I love to walk, but ever since we moved to Nashville in 2005 I haven’t been walking as much. The hills in our neighborhood deter me.

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

However, there are lots of parks around with flat paths. Trouble is, then it requires getting in the car and going somewhere…any excuse to get out of exercising (even walking which I enjoy doing), I’ll use it!

Although, that’s not being fair to myself. I love taking my dog Murphy for a walk. But in August 2008 he busted up his leg and needed a major surgery. He’s just now recovered enough from that so we can do mini-walks again. (Meaning about a mile, whereas we would do 2-3 miles easy…even a couple of times a day.)

But to go by myself…boring. Plus, then I’m in my own head. Dangerous. I either stew about some perceived injustice done to me, or end up plotting 40 different things to do with my writing, my blog, my life in general…basically, I overwhelm myself with good intentions!

However, as the weight’s crept back on after chemo…first to 165, then 170, then 175, now over 180 again (even though I tried desperately to maintain!), I know I have to do something. Walking has always helped in the past. And music…that used to keep me company on my 4 and 5 milers back in Jax.

Then at some point my little MP3 broke and I just never got around to replacing it.

AN IDEA IS BORN…

But I bought one for Wayne for his birthday back in September. An RCA Pearl. He didn’t like it. It’s small, but his old one, which he adored, was teeny tiny. Like only as long as his pinkie and not much wider. It was battery operated too. He didn’t want the recharge via the computer kind.

Well, I decided to keep his. But I only broke it out of the box this week. That’s when I discovered it’s battery operated too. And it has a handy built-in USB…no wires to keep straight!

Also, it said it was Audible.com ready, and it came with an offer for a free Audible.com audio book. (Which I only discovered once I opened the package.)  I had seen an ad on TV for Audible.com a few weeks back, and that’s when the idea started to form: something else I really enjoy listening to is audio books. In Jax I used to rent them from the library and listen while I did dishes, housework, tackled various painting projects (I was forever painting that house!)…it always made the time go faster and I really enjoyed experiencing the books that I rarely had time to actually read. What if I listened to books while I walked like my friend Nila does? How fun would that be?

BREAKING THE “BUT” CYCLE

Ah ha! “Fun.” Key word. If I like it, I do it. I make time for it. I end up losing weight effortlessly…

I also found that I really like walking in Lenox Village, which is a 3 minute drive from our house. (Before that, Owl Park was my top pick. Less than 10 minutes from home, flat path, nice park, but…the path’s only like .7 around so I have to do laps. Which is okay, but I’d rather see a change up in scenery. I could always walk in the neighborhood that borders the park too, but…that’s just it. I always came up with a “but.”)

However, not anymore. I’m determined to break my “but” cycle! Yesterday I finally took my MP3 out for a spin, with World War Z loaded on it. Or so I thought. I didn’t know how to load it up right apparently.

LOCKED AND LOADED

But after a few (yes, a few) hours today trying to figure it all out, World War Z is finally loaded properly. This afternoon I’ll head out for a walk in Lenox Village and see how it all goes. Hopefully as good as yesterday’s walk. I was frustrated I couldn’t get the audio book to play. I kept fiddling with it, then finally gave up and listened to the samples they had on already before changing to music. I ended up having a wonderful walk!

Now I’m eager to go and do it again today. Especially because it’ll help ease all the stress I’m feeling about my dad.