The Exercise Habit

I have been counting the days since last week's oral surgery, until I am allowed to exercise again. Today's the day! When the weather cooled off a little this evening, I was out the door with Jackson to walk the neighborhood.

In the summer, the best time to walk is often just after the sun sets, when the air is cool and still.

It's only been the last three or four years that I've been making a conscious effort to walk regularly. At first, I used the Health App on my phone to track my steps, but I have been more motivated since Bill brought me a FitBit from some convention he had attended. This time of year, I walk more than 10,000 steps nearly every day. It's become a habit now, except when I'm sick, or when the weather is nasty.

When I was growing up, first in northeastern Nebraska, then in Fairbury in the southeastern part of the state, exercise was not a priority for most people, probably because it just wasn't necessary. Farmers and their families got plenty of exercise just doing chores and walking between barns and other outbuildings. Housewives didn't have nearly as many conveniences as we have now--no dishwashers or vacuums, and certainly no Roombas. When we lived on the farm, Mom was thankful for her labor-intensive, wringer washing machine, which was better than the washboard or laundromat alternatives, but she still had to hang the clothes on the line to dry, and bring them inside again, where she sprinkled them with water and ironed all but the underwear and socks. All of the meals she cooked on the combination wood/propane cookstove were made from scratch. Microwave ovens were not imagined in even the vaguest of dreams.

TV was new and fuzzy, black-and-white, with limited programing, at best. Kids spent most of their free time curled up with a good book, after walking back and forth to the library, or playing outside with their friends. We all had bikes, which we rode all over town, except on snowy winter days, when we shoveled, of course, and went sledding at Crystal Springs, just outside of town.

Even in small towns, people walked from place to place, instead of relying on their cars to take them someplace close by. Nearly all town kids walked or rode their bikes to school, where we played hard on the playground at least four times a day. In Fairbury, Physical Education started in fifth grade, replacing one of our recesses. Oh, how I hated that ugly, red jumpsuit I had to wear, and the endless calisthenics and dodgeball that became our normal routine!

Life in a hotel came with its own forms of built-in exercise. When Mom and Dad managed the Mary-Etta in Fairbury, my family lived in a fourth floor apartment. We were allowed to use the old Otis elevator as long as no paying guests needed it. Otherwise, we used the stairs, often racing each other down the three long flights at breakneck speed. The elevator itself required some muscle to open the heavy glass and metal door, and then the interior, brass gate, so whether we walked or rode up and down, to and from our apartment, we stayed fit.

We were up and down the steps multiple times each day, crisscrossing the lobby to get to the cafe or the big kitchen just off the party rooms. When no events were scheduled, those party rooms became our playrooms, where we rode bikes and roller skated all winter long. The basement was another place to play. Dad hung three swings in the northern-most basement room, just under the big kitchen, where Dan and Laura and I often hung out with our friends. That basement, with its warren of interconnected rooms, was also a great place for a game of hide and seek.

In the summer, we walked or rode our bikes to the pool or one of the parks. Dan played baseball every summer, but, except for intramural basketball and volleyball, there were no organized sports for girls until Laura finally reached High School.

We spent every weekend taking rides in the car, often getting out to walk with Dad as he hunted ducks or pheasants, or whatever was in season, or fishing at one of several nearby lakes.

When I went off to college, I walked back and forth across campus several times a day, and when I started teaching--well, I really wish I could have had a FitBit throughout my teaching career, to record all of my steps each day I taught Kindergarten and Preschool.

It's been several years since Bill decided to take charge of his health, trading his fast food lunches for salads, and working out every morning. His increasingly sedentary lifestyle caught up with him, but now he is no longer the victim of modern conveniences. Instead, he is proof that it often takes an intentional,  purposeful change of habit to be healthy in our contemporary, convenience-filled world. 

Our daughter, Meagan Stobel, took this picture last fall.

I guess you could say that we have both developed the exercise habit.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8