My Journey With Weight Loss – Improving My Fitness By Volunteering

Today was supposed to be my hill interval training but when I got up this morning it was pouring rain. Seriously, I hate getting soaking wet when I am running. I thought I need to switch things up and still get my hill training in. I realized I can do that training on Saturday (the weather is supposed to be nice) but then what to do today? You guessed it, on to the dreaded treadmill for a 5k. I really pushed it on that run as I kept reminding myself that I am now in serious training.

Yesterday I started my new volunteer gig and I already know I am going to like it. I had started the day with a 1 hour walk followed by a 1/2 hour walk with the dog so before 8am I had already done more than 10,000 steps. After coffee with the Wednesday morning gang I met up with a group of seniors to do our first weekly walk. All of these seniors have been prescreened to ensure they are physically capable of doing long walks outdoors and I had contacted them earlier in the week to make sure they were regular walkers and they all were.

I noted when my group showed up that all of them had great walking shoes which was really a good sign. I explained that our first walk was going to be shorter than what we would be doing going forward as I wanted a chance to assess them to make sure they were all kept safe. I also advised them that the pace we were going to walk at would be that of our slowest walker. They all agreed this was a good plan.

Off we went and we did a couple miles. When a few of the walkers got a little ahead of the rest I politely asked them to slow down. I made sure to take the opportunity to get to know a little about each of them and confirm their fitness level. I must say, even the oldest one is pretty fit.

At the end of the walk I did a check in with everyone and all felt they were set to increase the walk next week. The only feedback I received is that they would like me to find a quieter route to walk so that there would be more opportunity to talk to each other. That should be a pretty easy task as I know this area really well. To finish off the session a few of us went out for coffee to get to know each other better.

Now on Wednesdays I will be walking for about 3 hours but that is not the important part of what I will get out of this. As I have learned from my calls to isolated seniors each Friday, sometimes it is just having the chance to talk to someone that is the most significant part to the participants. For example, I learned yesterday that one of the group lost her spouse of 50+ years last July. Another told me she had to put her partner in a long term care home in October. Pretty much all of them acknowledged that they wanted to be part of this walking group so that they had the chance to meet some new people and get out to see our beautiful community.

The additional walking I get from this is just a bonus for me, giving these seniors what they need is what makes me feel great.