My Journey With Health And Fitness – Finding My Happy Place

Today we are heading downtown for our weekly restaurant treat. We are trying a restaurant that we found on our last trip but didn’t have a chance to try. First however will be a quick trip to 5th avenue looking to replace my missing Day of the Dead dress. For the life of me I just can’t figure out how I lost that dress.

But today I am feeling pretty good. Because of the timing I don’t do bootcamp on Saturdays while I am here (the class is at 10:30am which is far too late into my day). Instead I opted for a long walk which I haven’t done in 2 weeks now. Starting out my ankle was a bit sore but then it seems to be that way at the beginning of each walk. It wasn’t until about 3/4 of the way into the walk that it started twinging a bit but even that was fairly minor. The swelling has gone down and in general it feels pretty good even after a 10 km walk. Tomorrow I am only doing 5 km and if the ankle is willing I will start to slowly increase my higher impact exercises. Makes me happy that I have been giving it the chance to heal but I know if I keep my patience in check I’ll be back to full force in the near future.

While knowing I am healing is great (the dermatitis and heat rash are also clearing up nicely) that isn’t what has put me in my happy place. Rather, it is coming home with both pockets pretty empty of treats. I’ve posted before that while I am down here I carry both cat and dog treats in my pockets to hand out throughout the complex. The cat treats are the most important as there are a number of feral cats around here and I want to make sure that they have food (note the cat treats are actually Whiskas cat food). All of the dogs that I provide treats to are out on a walk with their owners (and I always ask when I meet a new dog if I can give them a treat) so I know they have a home.

What really has thrilled me the past couple days are the dogs and cats that recognize me from our last trip. The first was a yellow lab who saw me a good block away and started dragging her owner towards me. She did that lab wiggle where their entire bodies are shaking and had a huge grin on her face. Of course she got extra treats because I adore her. Today it was a miniature schnauzer who is not the best behaved dog but he saw me and came screeching over (his owner is not good at keeping him on a leash). Even though he had 2 treats he tried to steal the one I was giving to his Yorkie friend.

My favourite though is a white and orange cat. I walk by her house twice when I do a 5 km walk and of course since it was a 10 km today it was four times. I haven’t seen her all week and was afraid something had happened to her but today she came running at me and immediately dropped to the ground for a tummy rub. She patiently waited for me to come back each time then greeted me with meows and leg rubs. I also suspect she has told all the other cats in the area that I was back with my treats because I went through more cat food on my walk today than I ever have.

And so that is my happy place, out for a long walk petting and feeding cats and dogs. While it doesn’t make up for missing my pets at home, it still put a smile on my face when I got back to the condo and showed my husband my pockets were pretty much empty. When you find your happy place, it is no longer working out, it’s just enjoying life.

So if you are on a health and fitness journey, find your happy place. It will just make your journey so much easier and enjoyable.