126 and then some

I walked 2.2 miles this evening with my dog so I passed the 126 miles goal.  Now to decided whether or not to keep track of miles walked or just do it.....hmmmmm

.3 to Marco

I walked 3 times around the neighborhood today for a total of 6.6 miles.  Leaving only .3 to Marco.

An established new healthy habit.

53.2 to Marco was the mileage last logged in this blog.  I've missed 3 days walking between December 12 and today.  I'm going to attempt to add up how much I've walked in that time by looking through facebook - whatever the number, I've been walking a lot and LOVING it!!  Last night I walked 7 miles (1.5 - chatted with a neighbor for 30 minutes) and then the rest...my stamina is improving.  My feet are also burning - definitely need to investigate buying new fabulous sneakers.  I tried on an obscenely expensive pair but may go for it - I've run a bit and skipped a bit but it burns the balls of my feet with the current shoes.

December 13 - 0 miles
December 14 - 0 miles
December 15 - 3.5 miles(Walk in the rain with the dog and lots of pictures)
December 16 - 4.4 miles(Texture walk - lots of pictures)
December 18 - 4.4 miles
December 19 - 11 miles (in segments 2.2+2.2+2.2+4.4)
December 20 - 4.4 miles
December 21 - 5 miles - part on the beach with my mother
December 22 - 0 miles
December 23 - 7 miles - sunset through dark, part with my dog, part with my dear friend M.
December 24 - 4.4 miles
                     ---------
Total  above  44.1 miles


Here are some of my photos from the walks

December 21 - on the beach -my mother:


Another day - large cactus



Starting the evening walk


Arriving home afternoon walk



The day of the "texture" walk














And a few from the walk in the rain



















To think I would have missed such beauty in nature if I had not walked .  Every walk has become a visual celebration.

OMG only 9.1 to Marco -I'll probably walk again tonight at least 2.2. I am proud of myself, love the walking, feel fantastic and am most happy to learn that a new healthy habit can be created.


What are you doing today to celebrate your life?


7:26 p.m. back from another 2.2 mile walk - took pictures of Christmas Eve in our neighborhood





6.9 to Marco

Just adding to the total

On Thursday I walked in the morning with a friend - she estimated we went approximately 3 miles (I thought/hoped more LOL).  It was fun.  We walked at a quick pace and it was hot and humid.

Last night I walked 4.4 with the dog.

Today I walked 3.5 with the dog.  While walking, 2 pitt bulls and one pitt mix off leash came up and aggressively   greeted my dog...definitely not a comfortable situation and next time I better carry something to be able to protect her from loose dogs.  I'm glad it happened during the day and the owners came out shortly thereafter.  I don't know what I would have done at night in that neighborhood.  I'll stick to my neighborhood at night from now on.

Here are a few pics from today.

and this is next one is just before we got home on our block:

53.2 to Marco

A New Challenge

Yesterday morning I invited a friend to join me at a Yin Yoga class.  I think she really enjoyed it.  The teacher is  peaceful and reminds her students to focus on the present and think about one's intention for that moment or day.  I've been thinking a lot about mindful eating - really being present with the food on my plate.  I admit to eating in front of the computer or while distracted and it does not serve me well.  I also thought a lot about how wonderful it was to be in that gym getting in touch with my body - learning to stretch and feel and find the smallest shift to make the pose comfortable enough.  The class felt like therapy - mind/body/spirit therapy.  When it was over, I stood up and felt as if I was floating - light - unencumbered.  I had let go of the internal chatter and was able to stay present; it was just the perfect way to start the day.

My dear friend Susan and I met up later at Whole Foods with our dogs.  We planned to walk but ended up sitting outside in the fresh air for a couple of hours and lots of people came up to us.  Susan has a gorgeous rescued standard poodle - a pet therapy dog who is just the sweetest, calmest and most gentle of dogs.  Susan and I met in the MSW program and spent our first internship together at a nursing home/rehabilitation facility.  She would bring Monique there and we witnessed transformational miracles when the patients saw and interacted with Monique.

Susan is also very spiritual and she brought some "angel" cards with her and asked if I wanted to ask the angels anything.  We had done this once before and frankly it was amazing how on point the answer was to my question the previous time so I said yes.  Well, the angel cards were on point again.  And this is the second time that Mother Theresa ("Activist") came up for me as my present angel.  I had asked if I would be able to make the shift to becoming a person who eats mindfully.  The cards reveal past, present and future.  Past card had to do with emotions - on point - emotional eating - or not dealing with emotions when eating and distracted.  The future card had to do with love (love myself, my body, those around me...).  Lastly I picked my mantra card - a mantra for the day - "Triumphant".  There are descriptions that come along with each card and more details and it was uncanny how apropos the entire process played out.  After the cards and booklet were put away, we took a little walk with the dogs, I skipped a bit (when's the last time you skipped?) and Susan left to go home and I took my dog to the dog park.

We were at the park for a little while and probably only walked a total of 1 mile yesterday but that was fine - I had also done the yoga class, and my intention with the 126 to Marco is to average 4 miles per day - not to be precise about it.  The dog and I were happy having had lots of fresh air so it was a great day.

This morning I im'ed my friend and asked if it was the king or the queen.  My friend and her husband share the same IM ID.  It was the king but he soon got the queen and lo and behold the queen accepted my suggestion to walk.  She had to be somewhere later in the morning so we just walked once around the neighborhood 2.2 miles.  I skipped for 1/2 block - have to get that heart rate up somehow.

When I got home, my dog was looking at me with those sad eyes that expressed "Mommy, you walked without me?".  I put food in her bowl and tried to get her to eat breakfast before we left but she wanted to leave the house.  I planned a route to go 4.2 miles, brought a backpack with 2 water bottles and a bowl for her, and off we went.

I snapped some pics on the iPhone - the first one was with a large white bird on the top of the roof here - but although you can't see the bird - you can see the sun was shining.

And I took some pictures of flowers and one of papaya growing:

Somewhere around the 2.5 mile marker - when we were about to do a second mile in the neighborhood across from ours, she pulled me to the shade and she plopped down on the grass of a stranger.  She was going to have no part of walking a second time around that neighborhood and back through ours.

We had taken a water/rest break before that.  The heat index was 90 degrees and she's a princess who doesn't like to walk in the heat. So we rested a while and then returned home slowly so she could rest a bit in between when we got to some more shade.  Our walk together was 3.2 miles.

8:36 p.m. - Just got back from another 2.2 miles with Brie.

64.1 to Marco

A Walk Around the Big Block

I love having a destination instead of simply walking in the neighborhood.  We have a little compounding pharmacy about 2.2 miles from our house and they even compound medicines for dogs so they allow dogs inside the store.  I put on a little backpack filled with 2 water bottles and a flat plastic container and took the dog and we started the walk.  This is what the sky looked like overhead at approximately 4:15 in the afternoon - loved the clouds:

Unfortunately on the main road outside of the development, there's no sidewalk, so the dog and I walked down the median until we got to another main road.  I need to teach her not to pull - she doesn't love walking close to me but she loves walking with me.  So we walked and walked and stopped and she had a drink.  They loved her in the store and the best part of all was there was a little girl in theere.  My dog has usually been skittish around children but not this time...I think she's becoming less afraid (maybe after all the road noise and traffic, the quiet, coolness and calm in the store helped).  The little girl put her hand out and Brie licked her's and the little girl's mommy's hand.

When we left the pharmacy, we took the longer route home.  Along the way we found a bird sanctuary area where the egrets were all in the trees at dusk - unfortunately the iPhone camera wasn't able to capture it.  It was amazing though - so many many birds in a little protected wetland.  They were in the trees to the right  and although I deleted the photo because the birds weren't visible, you can almost make out all the white ducks that were on the banks of the water on the left.

We didn't stay too long because it was a little creepy being on that road alone with the dog and we continued on.  I snapped a picture for a friend who loves flowers and I always think of her when walking.  Does anyone know what this is?

Shortly after I took the photo above, I saw two storks on the edge of the water but because it's not permitted to walk on the green of the golf course (especially with a dog) I wasn't able to take their picture.  I really wanted to.  This is taken from google images - but these are the storks we have here.

So we continued and took a long route around the golf course and I was able to discover how to avoid most of the very busy street to get home but still had to hold tight on the dog so she didn't go near the road (again no sidewalks).

So here's the sky above the same trees as the first picture  of this afternoon's walk when we were almost home - clear and welcoming.

It took a long time to walk only 5.1 miles, but it was great.

71.7 to Marco

Embracing the Storm on the Horizon

Yesterday, after challenging myself to go to the mall for an "elfster" gift followed by a trip to Whole Foods for a bunch of Go Raw products (yummo but $$), I decided to head to the beach for a walk.

The beach is 10 miles due east of my house and my parents live across the street from the Atlantic Ocean.  My mother decided she wanted to walk with me so I waited for her to find her sunglasses and the key to let us get into the gate that leads to the beach.  We started our walk by descending 16 flights of stairs at the condo.  We then walked across the street and through the gate and down some stairs towards the beach and upon arriving "Mom" decided she didn't want to walk on the beach because it looked like it was going to rain.  I was determined to get on that beach regardless of the weather (as long as there was no electrical activity in the clouds above).  So I bid her adieu and took off my shoes and socks, left them them under the bench and floated down the rest of the stairs and onto the cool, wet sand.

The wind was blustery.  The ocean was choppy.  There was palpable and strong energy in nature all around.   I took some pictures and video on the iPhone while tuned into some Debbie Friedman (pesach) music which made the whole walk very spiritual.  (You can listen to a few of the songs here:  The Journey , Mi Shebeirach,  Miriam's Song,  Lechi Lach ).  The sky looked different depending upon the direction I faced.

Walking north.

Walking south.

So I managed to walk a little over 2.5 miles total round trip but it was a little harder on the sand and in the water; and absolutely delicious and delightful with the wind roaring around me and keeping me cool, the music loud in my headphones, the birds taking off from the beach, the people in the water kite surfing etc. I trusted my instinct and knew that walking on the beach was the right thing to do even with the ominous clouds in the sky.  I was out there at least 1.5 hours.  I wanted to walk more but when it was apparent there were no other people on the beach and it was getting dark, I headed back.  This was the picture of when I turned around to head towards my parents' condo for the last 10 minutes of the walk.

Going north again.

My 82 year old mother was waiting on the steps for me -  worried about me being on the beach alone near dark..Thanks mom :).

I felt grateful to be alive, to have felt the sand between my toes, the ocean water on my feet and legs, the wind  blow on my skin, to watch the pelicans fly above and the sandpipers run across the beach.

Life was a celebration with a storm on the horizon and my feet in the sand.

76.8 to Marco

Is 52 Too Old to Skip Down the Street? Absolutely Not!

What an amazing walk I just had.  It was starting to drizzle and having not walked the last two days I knew it was time to just get up and go.  I looked at my dog and told her that she had to know it may rain while we're out there - she seemed to not understand (because she hates to get wet) and let me slip the leash on and away we went.  It drizzled, then rained, then drizzled,

then the sun came out and there was a breeze. If we hadn't walked in the rain, I would never have gotten to see the gorgeous hibiscus above - more proof that overcoming the resistance adds to life.

We walked at least 1.5 hours if not longer ( no idea how far we went so I'll underestimate to add to the mileage) in total today.  Cindy Lauper was the music du jour on the iPhone.  We walked 1/2 the usual once around the neighborhood and then ventured out across the main road into another neighborhood and went around twice there.  When we came back into our neighborhood and when we were halfway home a great song came on the iPhone and I just started skipping - I felt as if I was floating and it was so much fun for the little while I managed to do it before my feet were burning and I realized a need for water.

So I came home and looked up skipping as a form of exercise. I can't seem to get comfortable running, but skipping is something I can do. http://iskip.com/blog/  When's the last time you went outside and skipped down the street?  :-) 

I'll estimate 4.4 miles walked so far today.

79.3 to Marco
 4.4 10:00 p.m. - just came back from another 4.4 miles - lovely walking at night.
74 .9 to Marco

Watch Maggie Nesciur

This woman loves to walk and walk and walk.  What an inspiration.  This is a must see/watch/listen.  Maggie Nesciur I so admire you.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html#/maggie_nesciur

Short list re last 2 days

December 1 -

1 hour yin yoga class (10:30 a.m.)
Walked 5.5 miles (sunset and beyond)
Bought vitamins and antioxidants, and filled pill cases for 2 weeks to remember


Dec 2
1 hr power yoga in the morning - whew that was TOUGH.
Walked 3.5 miles in the early evening - had to push myself - was tired but did it anyway.  There was definite resistance that had to be overcome.  It was incredibly humid outside.  The dog never complains ;-).

83.7 to Marco