No Pain, No Gain

I’m really trying hard to lose some weight and get in shape. At the moment I’m kind of stuck on a plateau, and with Thanksgiving on Thursday, I’ll be happy to just stay on that plateau. That’s why I was exercising this afternoon. And I think I hurt myself. What kind of exercising was I doing? I was taking my daughter for a walk. Now, to my credit, I wasn’t just pushing her in the stroller. That’s too easy. Instead, I had my 23 pound baby strapped on my back, while I walked to miles in what ended up feeling like a blizzard. Yes, it was pretty cold today, but we were pretty well bundled up. I had on a t-shirt, sweatshirt, leggings, sweat pants and ski jacket. Alison had on a long sleeved shirt, denim overalls, heavy winter coat, snowpants, boots, mittens, hat and hood. Most of her trunk was also surrounded by her backpack, so that some added protection from the wind. It wasn’t snowing when we started off, well, maybe there were a few flakes here and there, but nothing I was too worried about. Something in me said I should put the rain/sun shade on Alison’s backpack, though, just in case. You never know what might happen. We went for a walk one time in the summer and ended up in the pouring rain despite there not being a cloud in the sky other than the one over our block. To bad that little something didn't tell me to take an umbrella, too, but off we went. We should have just stayed home. By the time we got to the corner, the snow was coming down a little more, and the wind was picking up a bit. By the time we were at the half way point, I could hardly look up when we were walking into the wind without having my eyeballs pelted with snow flakes. I normally walk at a pretty decent pace. I can do a little over 2 miles in about 45 minutes, which might seem slow, but I do have to stop at about 5 intersections and have to stop to pick up dog poop at least once (sometimes twice). Today, with the weather getting worse and worse, I kicked it up a notch, knocked about 1/4 of a mile off my regular route and got home in just over half an hour (intersections and poop pick-up included). In the process, I think I really pulled something in my leg. But, I walked off a pound, so it must have been worth it, right? At least Alison enjoyed herself.