PonderEthereal

I noticed a couple of weeks ago, when I started to walk across a parking lot that I had to build momentum before I stepped out - like an old lady. A gave it some thought and I realized that when I walk, I walk between my hips. My core, my middle is doing nothing. I don’t know how else to describe it other than for each step, I’m walking from hip to hip as opposed to walking from my center. Often, my feet scuff when I walk.. I’m a lazy walker. And then I thought about all the times that I’m standing in line. I rest on one hip and then switch to the other.

So I started standing up straight. Not just from the waist up - because I think that’s what most people think of when they are told to stand up straight - but I started pulling my center out of my hips. Literally as if I’m stretching my upper body up and away from my hips. That wasn’t easy at all for me to even do standing still. But I resolved that I was going to learn to do it. So I started walking that way when I walk the dog. I catch myself every few minutes resting on a hip while I wait for him to pee - and I stretch myself back up. Old habits die hard.

After one regular 10 minute walk, that otherwise was effortless (because I was being lazy), I was glistening from head to toe. On the second walk, I strained a muscle in my hip. By the third walk, my abs were starting to ache and I could feel it in the base of my ribcage and in my back. A week later, my tummy is flat. I’m not overweight but I’m no skinny ninny. I’ve had a pudge for several years now. The fact that I can put my hand on my hip and my fingers can wrap around the front is novel to me. It’s been 6 years since that was possible and that was only after 200 crunches a day.

I walk the dog that way - and I’m starting to walk that way more in my every day life. I GET now why walking is supposed to be exercise. You’re supposed to not be doing it all lazy-like. I started walking the dog 3 times a day back in February and didn’t see my weight budge at all. A week of doing this and although my weight hasn’t budged, I can see it in how my pants fit. And as much as I tried to stand and sit up straighter before, now, it’s so much easier. My upper body just falls into line when my lower body is sitting up straight. There is less popping and grinding in my back and my hips now. I can feel my back building muscle and my body learning to adjust. It feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s amazing what a change in posture can do.