About a month before my 41st birthday, I decided I wanted to feel better. Feeling better to me did not necessarily involve losing weight or fitting into a particular dress size; I have never defined myself by those numbers anyway. Feeling better meant I wanted to be a bit healthier, sleep a bit better, and most importantly, not have my knees and ankles hurt so much when doing jumps in tap class. This was the big thing I had begun to notice, that I had stopped doing jumps in tap class because my knees and ankles hurt so much when I landed. I wanted to change that.
In connection with that goal, I knew I needed to make some changes in what had become my routine. I also know myself, and I know that if I make too many changes all at once, I'll never keep them up. So I decided to change one thing at a time. The first month (August) I decided to get more exercise. I began a 6-Week walking program and I have stuck to the program for the six weeks. I may have shifted the days of the week for the walks (due mainly to inclement weather), but I did the walks each week. Sunday marked the last day of the program, with a 5K walk. I am sure they mean a competitive race, but I'm not a competitive person and, frankly, crowds make me very nervous, so I just went for a walk of 5 kilometers around my neighborhood. My only goal is to feel better, finishing before someone else I've never even met and will never see again is not important to me.
My new iPod has a pedometer app[lication] and according to it, my first walk was .61 miles, took 12 minutes at an average pace of 2.92 mph. According to my iPod pedometer, my 5K walk was 3.14 miles and took 57 minutes at an average pace of 3.3 mph. I'm not sure how those numbers stack up to average, and in truth I don't care. They improved and that's what matters to me. When I took swimming in college, the majority of our grade was dependent on how we improved over the course of the semester. I liked that, not if we made the swim in what the professor felt was an acceptable time, but if we improved our own personal time from the beginning of the class to the end. My averages improved over the 6 weeks.
But more importantly, I feel better. I'm sleeping better and I have noticed that my knees and ankles do not hurt as much when I land jumps in tap class. I'm feeling better. The fact that my clothes are fitting better is just lagniappe.
