Putting back on my walking shoes

I had every intention of making the title of this post some sort of reference to boots being made for walking. I think we are all better for me not having done that. Today is an errand and chore day. Between my credential stuff, trying to find a place to live and my having ignored life last week to enjoy a week of summer, I have a ton of running around, e-mailing, and paperwork filing to do. Today is a sort of "get the ball rolling" process on a good chunk of it. I have applied for 2 teaching jobs today, which brings my total to 7. I am really taking my time on these applications and of course, spending about an hour per application writing and re-writing cover letters to fit the specific school and/or district. It was a stressful morning and I decided to take my stress out for a walk. In the past, this would have been where I ate a Carl's Jr. burger and watched television, but I know I need to get back out there. My back has been feeling pretty good the last few days, so I wanted to take it out for a test run.

I have always had a pretty dicey relationship with walking. I actually love to go out with some headphones and walk. My body has always rejected it because of my weight and my complicated shoe issue. Now that the shoe issue has been solved, I am dealing with the summer heat. I am not so versed in the world of walking or running that I have a pouch for water, and carrying a water bottle on my walk just does not work, so I filled my water bottle up and left it right inside the door so I could grab it as soon as I got home and ventured out. After over a week off, I was feeling it pretty early on. I let myself stop for a moment, stretch out my back some more, and take a minute to let my positive thinking battle with my negative thinking. It turned out to be exactly what I needed because once I set off again, I was able to really keep a solid pace and not think about how hot it was or how my back was slowly starting to tighten up. I just powered through the pain, through the heat and through my mind trying to convince me to stop. When I used to play any sort of Marvel video game, I would always choose Wolverine and instead of relying on strategy, or paying attention to the pain meter, I would just run wild through levels hacking at everything. I would move so quickly, that event though I would be close to dying, I would complete the level. This is how I felt today. I was just going to push myself through the end until I got there, no matter how hot it was.

I came home, rewarded myself with a nice glass of water, the most refreshing shower ever, slices of the most mouth watering watermelon and a nice salad. It was the perfect way to clear my mindspace. I would have never guessed in a million years that walking would be something that I would turn towards to help me clear my mind. I still prefer swimming, as does my body, but this walk was exactly what I needed today. When I finished lunch, I went right back to the chores of the day, only stopping now to update this blog. In all actuality, I am not even stopped, I am still organizing things, consolidating things and trying to make it easier on me when I do have to move soon. I am learning how to have the energy to multitask in an effective way and it is of course thanks to all of this stuff I have been changing in my life.

In keeping with the theme of walking, I have this playlist that I used for my walks. It is roughly 100 songs long, and it has everything in it I would look for in a playlist meant for working out. Many people have many different ways of going about music for working out. I know people who just want heavy metal going all of the time. I know people who just want something with an uptempo beat and I know people who listen to the music they would want to have sex to, because it motivates them to look better naked for the having of the sex. I am a BIG proponent of play lists for every occasion. before my last computer crashed I had a series of play lists for everything. I had an opening night play list, first day of school play list and so on. I am constantly looking at what other people use for different occasions as well. I would love for people to use the comments to tell me what music they like to listen to when working out.

I found a list on-line of the top 20 songs the readers of Fitness magazine voted as the best work out songs and number 1 was Sexy/Back from Justin Timberlake. I guess many people subscribe to the whole sex music and work out music. I love all things Timberlake, so I love the choice. I love the idea of the lyrics "I'm bringing sexy back" running through my head as I do my best to make myself healthier. Healthy should make one feel sexy and it is about time I brought my own sexy back. My mind is sexy, My talent is sexy, some have said my writing is sexy and now it is time to make my health and my attitude match that level of sexy.