How has this happened?!

I am not a gym bunny, I am not outdoorsy, I like sitting on my bottom and watching tv pretty much every night of the week. As a teenager I was sporty, not because it came naturally but because I loved team games, I really enjoyed being part of all the teams but was never one of the strongest, fastest or most skilled. I was ok with that. When I got to university I pretty much did no exercise but I did get interested in nutrition and did a nutritional therapy course; my diet right now does not reflect this! I enjoy the gym, and actually trained in personal training at one stage, but am not a regular visitor. I go through phases of going and then life gets in the way and I don’t set foot through the doors for months (current status).

My main activity for the past few years has been walking. My children and I walk to school every day, twice a day and I then rush to and from work on the bus with another short walk in between. It’s not that far but has helped to keep me relatively fit over the past few years. Everything changed this year when we got a dog. I wasn’t EVER intending on having a dog. I in fact strongly disliked dogs and told my husband it would be a dog or me – until this point he’d chosen me…I’m not sure what happened, what changed but the long story short is that we now have a dog, she’s wonderful and I love her dearly.

Like I said, I would never have described myself as outdoorsy. I like to lie in, not get dressed until I absolutely have to, enjoy being at home, hate the wind and rain and am very content sitting with a cross stitch or a puzzle and not being outside. A dog has challenged that. Previous to having a dog, I could romanticize that owning a dog would mean regularly going on nice walks and this was one of the very few positives I could see about owning one (I now relent that there are many!) but it is true; Pepper (our dog) gets us out. She arrived with us in Spring and we had the luxury of her being a puppy and not having to walk her much whilst the unpredictable spring weather was with us but from about May to September we had THE best weather and getting out was easy and really enjoyable. It was during this time that I fell in love with walking; we went out a lot as a family or if alone, I would stick my headphones in and feel energised whilst having a reason to be walking in the first place. Now that the Winter has arrived (albeit whilst I write this it is a balmy 13 degrees outside?!) Pepper is still forcing us (or mostly me) to get out of the house on those windier, grey and rainy days. And I don’t hate it. Sure I now need ‘all the gear’ (more shopping required here) and it takes a bit more effort to face the outside when it’s horrible, but I enjoy that I’ve been out. I’ve noticed that nature is beautiful; there is even beauty in a rainy day if you search for it and I feel much more positive and mentally healthy. So walking has become ‘my thing’ and now that my commute has changed due to a change in my bus provider (boo) I am walking about 30 miles a week. Next time I’ll talk about ‘the walk’ I’ve signed up for but I hope this has given a good introduction in to how I got from non-walker to crazy wanderer.