CONFESSIONS OF A ‘BORN AGAIN’ COUCH POTATO
I was born a couch potato, and I thought I’d die a couch potato! But miracles happen, and I’ve been ‘born again,’ redeemed from my lazy ways! If you want to know how it happened, read on.
I wasn’t an especially active child, preferring to read a book, ride a horse we boarded for friends, or create play scenarios out of my vivid imagination. Some health problems in my early teens slowed me down even more.
In high school, marching band during football season was about as active as I got! Physical education classes were a nightmare for a klutz like me. Twice I sprained my wrists, running into the brick wall of the gym during an active group game.
The several weeks we spent exercising on a trampoline were pure torture for me. The disaster, when it finally happened, could have been worse. I bounced myself (bounce, bounce) right off the trampoline into the support ropes (boooiiing) and then onto the gym floor (splaaaattt). I sometimes wondered why our gym teacher would never let me on it again, but I was thankful!
Team sports were even worse. Not only was I the last to be chosen for either team, but some of my classmates came up with some really creative strategies for not choosing me at all!
A year of PE was required in college, too, and that was not my most notable achievement in higher education! Thirteen weeks of tennis were frustrating since my classmates and instructor expected me to be knowledgeable and coordinated. The next quarter was volleyball, and I got hit with the ball more often than the other way ‘round!
Spring PE had me going back and forth to the bowling alley downtown. That was the final indignity! The pin setters (yes, friends, it was in the days before automatic pin setter machines!) just sat on their duffs and laughed out loud as they watched my ball roll down the gutter, never touching the pins, thus saving them work.
Nursing school gave me a little more physical exercise and time on my feet. It also forced me to spend a lot of time sitting in the library studying. Entry into the world of employment gave me ample opportunity for walking, standing, writing in charts, talking with patients, and phoning doctors, sometimes at very unpopular hours.
Through the years, as aches and pains increased, I moved into education, and later chaplaincy. There my only forms of exercise were talking, grading papers and praying! My favorite indoor sport continued to be reading.
My dear physical-exercise-conscious husband did manage to woo me onto the back seat of a bicycle built for two. For a short time, when the weather was fit, we rode nearly every morning. Several times, we even rode the Tour of the Scioto River Valley. TOSRV is a 200 mile round trip bike ride from Columbus to Portsmouth, Ohio over Mother’s Day week-end!
Work schedules got busier, however. The tandem bike began spending more time in the garage than on the road. I began spending more time sitting and reading, sitting and writing, sitting and thinking, or just sitting. I had become a couch potato – again!
My first call to repentance was an unexpected diagnosis of type II diabetes! I had to lose some weight to bring my blood sugar numbers down. I started walking twice a day, and painlessly lost twenty-five pounds in about three months! Best of all, I felt better with the regular exercise and diabetic management.
Then we retired, and our time became our own again. We began walking regularly together. After we sold our home in Ohio and were living full-time in our RV, we began spending the winter months in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. There the sun shines almost all year round and the winter temperatures are often in the 60s and 70s! Finally we could walk every day all year round – and we do!
Every morning and evening we walk two miles, and usually ride our bikes
four miles in the afternoon as well. Sometimes we also swim laps in the
pool and I enjoy forty-five minutes of Water Aerobics twice a week. On
Thursdays we join other folks from our park on a bicycle ride to one of
the beauty spots of the area.
We don’t move fast, but we keep a steady pace. This daily exercise routine makes us feel so good, it’s better than an energy pill! Over time, the aches and pains have even lessened a bit. It’s like being born again!
So, friends, there you have the testimony of a former couch potato! If it stirs a yearning in you, don’t run to the nearest gym and pay big bucks for a membership. Just head for a walking trail, or a lightly traveled street, and WALK. If you do, another couch potato will have been redeemed!
11/11/09 - mshr