A Block is Just a Block, and a Mile is Just a Mile

Okay, I see you bringing out your knives to stab me. But hold off for a second. When we were children, we were so excited at the opportunity to walk down the street, jump around in the backyard, and just do anything besides sit in the same position for hours. Today, as adults, we just want to sit. Yes, we work and all that. And we have more responsibility so we get tired at the end of the day. But children get tired too. They have to go to school, do homework, and argue with their parents all day. You get my point?

As a culture, we have to start changing the way we think. You might say that we can afford all the luxuries of life, so why should we give up our engines for a half hour walk when we could get where we are going in ten minutes? Well, so your body can thank you. That’s why. Growing up in the African culture, most of us had uncles, aunties, cousins, house girls, house boys, cooks, drivers, wash men, and whatever other form of help we could find. So we don’t even walk down the street anymore. Someone else makes the food, serves the food, cleans the house, drives you around, and if possible, they would wash us too. So it is difficult to start thinking that we need to start walking more. But yes, that’s what I’m trying to say in a roundabout fashion: We need to start walking more.

On days like this, where it is icy on the ground (depending on where you are) and all you want to do is stay home, I can understand your hesitance to even open your front door. But don’t you wake up in the AM to go to work, church, the mosque, and even grocery shopping? You get up to go to the club, visit your friends, do your laundry, and get your car oil changed. So why not start thinking of your body like your laundry? When all your clothes are dirty, you’d have nothing to wear. Or like your car? When you don’t change your oil, your car could go through serious problems. Your body is like a car. You have to fix it one way or the other. So it’s either you work with it now to keep it running right, or you try (emphasis on ‘try’) to fix it when it goes bad.

Walking for about half an hour every day helps us keep our engines running. Granted, it may not burn the amount of fat that running does, and it may not give us amazing muscles like yoga might, but it is a good start. Most of us are busy, but in watching people, I do not know anyone that I can really look at and say “This person cannot possibly spare half an hour today to take a walk.” People like to look busy, and so complain that they have no time to do anything, but when you look at their lives, they do have time. Even if they don’t, they can make time if it is important enough. So my question for you is why are our bodies not important enough???

Some of us really need to spend some time in hospitals or with dying people to realize that a little can go a long way. We cannot control everything, but we can control what we can control. We can control our legs, right? Make it fun! Walk to the mall, walk around with your little brothers, sisters, cousins, sons, daughters this Christmas. A little walking won’t kill you. It only takes about 3 minutes to walk a block, and twenty minutes to walk a mile at a regular pace. Just think about making it to the next street, and then the next street, and before you know it, BAM!, you’ve walked a mile.

So please take a walk today. A block is just that: a block.

Have the Merriest Christmas ever Eights & Weights!