk and he didn’t know what to make of them. 🙂
I think it’s helping to put me in a better headspace to take on other challenges throughout the day, as well as be more conscious about what I’m eating, which is important because I really need to lose weight at this point.
But I’m trying to take it nice and slow, without expectations of trying to walk every other day or even on specific days of the week. My life in general is very dynamic right now, so if I can plan out most of my day the night before, there’s a chance it might actually turn out that way. And I figure if over the course of a week, I can fit in maybe 2-3 walks in the evenings … or even during the day once it starts getting cooler at night … once I build up a decent routine that seems like it’s working, I can always try to supplement it with some time on the elliptical or even swimming laps out in the pool.
We’ll see what happens between now and whenever I feel inspired to write my next post! 😉