Thursdays at CatholicMom.com begin with a look at the past week’s Small Successes!

If you’ve hung around this blog long enough, you’ll remember that I spent several weeks in a boot last winter, trying to heal from tendinitis in my foot. Actually, I have it in both feet, but one was worse than the other.

I got out of the boot in January and was cleared to just do neighborhood walking soon afterward.

And, to be honest, I was afraid. I walked around the corner to the strip mall once or twice, but wouldn’t go farther than that, because I didn’t want to be too far from home if my foot began to hurt. I didn’t want to damage it even more–I’d been told by the doctor that foot surgery would be in my future at that point.

A few weeks ago I worked up the guts to walk around my block (0.9 miles)–and wound up with shin splints for my trouble. It’s enough of a slope, I guess, for that to be a factor, though nothing compared to the hills in the area where I grew up, which I used to walk around on all the time.

When it comes to exercise, I’m basically lazy. I don’t want to do it and will find easy excuses not to. The combination of laziness and fear was paralyzing.

And as spring came around, so many of my friends began sharing photos of their runs. I rejoiced with them at their progress–with more than a twinge of jealousy. No, I don’t run–and I never will again. I’m not allowed to run. I’m also not allowed on a treadmill, which is the one thing I enjoyed doing at the gym.

This week, though, I made myself get out there. I’ve done some exercise each morning for the past 7 days. 5 of those days were neighborhood walks, after I cleared it with my back-door neighbor that I could cut through her backyard to get to a flatter area for a walk. Twice, I went to the gym and rode the bike, which is the exercise my doctor recommended for me, but which I hate.

Today, I brought my Kindle to the gym and propped it up on the little shelf where the display screen is, and changed the font to a larger size. Instead of watching how many miles I’d pedaled, I read a novel. 25 minutes on the bike sped by. I’ll do that again. Anything to get guilt-free reading time! I can stomach the bike when there’s a good story to keep me distracted.

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