Taking a Walk

Walking is man's best medicine.

                 -- Hippocrates

Hi! This is a picture of  my dog, Sardis (not Hippocrates :-) and he is my walking partner!  For a couple of years we were walking every day for at least two miles around the neighborhood.  We visited with neighbors, admired gardens and flowers, spoke to other dogs, and just walked along enjoying the breeze! It was wonderful! Sardis pulled on his leash the whole way and I looked up into the trees and around and thought about nothing.

Few people know how to take a walk.  The qualifications
 are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for
 nature,  good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, 
good silence and nothing too much.

                                                             -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Then,  I started having some health issues not related to walking, but I stopped walking anyway. ( I was a wimp!)  My health became worse and I knew I needed to go back to walking.  

The most common objection that I hear to walking 

as exercise is that it's too easy, that only sweaty,

 strenuous activity offers real benefits.  But there 

is abundance evidence that regular, brisk walking

 is  associated with better health, including lower 

blood pressure, better moods  and improved  

                                      cholesterol  ratios.                                                                                             -- Andrew Weil

Sardis and I went back to walking together, but only for a half a mile at a time.  Some days we felt good enough to walk morning and evening. I was amazed at how good I felt each day.  Then I went out-of-town for a week and got out of the habit. I began to feel miserable all over again.

That leads me to the purpose for this post.  Today I got out of  the recliner and put on my walking shoes!  Sardis ran to the door and like a good boy, waited for me to attach his leash.  We had a wonderful walk and visited with neighbors, admired other yards and talked to neighborhood dogs as we passed. I felt the wind blowing across my skin.  And I felt better than I did all week!  If you have been reading emails or blogs all day (or even for an hour), get up out of that chair and take a walk.  You will feel so much better!
 

Walking is the best possible exercise.  Habituate 

yourself to walk very fast.

                                                                                                   -- Thomas Jefferson

I better work on "habituating myself" to walk a little faster. ;-)

Thank you for visiting today!  What do you do for exercise?
Love,
Lottie