Agony of De feet

Like most men as they grow older I have to be nagged to do the right thing about my health. This may be one of the main reasons men don't live as long as women. I happened to mention to my wife, Joyce, the other day that I had noticed that when I my blood pressure was tested the past few times at the doctor that the readings had gone up. The thing about my wife is that she does not nag. She simply makes me an appointment with the doctor and tells me I need to be there. So of course I found myself at the doctor being told that I was now a diabetic and that I had hypertension. So the doctor tells me that I need to lose 30 pounds and to basically get moving.

Now, while I am a passionate gardener and get exercise in the garden, I am also arthritic and find that I have to pace myself, or I will have to pay the price the next day or even for a few days if I am particularly ambitious. Ever since I first had to attend PE class in junior high school I have hated calisthetics. To voluntarily do sit ups or God forbid pushups is not high on my list of priorities. So I had to look around for some kind of exercise that I will do because I do not hate it. Joyce suggested walking on a treadmill. Now this to me is in the same realm as doing squat thrusts. It is deadly boring and there just isn't any way you can jazz it up enough to make me want to get on a treadmill and walk like a donkey grinding corn.

Of course the solution is to walk outdoors. While I like Port Orchard, it does not offer lots of options for safe walking. Seattle has walking trails all over the city and even out in the country in places like Orting there are walking and biking trails on abandoned railroad right of ways. However, Port Orchard is on a penninsula and was never a manufacturing base, nor did the train ever run here. People got to Port Orchard in the old days by boat, not the train. Consequently, there is not much land dedicated to walking. The road we live on has narrow shoulders and people routinely drive 15 to 20 miles over the speed limit, so it's not really a good option.

Fortunately, downtown Port Orchard offers a decent alternative. This weekend we initiated our walking program. On Saturday morning we got up early and prepared to take a walk along the marina and back up through bustling downtown Port Orchard. This began with a debate between Joyce and I. I watch as she is getting ready and I notice that she is reaching into the basket where we store the dog leashes. "No" I say. "We're not bringing Max!" "But he needs the exercise too" "I don't want this to be about walking the dog!" "It's not. He'll be fine, you'll see." Now, I know this debate could go on and on and we'll never get to the walk, so I say, "Fine, but I'm not walking him or cleaning up after him if he decides to take a dump in the middle of the sidewalk."

So, it's settled, and we proceed to the marina, where Max does surprizingly well. We make the circuit in about twenty minutes and guess what! I feel better afterwards (other than the knee, which is throbbing) On the way home I said to Joyce. "Remember when we came back from Spain last year? We had done so much walking that a little jaunt like this would have been a breeze." At that time I had made a resolution that I would continue to walk and try to get in better shape. And I even followed through briefly, walking at lunch time in Lincoln park. However, like most resolutions it soon became easier to take a nap at lunch time, especially during the holiday season, than to get out and walk in the rain.

This time is different. I would like to be healthier at age 65 than I was at age 55. I spoke to my brother last week and was telling him about the doctor's ultimatim. My brother started exercising when he began to gain weight twenty years ago. He said that he walks 40 minutes a day on week days and 80 minutes on weekends and on a treadmill at that. I told him that I think the secret is staying active in the first place. It's much easier to stay active than to try to start from less than zero and get up to speed 20 years later. For one thing, your body is very busy falling apart. It's amazing what you can be injured by once you pass sixty. I had to have a cortizone shot in my elbow because I used the leaf blower a little too long. That is just sad! At any rate, we took our second walk today (Max came along too, of course) and the knee isn't hurting today. Oh, and Joyce had to clean up Max's doo doo when he decided the flower beds in the marina would be a great toilet. Who knows, maybe there is hope, if not for Max, at least for me!