It’s been a Hell of a January for me! For some reason or another, I decided I’d try this “walk a day” thing as part of a New Year’s resolution – and in the process of doing so – managed to quit a bad habit cold turkey without even really trying – AND had a tooth yanked out of my jaw! I speculate that getting the tooth pulled was kind of like hitting the “reset” button! And what better time of the year to try to pare down or get rid of some of your worst habits and make a vain effort to “better” yourself?

I have not actually been out on walks every single day since making the New Year’s “decree!” The day I got the tooth pulled, for example, I rested all day and was pretty doped up, When the whole bottom half of our state was a virtual ice rink last week, I skipped the walk that day, too. I am still hitting the 150 minute per week threshold that’s recommended for fitness walking, however…

As of today (plan to go out for walk in a bit), I have been out for walks on 17 different days in the month of January. My energy levels have gone up, I’m getting more toned, and I’m back to using the notch on my belt that I’m “supposed” to be using! I plan to keep going with the regular walks, but also “stepping” them up whenever I can – speeding up for a couple of minutes at a time, etc. (I think the hard core fitness people would call this “interval training”). I’m kind of a cheapskate, so the big perk to me is that walking is…TOTALLY FREE! Aside from having to keep my shoes in decent repair, I’m not paying a gym membership fee, nor am I walking lap after lap on an indoor track (just…shoot me). Not that mall walking – which I do on days when weather is horrific or it’s convenient for me to do after work – is much more interesting! But it sure beats the Hell out of doing laps on a track at a gym! Besides the people watching benefit, there are other benefits…

For one thing, malls tend to have lots of things that smell good! Pretzel stands can be mighty aromatic when the pretzels are baking – and for some strange reason, the salad joint, Salad’s Up, smells SUPER good whenever I walk by! What could possibly make a salad joint smell so damned good? Must be the meats you can put in your salad. Romaine doesn’t have a smell. Hey, better to be tempted by the delicious smells of salad than… other foods that ain’t so good for ya! The Cinnabon stand used to be really good for tempting you with its sugary, fatty decadence, but it closed down about a year ago or so (I hear the rents got to be too much).  Speaking of smells, I COULD do without the smells wafting from Bath & Body Works. Noxious to me. I don’t like all of those strong, fake smells. Yummy food smells I can handle, but I can’t handle the combined fake smells of vanilla, coconut, citrus and whatever other scents are “popular” these days. Pomegranate? Acai? Loganberry? When I took a walk Monday afternoon, there was a lonely BBW employee wearing an apron and just kind of standing near the entrance. Unsure what the purpose of that was…If I ever had a job where it was my job to do that, I’d feel tempted to shoot myself. I like jobs that keep me busy (idle hands are the Devil’s playthings, after all, LOL)! I have a very hard time believing that there wasn’t SOMETHING else she could have been doing besides standing idly by the door as though she were waiting for a bus. There’s always something that needs dusting, something that needs to be straightened, or stock that could be replenished. I’m 99 percent sure there was probably a piece of merchandise needing to be re-ticketed or written off/charged back because it got damaged.  And there is always a misplaced piece of merchandise to place where it belongs. Perhaps a stray container of lip balm hiding among the lavender candles.  Sigh…customers…gotta love ’em (not)!