My Journey With Health And Fitness – A Fun New Workout

According to my Fitbit I got in 7 days of exercise last week. As you know I normally take Sunday’s off but I am really enjoying getting to know my new treadmill so I got up early and went for a walk. Then, I decided to walk uptown to meet my family for lunch so 1 1/2 hours of walking. I am experimenting a bit with the treadmill alternating between the pre-set programs and doing manual programs. So far it is going well and today I even did a bit of running and I will say it felt pretty comfortable.

But today I added a new workout to my routine. I received an email from Elderdog yesterday asking for volunteers to walk a dog for an elderly lady. Turns out the client is 88 years old and while her son lives with her, he has mobility issues. The request was for 2 walks a day but they would be split between 2 different volunteers. I opted to do the later afternoon shift and I was quite surprised when they told me it would start effective today.

Now this is an older dog, 12 1/2, so I thought the walking would be pretty slow. Also, they noted she was an Australian Kelpie which I had never heard of. They referred to her as a medium sized dog and said she loved to walk but was a sniffer. I called her owners this afternoon to check to make sure 3:30pm would be a good time and that they had all the necessary supplies including poop bags. I also asked if it was ok if I brought treats for her but assured them that they were the ones my vet recommended so are what we give our dogs. This is a really important point, as someone who had a dog with massive food allergies I learned you NEVER give someone’s dog any food without the owner’s permission as it may cause serious health issues (it used to cost $800 at the vet every time some well meaning friend gave my dog food she was allergic to which was pretty much everything). The owners laughed and said the dog would love that.

I arrived at the appointed time and was greeted by Keeva who looked like a smaller version of a German Sheperd. Keeva had a good sniff of me (no doubt smelling my dogs) and I apparently passed the muster. She then quickly realized that I came with a bag of goodies which definitely met with her approval. Now this is an old dog so I had no expectations of getting in any real workout but boy was I wrong. Keeva is impressively spry and active for a dog her age. She also made it clear to me that she had a route she wanted to walk and I was just tagging along. She also figured out pretty quickly that if my hand went to my pocket that she was about to get a treat. All in all she was a lovely dog to walk and between her walk and how far away I had to park my vehicle I ended up getting in a decent workout.

I think this last workout for the day was the best one I did. Don’t get me wrong, I did a pretty good cardio workout first thing but this one just made me feel good. It wasn’t just about getting my heart rate up, it was also about helping someone who obviously loves their pet and wants to do right by them. I’m looking forward to doing my workout with Keeva again tomorrow.