One Foot in Front of the Other

I've always wished I could snap my fingers, find myself with the figure I'd like to have, and get on with life. There are more important things to think about, you know? That's impossible, of course, but that's never stopped me from wishing I could make it so... As I was walking today - had to get those 30 minutes in - it occurred to me that as nice as that kind of magic would be, it wouldn't equip me in any way to maintain the weight loss. I'd snap back to where I am now in no time. Just like with the housework. Even if I could magically have a spotless house overnight, I wouldn't be able to keep it clean if I hadn't learned how to keep house. There's no way around the learning process.

That's the thought that kept me putting one foot in front of the other today. My walks may be the long way 'round to a great figure, but for now 5 walks per week x 30 minutes = 150 minutes = the minimum weekly aerobic exercise recommended for a healthy adult (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans).

Once upon a time, walking was more a matter of daily function than it was a special kind of workout women needed to fit into their lives. I always think of the 1940s as an era when long rambles through the countryside or the park were popular weekend entertainment. Of course, walking was part of the workaday routine for just about everybody. Whenever possible, women walked to do their marketing, to pay a call on the next farm down the road, to make one appointment or another. If the distance was too far for city dwellers or suburbanites, they'd walk to a point where they could pick up a bus or streetcar. Cars were around, but they were used much more sparingly as the war continued. Many ended up on blocks when the last set of tires gave out and - for those with cars still in working order - gas rationing and the ban on pleasure driving must have made any kind of unnecessary automobile travel seem unpatriotic. Walking most places was a way of life, so a regular low-impact aerobic workout came along quite naturally with getting from point A to point B.

Living in a city with public transportation, there are certainly some very environmentally friendly ways that I could make less use of my car. My workplace is just a walk, bus ride, and walk away from home. The grocery store where I do my shopping on Wednesday evenings is just a short walk from where I live. My eye doctor and dentist, even my bank, are quite close to home as well. If I was ready to make some radical changes in that direction, walking could definitely serve a somewhat more functional role in my daily routine.

In practically every other place where I've lived as an adult, though, this wouldn't have been at all possible. This urban sprawl we've visited upon our landscape has left us so far from every place else we need to be that walking isn't even an option. Instead we commute. We drive great distances to work and to play, to shop and to worship --- even to get to a gym, a track, or a yoga studio where we can get the exercise that used to be a more functional part of our everyday lives. Full circle in a distorted kind of way.

So this is how I find myself here, in 2009, stretching to find ways to fit a walk into my life. Trying to find the thirty minutes needed to schedule a walk and planning a drive to the park in order to get some exercise on the weekends. I will do what has to be done in order to lose this weight, but it's appropriate, I think, to stop and reflect on how we've changed. (Maybe even to lay out some plans for the future.) How backwards this way of life would have seemed to my '40s counterpart! Going to such lengths just to walk.