walk at least three times a week

This goal seems like an odd place for this update, but since this is where the discussion started, the update goes here, too.

A second “at home” day today, one of two this week, tomorrow being the other, and yes, a second successful marital communing session! BTW, friends, it was raining! OK, OK, I come clean. It wasn’t actually raining, but it was foggy (fog is teeny little, non-falling rain, right?), which is good enough for me! ;-) (right vix?)

I think this “found time” or, more accurately, “made time” approach is going to be helpful, and mutually beneficial, to our marriage, not to mention fun. I highly recommend it.

albeit slowly….

My SO is not a man who likes to exercise. He works from home, so on days that I’m home, we mutually co-exist without much interaction, certainly (or rarely) anything of a physical nature. This morning I asked my SO if he would like to indulge in a quick walk (30-45 minutes) after the kids left for school. Surprisingly, he agreed. So we walked, and talked, and caught up in a way that evenings and weekends seem to defy. After about forty minutes of brisk walking, I made a bolder suggestion, that we make this a regular part of our “at home” mornings. In other words, we schedule 30-45 minutes of walking once the pre-school prep is completed, the kids on their way. I fully expected reluctance to rear its ugly head, or at best a resounding “we’ll see,” but he said Yes. Definitely. This could be an opening for all sorts of healthy pursuits, most importantly communication and shared time. And the burning of calories, raising of heart rates, working of muscles, doesn’t hurt either! And who knows, on rainy days, alternative indoor exertion might just be in order. ;-)

Thursday my SO came to me when I was writing, looking for some attention. He asked me if I wanted to take some time out of a busy work day (for both of us) to go out to lunch. I had been planning on using my self-declared lunch break to get in an hour of walking, but he looked so cute, how could I turn him down? After all, a woman’s gotta eat, no? So I made a deal: we would go out to lunch … if we walked there. The place we had in mind is about 1-3/4 miles from our house, so I threw on my sneakers and we began hoofing it. The day was warm but sunny, a cool breeze like a gift from time to time. We talked, laughed, and reconnected our way to Panera, where we had a quick salad, grabbed some water, and walked home again, over three miles of walking built into an otherwise sedentary stuck-in-front-of-the-computer kind of day. And I scored some quality time with my SO to boot. OK, so it’s not exactly a workout, but adding physical activity is a start, and a new way of thinking about time is never a bad thing. Now I’m looking for other ways to build walks, or other exercise, into these packed,sedentary days, but in a larger sense, ways to build more activity into my family life, my marriage. Hmmm. Next step: workout sex? ;-)

I’m just giving into peer pressure. I said I have too many goals, so cluricaune suggested I nix this one and just walk as part of exercising regularly. This is to make room for a reading related goal (even though now I do have space for both). I still want to keep walking, just tidying the list up a bit.

This goal is easy when you have the week off work!

Next week is a different story, but its good to remind myself how nice it is to prioritize this.

I had originally had the goal to walk every day, even though i thought that would not be realistic. Basically, I just want to walk as much as possible. But I decided to make the goal a bit more realistic. Its going to be a busy fall. So I feel bad for any cheers I have gotten on this previously, but the sentiment is still the same.

I am not sure if the every day part of this goal makes it hard to achieve, but really I think this is an excellent goal. Even if it is just a short walk, I want to make an effort to do this every day. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a walk and said “Man, I’m sorry I did that.” I’m not going to be mad at myself on days I don’t do this—just be happy on days that I do.