Intentional Momentum

My New Year’s intention is to continue exercising.

Although I am a very active person with old injuries and not a lot of hours left in the day I find I’ve had to find creative ways to exercise.  Running our dog daycare, I walk dogs every single day but I need to really get my heart rate up to feel my healthiest.  At the same time, my exercise needs to be something that just fits in to my life on a daily basis, easily. It needs to be something that I enjoy in order to continue.

Two months ago, I started walking once a day by myself in the wilderness with my dog only.  It gives me the time to concentrate on me, and me only, which means I can really enjoy myself getting in shape doing two of my favorite things – being outdoors in the wild, and being with my dog.

In the last month I’ve progressed to running.  After shattering my foot in a horse accident a few years ago, I was told I’d never hike or run again but I’m determined to give it a go.  I know my body well, and I am very in tune to what works and what doesn’t.   I find it very difficult but exhilarating.

In previous years, I have often stopped my workout routines when the kids or animals needed me. During the busy times of the year, it can be hard to keep myself balanced, and I can become frustrated. I have many times let go of my exercise time to make room for extra tasks.  Knowing this is can be issue, I’ve decided to start running with one of my horses as well as my dog.  It gives me time to bond with them alone one on one, keeps them in shape, allows me to work on training and keeps my mind off of how tough the running is.

It also makes it fun! There isn’t a lot of time to think about how hard the run is with a twelve hundred pound animal running along beside you ensuring they don’t step on your toes. Rather than try to fit in a few hours a day to exercise horses as well as fit my own runs in I’ve decided to combine the two. It’s working!

Written by: Amber Schick; Unleashed! Petcare Services