Walking to Work

My car broke down last week, 20 miles from home. Long story short, I was without wheels for 2 days. The good news is that I live 1.5 miles from my office, so I was able to walk to work on Thursday. (I was off on Friday.) It got me to wondering why it is that I don't walk to work more often. It's crazy that I live so close and drive nearly every day. I can make a million excuses: I need my car for errands during the day or appointments after work, it's too hot, it's too cold, it's raining, I don't feel safe walking home at night (the office is downtown), and on and on. And maybe some of those reasons are valid. But as I see gas prices going up and up, and think of how high they were last summer, I've been thinking that maybe I should consider walking to work more often. In addition to the money I'll save, I'll get a little more exercise and maybe do a small thing to help the environment. So I walked to work yesterday, and I'm hoping I can do this at least 1 or 2 times each week, maybe more, depending on my after-work commitments.

So what about you? How do you get to work? And are there ways to get more walking (or biking) into your commute?

Month #3 Update

Hard to believe it's that time again, but here it is...

Weight and diet: I'm down 16 pounds in 12 weeks, and 4 in the last 4. Not bad, not great. Weekends seem to be better, and I'm sure the weight loss is slowing down at least in part because my body's adjusting to less food. All in all, I'm fairly satisfied, considering how hectic things have been. I'll rank this a 3.5 out of 5.

Walking: Not where I'd hoped to be. I caught another cold in March, which meant that just when I was starting to get back on track, my energy got sapped for another 10 day stint. My average weekly miles dropped a bit to 13; my goal is 20. I'm going to give myself a break, though, and call this a 3.

Cross training and strength training: I did manage 1 day of cross training (30 minutes of Tae Bo). Again, not great, but considering I was sick for 1/3 of the month, I'll take it. I'm going to be generous and give myself a 2 on this.

So overall, I'd call it about a 3. I'm really hoping that there are no colds in my future, at least for April, so maybe I'll be able to get my mileage up and schedule some more cross training days. While my weight loss has slowed and my fitness isn't what I'd like, I feel pretty good when I factor in being sick for nearly 4 out of the past 12 weeks. Here's to a better April!