Walking a New Year’s resolution

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January 20, 2010

By ALISA MAYSEY The Glasgow Daily Times Wed Jan 20, 2010, 10:00 AM CST

GLASGOW — I don’t get enough exercise. Truthfully, I don’t get any exercise unless you count going up and down stairs at home and at school as exercise.

I’ve felt a little guilty about this lack of exercise for a while now. I mean, I’m not getting any younger, and all the studies say that we must get some exercise if we want to stay healthy. And alive.

Our family has toyed with the idea of joining the Y or Extreme, but that would mean we’d have to pack everybody up and actually go there, which would mean we’d be away from home even more than we already are.

Several of my friends keep healthy by walking regularly, and every once in a while Jeff and I walk together in our neighborhood. When we return, the kids are usually arguing, so that’s why we don’t walk regularly—that and the cold weather and the fact that it’s usually almost dark when we get home at the end of our work/school day.

I wanted to make exercising my new year’s resolution, but since I usually don’t keep them I was afraid that making exercise an official “resolution” would doom me to failure.

So I didn’t do anything about exercising except think about it a lot.

And finally I asked Jeff if we could get a treadmill. Having a treadmill in my house would mean all my obstacles (excuses?) would fade away. I wouldn’t have to pack everyone up and spend time away from home at a health club. Nor would I have to try to walk in the dark or cold temperatures. If I had a treadmill, I could exercise in the comfort of my own home.

Because my husband is wonderful (and afraid of becoming a single dad when his non-exercising wife drops dead of a heart attack), he used one of his snow days to shop for exercise equipment. And now we have an elliptical and a treadmill—in our living room/family room.

Now don’t laugh at my husband. I wanted the exercise equipment in the living room. I knew I would be more likely to use it if I saw it multiple times each day, and it turns out I was right.

So far, I have walked on my new treadmill 4 days in a row, which is an exercising record for me. I walked very slowly for about 15 minutes on day 1 and ended up going about half a mile. Day 2 I went ¾ a mile in 23 minutes.

My goal for day 3 was a mile, so I decided to read to pass the time more quickly. Before I knew it, I had walked for 32 minutes and logged a whole mile.

By day 4 the new had worn off, but the motivation to continue this new exercise regime hadn’t. I set out on day 4 to do another mile, but this time I forgot to grab my book. After about 5 minutes I found myself totally bored, and I couldn’t imagine continuing to walk for another 25 minutes.

Just after I reached the ¾ mile mark I decided to crank up the speed to get in my mile more quickly. I was flying, and if I had been able to keep up that pace for a couple more minutes, I would have gotten in that mile on day 4. Instead, I pulled something in my back.

I know you’re thinking that’s the end of my story—that I allowed my back to become yet another obstacle (excuse) to avoid exercising. If you’re thinking that, you are wrong.

I’m composing this article on day 5, and I plan to walk for 15 minutes at a slow pace as soon as I type the last period at the end of the last sentence. On day 6, depending on how my back is coming along, I will walk somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes on my new treadmill.

And now I’ve made my new year’s resolution public. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Contact Alisa Maysey at alisamaysey(at)yahoo.com

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