A Walkabout

I was out walking in the neighborhood on Sunday, the weather was perfect, and I was loving it. 

I started thinking of days when I'd be walking home from the train when we first moved here. It's about 3/4 of  mile, and easy neighborhood terrain. 

You'd think.  

The tiny little hills on the streets would crush me on days when I was tired after work. It felt like I was climbing a mountain. 

Especially when it was hot out. Which it is. All the time pretty much.

I hated it.

There was nowhere to stop and rest. No benches or stone walls. It was brutal to me. So I'd stop and breathe and rest, standing on the sidewalk wishing for a stone wall at someone's yard, or a hiking pole like I'm some sort of Appalachian Trail hiker, to just take a load off and be patient and kind to my body. I found a couple of places on the walk home, if I changed my route slightly, where I could sit and rest, and then do the next couple blocks.

But now I can walk all over this neighborhood like I own it. No complaining, up and down or straight shots, I've got it. Especially now that it isn't 900 degrees. 

I took two walks on Sunday, technically. I walked 3 blocks up to hit the Pokemon Gym, and realized I didn't have my fitbit on me (it was on the charger). I turned back instead of continuing the way I'd usually go, went to the house, got the fitbit on, and then walked 20 something minutes on a different route to get some time on the fitbit. Then before dinner, I went back up the street to the Pokegym to get that time I lost out on. It is 10 or 11 minutes up and back, pretty much. So I got the 30 minutes total I was looking for.

My friend darling Alex has been hiking a lot of mountains and trails over the past couple years. He posts his trips and pictures on Instagram and Facebook, and I'm blown away by what he does. All the 4000 foot peaks he crushed that over two summers. Then this summer he did the "Pemi Loop," which is supposed to be a "multi" day hike but he did it in one day, which is madness.  A few weeks ago, he went to Colorado, and did 13k and 14k footers. Coming up there from sea level, it's good that he's done a lot of hiking here in the East because even when I was there to see Guster in 2021, the altitude in Colorado is something you can feel right at the outset of being there. He said he felt it, but, handled it. And I'm so proud of him. 

I feel inspired by my friends when they do big things. If Alex can hike 5 hours of mountains and go up over 3 or 4 4000 ft peaks in a day. I can walk up the street, right? 

These aren't steps up a 4000 foot mountain but every day I get off my ass and do the "Dedicated 10" is better than any day I do not.

I took a picture of a rose on my walk today. Too bad you can't smell it. You can smell these a half a block away. Fantastic.

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+32!
22 min walk inside. 22 min walk outside. 44 min total. 

blood glucose: 
8:15am: 163
5pm: 153
9:30pm:173

food:
coffee, water
9am: 2 chocolate chip cookies
10:30am: 2 good yogurt (cherry)
noon: Metformin; Tuna salad with celery on 647 bread
2:30pm: 2 celery stalks w/peanut butter
3:30pm: hostess ding dong
5pm: 2 chocolate chip cookies; metformin+jardiance
6:30pm: Bowl of chili with scoop of sour cream and shredded colby jack.
8:30pm: a couple fritos, scooped into some chili while cleaning up from dinner