The first step is the toughest.

This week I have decided that I needed to get myself in shape. A lot of factors come into play in this decision, namely I'm old and out of shape. In three years, I will be the same age my dad was when he passed away. That is not the tradition that I want to repeat for my family. So this week I started walking again. I used to enjoy walking as it is fun and cheap. You only need a good pair of shoes and a long road. Now it has been a while since I walked very much maybe 10 years or so. I knew that I could not start off with the five or plus miles that I used to do. I decided on about a mile. That seemed reasonable to me. My daughter decided that she would go with me to keep me company and I enjoy spending time with her.

So here we go! I started off at about 3 or 4 miles an hour which is a good brisk walk. After about a tenth of a mile, I was huffing and puffing. At about the halfway point, there was profuse sweating and the thought of "am I going to make it?" Yes, I was determined I was going to make it. It was only a mile after all. People walk that far for a cigarette, or at least we were led to believe that in the commercials growing up. Yes, it was a beautiful day. Weather was in the 70's, you could smell spring in the air, hear the birds, and I had spots before my eyes. Now that's variety! A neighbor drove by and started talking with us, just neighborly chit chat sort of thing. Kinda glad that he did as it gave me the opportunity to stop for a few minutes and catch my breath. Turns out that my mile is about 1.8 miles. I have no sense of distance at all. After a week of this, I can do this course pretty well now, and my state of mind has improved.

Should someone that reads this start an exercise program, I would say go have a physical exam and talk with your doctor about it first. I don't think those spots before the eyes was a good symptom. Eventually I will increase the distance that I walk little by little until I am back at 5 miles a day. Might be 6 months down the road or so. Then again, I have no sense of distance.