My quest to be fit into my old age has continued over the past couple of weeks with almost daily walking and now (ta da!!) I am running for about 2 minutes at a time several times through my walks. Sounds so minuscule but it is really an effort at this beginning end of the process. I didn’t realise just how unfit my heart and lungs had become. I used to be able to run for hours without getting out of breath, but that is a dim memory.

However, I find it interesting to observe just how quickly my mind has become used to the renewed activity again. I look forward to getting out of bed at 6am and getting dressed for a walk with Bonnie my Border Collie dog. My body and brain are looking forward to the exercise now after about 4-5 weeks. Marvellous how the brain can adjust to a new habit given the regularity. There must have been an old area of the brain that was used for this function before and now I am reactivating it and it is claiming back the neurons for fitness and physical activity. My stride is more confident and sure, my hill walking is better. I used to plod up the hill through the bush near home but now I stride up at the end of the walk.

My little bit of running is such a hopeful sign for me. Mind you by running I mean a slow jog! Last week I actually felt like breaking into a run during my walk and I thought, “I haven’t felt like this for a long time”. So this week a few short 2 minute runs. I am running a bit knock-kneed but I know from previous experience that if I stick at it for a few days I will get hte old fluency back and begin to run in a more even fluid way that feels just great.

This next week I want to begin changing my diet so I can start reducing the weight I have put on over the past 15 years. Little by little. I am beginning with cutting down on the bread and fats in spreads. lets see what difference that makes. More in a week.

Happy age fitness!

Bernie