Fitness Files: Getting in shape can start with a walk

When a friend showed up to have coffee, I suggested we walk to Starbucks, a few blocks from my house.

Unacceptable suggestion! I knew immediately by the “You’re kidding!” look in her eyes. “It’s just down the hill,” I coaxed, “and it’s a pretty walk.”

She reached for her car keys.

My friend is a newly diagnosed diabetic who could control her disease with exercise and weight loss, but she hates the thought of exercise more than her diagnosis.

I empathize. I remember despising exercise. Now I couldn’t live without it. How did I change?

In 1976, I was a chubby new mom with an unstoppable appetite.

I started running for weight control. Every muscle fiber and brain cell screamed, “Stop!” But I pushed through a half-block run and came home to eat.

Overeating convinced me to get out the next day.

Breathless misery, unrelenting fatigue, body in full rebellion. These were my running companions for months.

Friends wanted to peel off poundage too, so we lumbered about together, jogging a block, two blocks and, finally, all the way to the library, a three-mile round-trip. Might as well have been a Mars expedition. Never dreamed anyone could reach the library without a car.

Hardly realizing the change, I began to turn away from food before the overstuffed feeling. I didn’t want to wreck the hard-won calorie deficit of my workout by bingeing. In the following three years, I slimmed down. People started conversations with, “You’re a runner …”

At parties, guys sought me out to talk running the same way they talked sports with others. Then a friend invited me to a race. Standing around afterward, I heard my name. I’d placed! A bronze medal.

Here’s the best part. In the years after those ugly mornings, pulling myself out of bed to pant with pain, the panting stopped and the pain subsided. I enjoyed the movement. Though hauling my body down the street at a jogging pace was not easy, it was an exhilarating challenge.

I still loathe the sound of the alarm but savor running through the cool early-morning air, smelling the sharp perfume of eucalyptus trees, experiencing the silence of streets while others sleep.

I’m a different person now. Little by little, dread of exercise evaporated, replaced by the reward of well-being that pervades post-aerobic activity. I’d always cared what people thought about me, but finally I found something more important than anyone else’s opinion. I was proud of myself. I had challenged myself to a long run and achieved it.

I wrote this for my friend, who could recover from Type 2 diabetes if she built up to a vigorous walking program and experienced the cascade of benefits that comes with it.

Adopting the habit of aerobic exercise takes time and perseverance.

But if I did it, anybody can.

Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who ran the Los Angeles Marathon at age 70, winning first place in her age group. Her blog is lazyracer@blogspot.com.