Walking Around in Circles

Some of you may remember my fateful meeting with my general practitioner this past fall and the discussion she and I had about walking for exercise.  Silly me had brought up the fact that I tried to walk five miles a day as a goal for weight maintenance and health benefits.  (This was before the sleep apnea diagnosis, by the way.)  I was feeling this was a Good Thing I was doing, trying to walk five miles, until I was soundly slapped upside the head and told that if I wasn't walking ten or fifteen miles a day I wasn't accomplishing anything.  (Ok, there was no 'slapping' per se, but it was rather shocking to my ego, if nothing else, lol.)

"If you are walking five miles a day, that isn't much.  And if you are, and you're not seeing any weight loss, then you need to walk more.  Once your body gets used to five miles and then ten and fifteen, you'll have to walk more than that, too."  And my doctor's next challenge was, "So, now winter is coming on. What sort of exercise will you do in winter?  You should buy a treadmill or join a health club or walk in the mall.  You have to do something and most people don't like the cold."

(Our sons' take on the good doctor's advice was that she was Grade A Certified Nuts but with an ulterior motive:  If I walk as much as they say I have to, then I'll be certain to need  knee and/or hip replacements eventually, along with foot problems........ so, see, it's a Win-Win for the medical community, keep 'em comin'.)

At the time of my appointment, I was groggy from lack of sleep, and yes, I still am now, come to think of it, so I had nothing to say for myself.  I remember sitting there, nodding my head up and down, like a menopausal bobble-headed Hula Girl on a car's dashboard, agreeing with the superbly physically fit doctor.

Doctor Knows Best.

(No, that's not her name, by the way, but for my purposes, it works, so I shall use it.)  I assured Dr, Knowsbest that I would do my best to get exercise no matter how cold it was outside.  We can't afford a treadmill (I blew all our disposable cash on the ambulance ride and hospital stay back in October, ditto for a health club...) and we live about 13 miles from the nearest mall, which would actually work out about right, I could walk the 13 miles to the mall and then turn around and head back home, thereby walking 26 miles. Shouldn't take long.  In January.  In Wisconsin.  In below zero weather. 

So, Dr. Knowsbest, you were right,  I'm sorry to report I haven't been walking fifteen, ten, or (gulp) even five miles a day lately, though if waking up (sixteen times last night) and getting out of bed and tinkering with CPAP equipment counts at all, I probably get a good aerobic workout just tossing and turning in bed. Oh, last night was a doozy, not good!  I talked to the sleep tech again today and he's going to see what else he has in his magic box of masks that may work better.  He's supposed to give me a call before the weekend and I sure hope he does.  These sleepless nights are getting old.  Carl left for work at 4:30AM because I had disturbed him just one too many times...oh, dear, I think even he's starting to lose hope.  This is just like having a colicky baby in the house.  Even worse.  A cranky sleep apnea patient with a chronic case of CPAP mask-itis. 

But I am trying to get in some outdoor exercise, walking, cross-country skiing and possibly snow-shoeing, about three miles a day, no matter what the weather.  We have had quite a bit of snow though which makes regular walking a challenge.  This past week I did something I haven't done before--I took the snowblower and made trails around some of the gardens so I can enjoy the garden in winter.  I do love winter as much as any other season; cold weather really doesn't bother me as long as I have a nice, warm house to go back to.

Care to join me on my walk this afternoon?  Screech Kitty usually does, and below, he shows us how important it is to stretch before exercising (and sharpen your claws!)

 

The Snowblower Trail takes us past the old gazebo first:

Looking past the gazebo to the west and the sunset

Then we head out past the chicken coop and the barn:

Past the east side of the Quarry Garden:

 Which overlooks the Formal Garden and the Dome:

 We keep going down the lane:

 Where we come upon the Aermotor windmill catching the last rays of the sun:

Looking back toward the barn and turning the corner, below to the east side of our property:

 

Walking past another snowy urn with a beautiful dollop of snowflakes artfully arranged:

Coming up on the tufa wall around the hosta bed that  I nagged Carl to help me move last summer--oh, it was so HOT out that day!  And the mosquitoes!  (None of them bothered me today.)

 

Finally, something GREEN in these pictures--just the wrought iron arch Carl built, but hey, it's sorta green:

 

Follow Snowblower Trail through the gate and:

What is it?  An old silo base?  A ruin?  Um......well.........more about this in another post...

past something (above) that I have to do some explaining about in my next posts---yes, it's another Procrastinatoe Project.....but I have HIGH hopes this year for it......stay tuned for an explanation in the next segment of "How This All Started Part 14,003" (or whatever I'm up to now) and we now head back past the barn--looks like Screech beat us:

 

And even though my feet are now aching with the cold, the sunset looks so pretty, so we'll take a quick walk down the road---here's the woods across from our house:

 

And our humble abode:

Heading back into the driveway (no, I didn't take the Christmas decorations down yet, need hip boots to get through the snow)

And finally, back into the nice, warm house where I tried to capture the sunset through the window:

 

But my glasses and the camera lens kept fogging up.  

So, this is as good as it gets! 

There, thank you for coming along, exercising with someone is much more fun!  We just walked about a half mile, so I only need to walk Snowblower Trail and the road a few hundred times to get my mileage for the day...

Or head for the mall.

Awww...phooey, I'm going to bed to get some sleep  rest, uh......exercise.