I knew I was in trouble in August 2023...

Walking a hill like this felt daunting!

...so why did it take until June of 2025 to do anything about it?

Covid changed my work location from in the office most days to 100% remote. That meant I wasn't really moving around a whole lot anymore. Gone were the walks from the parking garage to the office building, the long walk to the other side of the building to buy coffee, walking to the bathroom, to the kitchen....what I'm saying is that since working from home, I've sat A LOT. It was easy at first, sitting in the chair all day long in front of my laptop, getting up to walk a few feet to the kitchen, a few feet to the bathroom. Eventually though, sitting so much made it feel difficult to stand for too long. I stopped doing yoga because the inflammation in my knees made so many moves impossible. My feet would hurt almost immediately, my lower back shortly after that. Let's not ignore the fact that I was gaining weight from all of the sitting too.

Anyway, in August 2023 JP and I took a road trip up to Massachusetts. We're both super into history and I am obsessed with Abigail Adams so we had a full trip planned to visit Plymouth, Quincy, Concord, Boston, and Salem. The first day we visited a National Park replicating colonial times, there were some hills, no shade and it was August so really hot. I was miserable, I had a hard time navigating the hills, keeping up with JP was impossible. I didn't understand why it felt like my legs didn't want to work. Oh right, because I've been sitting for years at this point. I kept pushing though, what else was I going to do? I wanted to be on this trip, I wanted to see and do everything we had planned.

It was really frustrating, we had to stop constantly, it took us way longer than it should have to do everything. But, all I could do was keeping walking and keep stopping when I needed to. By the end of our trip, I was able to move more easily and keep up with JP. I was determined to keep it going, it had been SO hard and painful to get back to moving normally, I had to keep this up.

So what happened when I got home?

I stopped walking.

I went right back to being incredibly sedentary. A few months later, JP and I started going to a local park and walking each day during our lunch hour. We were determined, we even walked in the snow many times! I thought we'd gotten it, I was finally going to be consistent with moving my body. The inflammation was back with a vengeance and walking seemed to soothe it a bit.

However, that was not the case

By now, I'm sure you're noticing a pattern here. I wasn't able to be consistent and I couldn't figure out why. Turns out, I wasn't actually paying attention to anything I was doing. I was on autopilot. My body felt worse so I mentally felt worse, I mentally felt worse so made more choices that made my body feel worse, it was a cycle I kept repeating while being clueless and growing frustrated with WHY I kept doing this.

Oh, also, around this time last year we decided to put our house on the market. I won't even get into the stressful, awful process all of that was. One of the things we were looking for in a new place was a walkable neighborhood. Needing to get in the car and drive 15 minutes to the park was definitely proving to be a hinderance.

Where we wound up has lots of sidewalks and LOTS of hills. I was intimidated immediately. We moved in December and while I was not unwilling to walk in the cold, I was very concerned about navigating the hills, so, I didn't.

Finally, just last month, (almost 2 years later!) I started walking again.

Here are the things I think have helped me get through the painful transition from sitting 20+ hours/day to now walking 2-3 miles 6 days a week in 30 days. (This is not medical advice, of course, as I am not a doctor)

• It's the first thing I do and I do It early. I get up, brush my teeth, eat something small, and get right outside. I'm usually outside between 6:30-6:45am. (Even as recently as May I was rolling out of bed 5 minutes before the absolute last minute I needed to get up.)

• I take it slow and enjoy the sights and sounds around me. I encounter some mix of deer, birds, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, turtles, and fish on my walks each day. I take a moment to watch the deer nibble on leaves or stop to really listen to the birds. Each day I walk a bridge that goes over a pond and I stop to greet the fish and any turtles who are around. It brings me so much joy.

• I recognize that some days this will be difficult, that I won't want to get out and walk and that's okay. I can choose to push through, to stop and ask myself why. Do I truly need rest or am I in my head about it? My favorite Buddhist Monk, Ajahn Brahm, often says "thinking about pushing the wheelbarrow is more difficult than pushing the wheelbarrow." It helps me put these moments in perspective.

I am feeling confident that I am taking a different approach to moving my body than I ever have before and because of that I will be successful this time. Successful to me means being consistent and Improving my health.

I'd love for you to tell me in the comments about a time you took a different approach towards something you wanted and how you found success or leave some encouraging words for readers who are also working on making change!

Check out some photos from my walks over this past month.

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