These Shoes Were Made For Walking

Tires crunching dirt and gravel as they roll to their destination.  They've driven this path many times in the past fifteen years. Sometimes every day with precision and dedication, and sometimes; that crater-holed road is traveled the least.  But no matter the time and distance in between, I’m always welcomed back by friendly faces and greetings; no matter that I rarely know the names.

We all have the same common goal. Some of us have a long way to go, while a fortunate few are ahead of the game and are simply maintaining. It’s been at least twenty years since all I had to worry about was “maintaining”, since it was second nature to know there was a five count limit of increase; no more would be acceptable or allowed.  But these last ten years, it began to careen out of control, rolling so fast that I really don’t even remember how I got here.

I climbed out of my truck, and as my feet hit the ground, I’m looking at the crowd already gathered on that old familiar walking track and wondering how many people feel like I do, how many thoughts are running the same sad course as mine; as they walk lap after lap around that track, day after day, in the frigidly, windy cold and the steamy, blistering heat.

You know you've done some poor planning and absolutely no prior preparation when you've gained more weight than should be legal, you're trying to walk it off with the sun blazing down, feeling like it should be hot enough to melt away your very existence, but when all is said and done, you get back in your vehicle, look into the rear view mirror and you're just as fat as you were before; matter of fact, probably worse. Because now the fat has expanded and swelled from the heat and your fingers and feet look like they belong on a cartoon blimp, 500 feet in the air, on a string.

For the past three weeks I have begun another daily walking regime. I used to be like every woman in America; the first thing I did when I got home was take off all the hindering undergarments that had held me confined all day. But body parts have expanded and moved to new locations where they don’t belong and now they cry to be gathered up and put back in constraints for comfort. The Tylenol bottle has grown in size and promises of old have returned; that if I can just get this weight off, I’ll never do it again.

If you need to talk yourself away from sweet cakes, soda or pizza; I’ll mail you a before and after picture of me that you can put on your refrigerator. And if that doesn't do the trick; meet me at the track and I’ll introduce you to the long, hard road of reality.  Our life changes must equal to our mind changes and it’s a daily battle; but we’re all worth the fight.