My Journey With Health And Fitness – Finding Joy

Cut my normal 2 hour walk this morning to only 90 minutes. I had gone out at the usual time but about 1/2 way through it started pouring rain (ok, those of you at home reading this I know you are rolling your eyes given the deep freeze you have going on) so I got soaked. Once back in the condo and dried off it was time for a fitness class. On Saturdays the 1st class is at 8am (11am Playa time) so I decided to see what classes they had recorded this week. I found a Zumba class from Tuesday and decided to give it a try. It was actually a lot of fun and a decent workout.

In our complex here there are a lot of dogs. We know one couple who has rescued 5 dogs! Lots of people living here full time have multiple dogs and no matter what time of day it is people are walking their dogs throughout the complex. One I have befriended is a yellow lab and when she sees me she will stop in the middle of the road and refuse to move until I pet her. There is also this adorable tiny yorkie who gets all excited when he sees me but when I am within a couple feet of him he turns into Kujo. Still, I try to make friends with him.

I will note there is also cats everywhere. Sadly, many of the cats are feral but others are pets. I mentioned the one that actually likes to walk with me in the morning but sadly I haven’t seen him in a few days. I do find it a bit hard to determine which ones are pets and which are feral simply because even the pets are often skinny. I’m pretty sure that the ones with collars and tags have homes that look after them.

And so to make my walks even more enjoyable I picked up both dog and cat treats. I have to say, even dogs that seem to be aggressive towards strangers figured out pretty quickly that I have treats in the bag I pull out. The yorkie decided that I obviously was a friend because he gently came over to receive his little biscuit yesterday. And the lab, the first day I had treats she gently took one and typical of a lab batted her pretty eyes at me so of course she got a second treat. I also leave cat treats on the ground whenever I see a cat nearby. Today an orange tabby who was pretty skittish before saw me coming and immediately ran towards me ready for his goodies.

Several of the dog owners were surprised that I would have treats for their dogs. But let’s be honest, I love animals and doing this just gives me a sense of joy. I miss my pets when I am away (though we Facetime them every day) so making friends with the dogs and cats down really just makes me happy.

So, find your joy! Do something simple that makes you happy. To me that makes everything so much better.