Another Reason to Take Baby Steps

(I forgot to include my little daisy icon last time I posted.  Sorry!)  Several times in my long and illustrious weight loss career (stop laughing) I've had an experience where I got all gung ho and jumped in full force with a big exercise regimen.  And then I got sick and stopped.

While I know for sure that this is a real phenomena in my own body, I'd never realized there is an actual scientific reason for it.  I didn't even realize it happens to other people.  I thought it was just me and my out of shape self.

Then I read an article the other day about how doing extreme amounts of exercise does, in fact, suppress the immune system.  Thus, making one more likely to suddenly get sick.  (And in my case, give up the exercise.)

Here's an article about it.

Turns out that even athletes, who are used to vigorous exercise, often experience this immune system suppression when they drastically increase the level of intensity of their work outs.  So, I'm just saying, for lil' ol' me, who's used to sitting 16 hours a day, suddenly walking three miles five days a week is a major increase.

So, I'm taking it as another argument for making changes to one's health habits a little at a time.  And this is why I started walking again a few weeks ago, and just did a couple blocks for a few days.  Then I added another block or two every week or so.  (No, it's not because I'm lazy.  Or because I'm just that out of shape.  Well, maybe that's part of it.)

Today I did about 20 minutes all together.  Yes, that seems small, but it's a start.  And I don't want to get sick!

The Dog Who Shares My Walks

No, it's not one of my own dogs.  Usually.

See, Daisy is a puller.  And Daisy is freakishly strong.

Rudy doesn't pull much.  And if he did pull, he's pretty little, so it's not like it's a big deal to keep him under control.  He used to flop around at the end of his leash like a fish, but he got over that.

Anyway, I feel bad that I don't take them when I walk.  And I know there are things you can do to teach dogs how to walk properly.  (EG just had a puppy graduate at the top of her obedience school class, so she assures me, it can be done.)  But when I just want a nice walk, it's too stressful to take a dog who's likely to drag me through a neighbor's yard against my will.

So, I go it alone a lot of times.  And when I do that, there is a neighbor dog who often joins me.  He's a very sweet yellow lab, and when he sees me nearing his house, he runs out to greet me.  We have some petting and ear scratching time, and when he's done with that, he takes off walking, looking behind to make sure I'm following.

We'll walk on that way, and every once in a while he'll stop and ask for more ear scratches, and I'm happy to oblige.  When I turn back towards home, and we get close to his house, he'll trot off back from whence he came.  It's very neighborly.

I hadn't been walking much lately, so I hadn't seen him for a while.  But today when I went out for a stroll, there he came, running out to greet me, tail wagging.  We did our thing for a few steps, but then something happened.

Someone started yelling for him.  I didn't understand the name that was being called, but clearly, he did.  He immediately took off running for home, without so much as a wave of his paw.

I watched him racing toward the chain-link fence surrounding his back yard, and I had a moment of thinking, "Oh, dear.  He's trying so hard to be good and go home, but he's confused as to how to get inside the fence."

Wrong.

I watched this big yellow lab climb a chain link fence.  Just moseyed up to it, and paw over paw, climbed it as easily as you or I would climb a ladder.  Probably more easily.

I'm so glad my dogs don't know how to do that!

Why Did Everything Get so Hard?

I don't know what happened to me, but my whole plan of just relaxing and letting the pounds fall off isn't going great.  Somehow the relaxed philosophy that was working so well for me has turned into stress the F*&# out and watch the pounds pour back on.

Work got a little crazy.  I spent more days on the road than I'd like, and that led to being tired and pissy and eating to make myself feel better.

I did go to yoga this week, but I hadn't been in three weeks.  And it was hard.  Really hard.  And this was the "gentle yoga" class.  Ugh.

The weather is warming up though, so I'm trying to get back into walking to the end of the road and back during the day.  Maybe that will help.

I actually like cold weather and winter, but even I was getting tired of the snow and the freezing temperatures and no sunshine.  I'm hoping that spring arriving will put a "spring" back in my step.

How have you been doing?