My challenging first days of the TCW Walking Challenge

After reading posts from all you who’ve joined me on this journey, I’m encouraged and empowered to know you, too, are huffing and puffing in your living room or neighborhood. To encourage you in turn, here’s a peek at my first week:

Sunday: I have a disagreement with my boyfriend, so I walk to work off frustration. Not the prettiest reason to work out, but I'm thankful for any motivation! After a long winter, I revel in the fresh air—even though I’m bundled up for the still-frigid Chicago temperatures. I walk to a nearby lake, affectionately dubbed “My Happy Place,” where I sit on a park bench and call a friend on my cell phone. I know sitting and chatting aren’t exactly aerobic activities, but I rationalize that I'm pacing myself. Thanks to my friend’s encouraging words, the peaceful scenery, and my exercise-induced endorphins, I return home calmer and happier.

I wanted to take vengeance into my own hands.

I pounded viciously on my dining room window. “I’ll get you back!” I promised the squirrel perched atop my backyard fence post.

No doubt he’d struck the same impertinent pose atop my living room couch the previous morning, after strewing the remnants of his garbage-bag feast all over the pillows.

The scent of discarded leftovers must have beckoned him from the chilly outdoors and impelled him through a crevice between my open dining room window and its closed inner storm pane. For immediately after I’d left for work, he’d apparently squeezed through the hole, vaulted onto the floor, and dug gleefully into the kitchen trash waiting to be taken out.

Handling those no-longer-but-not-yet transitions of life

Last week, after a long season of substantial snow and frigid temperatures, the weather suddenly seemed more inviting. So when sunshine beckoned, I decided to walk my dog, Boomer. Dressed in precautionary layers—looking every inch the Michelin Man—I trudged, Boomer in tow, through my neighborhood, while the sun deceptively promised the warmth I discovered it didn’t deliver.

The brisk air and my frisky dog’s behavior invigorated me. But I couldn’t help feeling a bit down over the dearth of spring scents and colors. We were in what I call the “ugly season,” that limbo of in-between, when it’s no longer winter, but not yet spring. Everywhere, mud waited to thaw. Debris—brown oak leaves, splintered twigs, Styrofoam cups, plastic bottles, flyaway newsprint—scattered in the chill wind, cluttering fence line and street curb and landscape. Despite Easter’s approach, many houses still wore a weary wardrobe of holiday trimmings: scraggly Christmas wreaths bedecking door fronts; sorry light strands festooning eaves and gutters.

Take the first step today.

Something wasn’t quite right. I was watching a workout DVD while sitting on my couch—and eating.

In my defense, I’d stopped home for lunch during my workday, and popped in the DVD as research. I’d just interviewed fitness guru Leslie Sansone for the “TCW Talks to . . . ” article. I figured I should see her demonstrating her hallmark walking-centered workouts before I wrote her story.

But I felt silly just sitting there—resting my feet on my coffee table and munching my turkey sandwich—as Leslie and her five fitness buddies were working up a sweat on my TV screen. So I put down my half-eaten sandwich, stood up, and started walking along.

Why I'm venture capital for the kingdom

Twelve hundred miles away from me, in Florida, my in-laws struggle with the burdens of aging and ill health. As much as my husband and I long to live closer to them, because of our jobs, we can’t. And although we wish to visit them more often, except in times of emergency (and there have been a few), we travel south only a few times a year—when our budget allows.

My in-laws live alone and refuse to consider assisted living. My husband and I wish we could offer hands-on help, but, sadly, we’re not available for their ongoing challenges of doctor appointments, grocery trips, and car repairs, not to mention hurricane warnings!