I love my walking route~

Thus far I've been pretty okay with walking every night. Why night? 'Cause there's no sunrays pounding down on me and making me feel ten times heavier than I am. Walking in the horrible heat of summer? Not so much fun for a tubby girl.

Night time provides no sunlight, gentle breezes, and, most importantly, no traffic (of cars or humans).

While being a social-kinda gal (I live for parties in our house), I really prefer to walk on my own. No talking means I'm not gasping for air. I also tend to day dream and I've found walking is a fantastic way of fantasizing about a multitude of subjects.

-My fiance's ass
-My various characters and their respective novels that will never get written down I will write someday
-The home my fiance and I will own this time next year
-My goals (short term or long term)
-My sex life
-My career
-Worrying about my best buddy and the direction of his life
-Past friendships that have ended
-Etc...

And those're the tip of the iceburg! So walking alone at night (with a cell phone in case any creeps are around) is ideal for someone like me.

Unfortunately, my neighbor thinks otherwise.

I came home one night to find her outside. She's incredibly friendly and has an adorable dog. I really like her, as she's pretty much one of two social neighbors we have on our small block of townhouses. So we get along splendidly.

"I see you walkin'!" she greets me when I came home this particular night.

"Yep!" I reply. "I'm trying to keep in shape."

"Man, I see you walkin' and I just think 'It ain't right to walk alone, you need a walkin' buddy'!" she laughs. I laugh too, but inside I cringe.

Nooooo! I wanna walk alone! is one of the things I want to say, but I just smile and laugh. We end up talking for about an hour. And let me tell you. My big mouth moves fast and can talk about a variety of subjects from my cats to my dolls. But when it comes to like-mouthed people? I tend to shut up and let them do the talking.

'Cause it's just SO much fun!

Like, seriously. There isn't any sarcasm in that sentence. My neighbor talked about her job, her ex-husband, her brother, her sons, and her dog in this hour conversation. It was fantastic! I love hearing about other people's lives 'n at. It's just so interesting to me, 'cause it's like "Man, I wonder what my life would be like if it was like hers...", y'know?

So anyway, we had that talk about three days ago. *cough* And I kinda haven't been walking until tonight 'cause I've been kind of dreading if she was home and she'd go walking with me.

But I couldn't keep putting off walking. So I sucked it up and called her to let her know I was about to walk.

Ring, ring, ring, VOICE MAIL! Whoot!

And so I ventured forth alone with my thoughts, yes! My walking route is awesome~

It takes me twenty minutes all together. I work various muscles because it's not just flat surface (though I wouldn't mind that every once and a while). I start my walk going up a short 30-degree hill that curves to the left. The it slopes downward very lightly before flattening out. It's only flat for a few hundred feet before it goes to a gentle slope uphill, then a sharper degree.

At the top of the hill, I have two options;

1) Keep straight and go down a sloping curve before trekking up a steep hill to the original top of the hill.

Or

2) Go left and down the steep hill then take the gentle slope upwards to the original spot.

My usual route is the former. I find it's a great workout and I can feel my muslces working. If I'm feeling really tired that day or if I'm just not up to it, then I take the latter of the two. Either way, it's a great walk and I'm in love with it.

I'm debating whether I want to buy a scale or not. After all, this is all about me trying to get in shape and continue to BE my lovely shape, not loose weight. But without any kind of device to assist in keeping track of all of this, how am I to measure my success?

I do know that when I'm walking, my knees and ankles feel a lot better and I don't hurt as much. My breathing is easier and my emotional state is optomistic and happy times. So at least I can measure that much.

So here's to hoping I get to continue this alone and if I do get company it's only rarely.

PS- I keep my cell phone in hand the entire time I'm walking. The second I feel someone following me or if I'm noticing the same car passing me more than twice, I'm dialing 911, paranoia be damned.