"Good Physical and Mental Health Habit" - Time Out #169

As a youth growing up in Our Town, I gave little thought to daily exercise.

In those gentler and simpler times, outdoor youth activities were the norm, and staying inside was usually only reserved for rare, bad weather days. Even on those cold, rainy, or nasty temperature times, we usually found a way to get ourselves outside. We usually could find our local buddies there, too, as the call of the outdoors was almost always stronger than the call of the indoors.

This held true for most of my local days of the 1950's and first part of the 1960's. I still remained outside a great deal as time marched on, but my high school academic studies, soon followed in the late 60's with my undergraduate Oklahoma State University coursework, forced me inside to study more and more. The academic routine continued constantly, and resulted in more confinement during my professional school days, finally completing that training marathon in 1978. With my formal professional training in my "rear view mirror", I lit out for Southern California, and "climate paradise" in the greater San Diego area. It is while I was there in the utopia of constant spring and wonderful blooming plant smells, I took up the routine practice of daily walking.

It was a natural fit, wonderful year-round weather, and the rural setting of my living environment there. I purchased a nice tract home in Bonita, a very small town not too far from downtown San Diego; i.e., just a short drive southeast of "America's Finest City". It was very safe to walk in my neighborhood, and my routine haunt was to also circle the Chula Vista Golf Course with it's massive eucalyptus trees, and beautiful growing green plants everywhere! I soon discovered the simple joy most walkers/runners find with the solitude of observing everything around us,

while usually getting the surge of exercise-induced chemicals flowing through our brains, too. Just to be outside, enjoying Mother Nature, sometimes listening to your Walkman (remember, this was the late 70's!), and burning exercise calories; what a rush, huh?

So, the family move was made back to Our Town in 1981, but my walking routine continued, just in a different setting. True, I no longer had the Southern California weather to rely on for its usual consistency, but nothing could compare to returning to my roots. I also had my bride, Debbie, and my children with me, so, of course, this made it the absolute best situation!

Our first home brought my feet to the sidewalks of North Washington Street on a routine basis, but that location didn't last too long until we purchased our second home, a few miles away in the southwest portion of Our Town. Here the quieter neighborhood streets, and occasionally the Stillwater Golf and Country Club expansive green area, were a perfect fit for my routine mental and physical walking exercise. I will admit over the years, I have occasionally tried some bicycle riding, but that form of movement for me has been short-lived. One of the many things I enjoy about walking is, for me, it requires almost no preparation. I simply put on the appropriate clothing, shoes, head gear, and walk out the door. I'm a somewhat slow walker, too, so after about a couple of miles of the outdoors, I am back at my starting point in less than 40 minutes of movement time.

Many times over the years, I have been in deep thought about something going on in my brain, and after my "therapeutic" outing, I certainly feel mentally refreshed.. Yes, it's also true, rarely, I really don't really want to go out, but with a little internal push, I get going, and almost always feel better for having done this relatively brief exercise that particular day.

Even with my low back issues I have previously discussed over the past 10 years, my daily walking gets accomplished. I am so glad I still have been able to do this daily simple exercise.

Moving ahead, I just hope my future continues each day with one step in front of the last one.