Walking the Walk Talking the Talk
Need to shed the extra kilos gained over the festive season?
Feeling just a little guilty about the hours sitting in front of a screen… .be it the computer or the T.V.
Can’t face joining the gym and paying joining fees yet again whilst knowing its not going to last?
Beginning to think just a little about cholestral, blood pressure etc. problems…Well the answer is simple start walking! And its Free!
It’s a fact that you only use up 250 calories for an hour of walking in comparison to scrubbing floors and using up 275 calories or mowing the lawn and burning up 400 calories!! This is fun, fun, fun!!
First you need decent shoes and then you need a friend. A friend who is supportive and lives conveniently close by. A friend who acts as your early morning alarm clock and conscience!
Trust me I know and its working for me. I have a friend Bernie who is 61 years old and joined the gym a year ago where she does Tai Chi, Pilates, dancing classes and water aerobics so she is rather fit! She lives downstairs from where I do which is just so convenient.
While I am a middle aged whitey, Bernie is of “colour” and I do believe my first real friend of colour whilst living in South Africa!! This friendship has only just happened during the hours of five and seven a.m. whilst we pound the pavements and chat. Every day is like starting a new chapter in my novel as Bernie shares another segment of her life.
While we walk the walk she talks the talk and all my aches and pains are forgotten as I concentrate on the stories of her fascinating life. How we have been robbed of sharing the experiences of each others lives by our separate lifestyles and the regime of the day.
Due to our paranoia of being safe (wisely so I think) I shed myself of our jewelry “just in case” but not Bernie…she wears rings on most fingers and rattles her gold bracelets as we go along and when asked whether she feels nervous or not she reckons that her Tai Chi will come into practice the moment any one gets too close and a few short sharp kicks “they’ll” be sorry they messed with her! The bonus for me is a great feeling of being protected!
Living at the seaside, however, we do elicit curious glances from the holidaymakers especially from the Freestate and Gauteng as they cannot understand how a darky and a whitey can be out walking so early. Maybe it’s the maid and the madam!! To counter these curious looks we take much delight in greeting everyone in hearty tones.
We do avoid parking lots if we notice cars parked with misted windows as Bernie quips “Those folk have brought their bedrooms down here! We better not disturb them!”
We also have a fellow who drives the route we walk regularly, very, very slowly and we call out…”Enjoying your walk?” and have a good chuckle
It’s more like stalking to me.
The world is beautiful at this hour, the beach in particular with the sun glistening over the water and the fisherman silhouetted against the sky.
For some, the day is just ending as nightclubs have just closed or security is going off duty whilst for others the day is just beginning as they arrive to clean up buildings for the business of the rest of the commercial day.
Monkeys play freely in the streets; birds welcome the day noisily as they herald the day with song. Fellow cyclists, joggers and walkers are able to return to base knowing the world is a better place for having got up early and got out there and walked the walk. Come on guys up and out and get going, it’s great!
