Day Two:

I'm back in Minnesota. 65 degrees, sunny and a slight breeze. Another perfect day! My sister and I walked around our small town of 2,000 people and laughed our butts off. (How I wish that were actually true.) Today when I was wheezing for breath it was actually because the story she told was so funny that I had to stop walking for a minute until I calmed down. Unfortunately I can't actually repeat the story because, 1 - I was sworn to secrecy, and 2 - It's a lot more amusing with hand gestures. Suffice it to say that my endorphins were sky high.Being twins, we have the exact same sense of humor and the exact same walk. It's easy to keep pace with each other. We walked for 1 hour.

By the way, my friend "A" informed me that instead of tying my entire key chain to my shorts like I did yesterday, I could have simply taken one key off and tied it to my shoe. No jangling in the crotch. She knows this because she is a cool person and I am a geek. This is why I hang out with her. Wisdom.

Day One: My twin sister and I decided that we were not fat, but pudgy. And perhaps we should exercise. Of course we've been having this conversation for the past 5 years, but haven't actually gotten around to doing anything about it so this time we decided to walk every day for one year. Rain or shine. Blizzard or not. Wind gusts of 40 miles an hour or calm. (You can see I am already anticipating the drawbacks of making good on such a grandiose statement while living in Minnesota.) And we are going to blog about it, just in case anyone else is having the same difficulty as we are. Maybe blogging about it will be the impetus we need. Some days I will blog, some days it will be Kathryn, and some days we will blog together.

Just for the record, I am 46 years old, 5'8" and weigh 160 pounds...rounded down from 163....stark naked...in the morning... before I've even taken my first breath. I have heel pain, sore knees, and a willingness to sit on my bum for long periods of time. I give you these facts so we can see if any progress is actually made should I succeed and walk every day and to let you know that I am just a normal person. Oh - and for the record - I am not trying to walk 10,000 steps a day although that would be ideal. Nor am I setting a time limit of exactly one hour, X number of miles, etc... I just want to see if I can walk every day. And some days that might change to bike riding should my feet or joints require it. But something. Every day. For one year. God it sounds like a life sentence!

DAY ONE:

I am in Sioux Falls, SD for work today and am staying overnight at a hotel. It is not a Monday. It is not the beginning of the month. It is not right after Christmas and Thanksgiving. It is just a day, but it is the first day for me. It's 65 degrees and light winds. Perfect! Plus no one knows me here AT ALL. I find that when I walk at home....HA...like that ever happens. What I was going to say is, when I think about walking at home, I always worry that people will think I look bad or that my walk is funny, or my outfit isn't right. I've come to realize it is more my mental block that is affecting this rather than anything that's actually been said about me. Time to jump that hurdle.

Note to self: Wear clothes with a pocket. I had to tie my keys to my shorts which made them hang right in the middle of my crotch where they jangled there the entire walk. Luckily I had my Ipod cranked, which I was holding.

Started out good but realize I'm going to need a playlist with faster songs on it. I tend to walk to the beat of the music and Barbara Streisands, "Evergreen" had me practically going backwards. The nats were hovering above my head which was annoying, but the river and the ducks I saw far made up for them. I could feel my legs start to hurt and felt like I had been out quite a while. Checked the Ipod. 15 minutes had elapsed. Gonna need to stretch before walking I guess. Halfway through my walk the song "Baby Got Back" came on. That made me feel more confident that bigger butts might be okay and perhaps mine didn't really look like 2 cats fighting in a paper bag. Then 3 songs later - and I am not even making this up - "Fat Bottomed Girls" played. Coincidence? I walked for 45 minutes in all. A good start to day one. Karen