Morning is breaking

Now that day is breaking a little later, I'm waking a little later than I did all summer. Since I still go to sleep at about the same time, that means I have less awake time than I used to. Which is fine, it's not like my schedule is filled with to-dos which absolutely must get done before the day is done.

My daily walk/jog/run is THE must-do daily activity. Here we are, more than a third of the way through the ninth month of 2013 and I have already nearly accomplished my 1000 miles-in-2013 goal.

I'm gobsmacked!

I've missed a few days, and will no doubt miss a few more, but it hasn't been and won't be because I want/ed to. I've either been ill or on the road. Nothing else has stopped me. There have been days when I just haven't felt like it, but once you get going those feelings go away.

They really do.

And, of course, I've also managed to figure out a way eat that, combined with daily activity, has helped me shed some of the weight that has held me back and down nearly all my life.

I've never been able to set a year-long goal and stick with it. I'm not sure why, other than that I, along with most of the rest of us, seem to have evolved into a want-it-now, instant-gratification society.

So what happened this year?

I think the biggest factor is – and this might sound silly, I know – I qualified for Social Security this summer. My first benefit was deposited in July. Being old enough to collect Social Security means I'm most likely a good three-fourths or, perhaps, two-thirds of the way through my lifetime.

My children live in two different states, and each have children of their own. I don't want my old age to be one in which either my children or my grandchildren need to be my caretakers. I'd love to be that little old lady who still puttered in the garden and cooked her own meals and posted her daily photo to Facebook and blogged until the day she died.

I realized as I approached the magic age of 62 that I won't be that little old lady if I don't do something about my physical condition.

The combination of

1. finding a food plan that works and
2.  a daily activity as simple as walking 

has finally resulted in a weight approaching normal. And I'm finding muscles I haven't seen in years. Literally years.

One thing I've mentioned to real-life friends, particularly those who wonder how I can live without bread or cheese or cake, is that I've eaten bread and cheese and cake before. I know how they taste. I'm sure I'll eat them again, given a long enough life. I started out not eating bread or cheese or cake for 30 days. Five months later, the benefits of NOT eating those things far outweighs the pleasure I might get from having them, even once in a while.

And now, having said all that, it's time for my walk.