A major milestone on the road

If you’ve been keeping track wit my posts, you might think I’m ready to report I have found a new advisor.  Yeah, I wish!  But what I have to share is for me still a major accomplishment.

Like many people, I’ve been struggling with weight loss.  I spend way too much time sitting in front of screens.  In an effort to move more and contribute to my weight loss efforts, I’ve been establishing the habit of walking in the morning before breakfast.  I started with 10 minutes.  Then when that became easy, I added an extra 30 seconds.  When that became easy, I went to 11 minutes.  And thus I went.  I haven’t walked every day, though that was my intention.  But after missing a day (or two or three) I always came back around and picked up where I left off.

Well, today I walked for a full 30 minutes.  This is a major milestone for me, because the next step is not walking for 30 minutes and 30 seconds.  The next step is replacing 30 seconds of the walking with running.  The step after that is replacing another 30 seconds of walking with running.  And thus is goes until I am running for the full 30 minutes.  What I did this morning is reach the transition point between walking and running.

I’m not sure when the running will start.  My body was aching as I reached that half hour mark, and I’m not certain how long I’ll need to work through it.  I’m debating introducing a longer rest period between walks so that my body can recover better, because trying to exercise when you haven’t completely recovered is just not smart.  You’re wearing your body down while it’s still partially worn down.  Then again, I’m not trying to build muscle with my walking.  I’m trying to improve circulation as well as secure the other benefits of cardio exercise.

Plus I remember when I used to run and how much I loved it.  I want to get back to that, and I want to do more than I ever thought I could do before.  My walking is a transition from where I am to where I want to be.  Doing just a little more each time and picking myself back up every time I fell down has brought me to this milestone, and I’m confident that doing just a little bit more in each of the days ahead will bring me to even more milestones ahead!

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