I've Got To Move It, Move it

Map My Run Route

Sometimes exercise is the only answer when those extra pounds begin to creep up faster than one would like.  During those times one must draw motivation to reverse the trend from any source available.  Sometimes it’s a friend. Sometimes it’s a quote. Sometimes it’s music.  DreamWorks chose well when they picked the single, "I Like to Move It, Move It," by Reel 2 Reel for an upbeat scene in the movie “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.”  The song has a beat that makes one want to get up and dance; in my case walk. 

I began a walking program about a couple of weeks ago.  I might not like to move it, but I've got to move it.  I weigh more than I should and carried it well for a long while. Lately I've noticed that its been getting a little harder to move in the morning. I’ll call it rusting.  No way do I want to rust before I have to.  So, with the beat of “I Like to Move It, Move It” churning in my head. I got off my butt and began to walk.  I now walk over two miles a day. 

Yes, I’m land bound for the summer; enjoying creature comforts such as television, air conditioning and showers that are actually hot.  The transition from Imagine to the house was way too easy.  I quickly became a couch potato. I surfed the net to my heart’s content, caught up on what was happening in the world and watched movies rented from Red Box.  A routine visit to the doctor’s office included the stepping on the scale ritual.  Of course I took off my shoes and peeked with one eye as the nurse adjusted the weights to balance the scale.  As she announced my weight, reality struck home.  I’ve got to move it!

I’m certainly not alone in my quest to improve my overall fitness.  Advertising proves that. Ads designed to capture American’s desires to become skinnier, stronger and healthier flashes on television, billboards, magazine pages, websites, and even on the side of public transportation.  Today’s technology offers a myriad of options to help one get fit.  There's one neat little app that can be downloaded onto the smart phone.  “Map My Run” not only logs one’s walk, it counts calories burned, tracks one’s pace and time and it maps your walk... or run via the GPS locater on the phone.  After walking one can even enter what one eats to track nutrition stats.

Before the walk begins, I turn the phone’s location services on, slip the phone in my pocket and get moving. At each mile increment the phone announces my pace and time. Since I'm a feedback junkie, I walk further than I would have.  Each day I try to decrease my time as I compete against myself. Whatever encourages me to move a little further is a plus.  Of course music helps one to quicken the pace.  Music travels from the smart phone, through the wires and into the ear buds attached to my head. Starting the walk with “I Like to Move It, Move It” sets the tone.   Isn’t technology amazing?

The first days of walking were tough.  Getting into the routine was easier once I learned to open my senses along the way.  I began to enjoy the warmth of the sun on my shoulders contrasting with the cool of the shade as I passed under a tree.  Mentally I measured the length of shadows as the sun rose higher and delighted in the discovery of wildflowers along the route.  Identifying the wildflowers I’d pass proved to be another trick that made the walk seem shorter. 

The imagination quickly travels into prose and trips down memory lane as a Trumpet Vine climbs skyward on a pole, tendrils reaching out in space with nowhere to grab.  Bacon and Eggs and bright yellow Buttercups grow in a ditch along the way. Does anyone remember holding a buttercup under someone’s chin to look for a yellow reflection?  If there was a reflection, your friend was supposed to like butter.  A fuzzy dandelion reminds me of the summer we picked peach baskets of the golden flowers for lady in Sharptown who made dandelion wine.  Purple Clover, pink Marsh Mallow, blue and white Chicory, orange-salmon Day Lilies and dainty white Asters catch my attention as I walk on.  Music and musings make for a delightful walk.

My goal is to do a 5K walk/run before summer ends.  Since 5K equals to 3.1 miles, the goal is within site.  The weight added prior to the doctor’s visit has been lost along with a couple of extra pounds.  My husband ever the jokester, suggested that we didn’t need a scale.  He said that all we had to do was to measure the waterline of the boat.  If the waterline is higher when we move back on in the fall then I obviously was successful in my quest.  Ha! Ha!

It’s nearing the end of year three of our two-year plan to live aboard Imagine.  It looks as if there will be a year four ahead.  Currently I am enjoying being land bound for a while.  I’ll keep on walking and enjoying each moment before land and floors once again give way to seas and decks.