My relationship with exercise

I just got a bump from Kyle, my Noom Goal Specialist, asking me to make a goal to help with something I struggle with, like exercise, or blah blah blah.

Exercise has often been a struggle for me. My job keeps me seated at a computer. I do have time for exercise, but at a certain point I lost motivation.

When I was in Albuquerque in the 1990s, I lived within easy walking distance of a gym. So I joined it and I used it. I went to bed early, got up early and went to the gym to start the day. That was great!

Then I moved to San Antonio.

No longer within easy walking distance of a gym, and no longer in the military, which forced me to be at least a little bit in shape, my fitness fell to the wayside. I got fat.

My problem was that I did not find any kind of fitness program that inspired me. Then P90X, and Insanity after that, changed my life in 2010.

But ... my body continued to age, and, man, as much as I loved working out and bouncing around with Shaun T and Tony Horton, my body rebelled, got injured. At first I couldn't comprehend it. How could my body betray me after all these years?

We all age. Some people do so better than others. If I'm honest with myself, I believe I'm actually better off than a lot of folks my age, so I shouldn't complain.

So what could I do that would not hurt me? I tried getting back into yoga, but I found that it didn't thrill me as much as it had years ago. Also, I managed to hurt myself doing yoga, too, because I simply cannot seem to keep myself from reaching outside the limitations of my body.

Consequently, the last few years my exercise program has looked like a lot of walking and some pushups.

As I understand it, pushups are probably the best all-around calisthenic exercise, so I got that going for me.

But the other part of that equation is walking.

When I first started walking around 2008, I killed it. I bought a pedometer and would walk around my kitchen island for hours at a time, while either reading my Kindle or watching some fluff on tv. I'd park far away, and if I could walk instead of drive to a destination, I'd do it. If I was on the phone, which I often was, I was walking.

I still have some of those good walking habits, but my dedicated walking time has fallen off lately. I'm going through a long-term relationship transition, and moving to a new apartment, so my game is a bit off.

Today, though, I told Kyle, my Noom Goal Specialist, that I'd like to walk at least 30 minutes a day. And so I shall! (Well, 5 days a week, anyway. Maybe more.)

It's cold today, near freezing, but it's sunny, so I'm headed out for my first walk in what I hope is a long series of them.

I'm almost 60 years old. Walking is good. Maybe I could build up to running at some point, but I'ma take it slow with some brisk walking at first.

Stretch goals in fitness are nice, but I need to be careful not to overreach.