Contemplations as I Walk
Recently, I started exercising to lose weight, get healthy, and have more energy. My exercise of choice? Walking. I started the summer strolling the neighborhood for a half an hour with my husband after dinner and have now graduated to fifty minutes around a meandering trail at a nearby park in the morning after I drop my daughter off at school. During those fifty minutes I don't find myself communing with nature. Here are some of the things I think about.1. Grape Nuts Trail Mix Cereal. I should probably eat breakfast before walking.
2. Mommies with strollers mostly travel in groups of two, three, and even four. The loners tend to be runners with flat stomachs and cute exercise togs, and yes, they do lap me.
3. Are the people who walk against the flow British? Or are they just rebels, who enjoy interrupting the flow?
4. Should I or should I not buy that cute violet charmeuse blouse I saw the other day?
5. What will I do if one of the guys with a weedwacker on the Prison Work Detail throws down his equipment and, weilding some shank, tries to take me as a hostage? Elbow to the solar plexis? Knee him in the groin? Hey, that could be the opening of some romantic suspense. Why didn't I bring my notepad and pen?
6. Only two more laps. I can do it. I can do it faster. Cue music to the Six Million Dollar Man theme.
7. Why does my excess mass come off my neck first? I'd really prefer it to come off my butt. I think I probably need to add some weight training to my routine to build muscle mass and burn more calories.
8. No, what I really need is to memorize my pitch before the conference. My stomach lurches. I hate face-to-face pitching to editors and agents. I much prefer the anonymity of letters or e-mails.
9. Maybe I don't want cereal.
What do you think about when you exercise?
posted by Mo H @ 9:05 AM
6 Comments:
I usually don't think about anything. My exercise of choice is the elliptical. I just get right on the machine with my MP3 player, listen to my anger music, and go into the zone.
When I walk, it's with my best friend and we usually just talk about whatever.
A couple of other teachers at my school started a Kettlebell Club (which our district loves, because we're providing a Staff Wellness activity). We meet for 30-45 minutes after the contract day Monday thru Thursday.
It's heart-racing, sweat-inducing work. Usually I'm thinking "God, I can't wait for this to be over" or "Hot. My arms look so much better than they used to."
Dev,
I bet talking with your best friend makes the time pass quickly!
Kate,
So what's a Kettlebell Club?
When I exercise, I usually think about how big Denise Austin's eyes are. I mean, let's face it folks, she can probably see all the way through the tv to tell me if I'm not doing something right. Then, after I obsess about eye size, I usually settle on something like she is absolutely insane if she thinks I can do this that fast. I try, but by the time I get some of the routine she changes it.
Maybe one day I will get the right speed. That is probably why her eyes bulge out. She probably thinks she won't make it. I know I wonder that each time :)
I tend to listen to podcasts on my iPod when I walk. It makes the walk go faster when I don't actually think about the walking. Wish we lived close enough to go walking together.
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