Step 13- Stay active.

Seriously, this is the scene when I get home from work at 4:20 pm. It is so easy to be inactive! With the snow and the -30 degree weather and the near complete lack of sunlight, it's hard to be motivated.

Staying active has a lot to do with what the social workers call “self-care.” For example, yesterday I was alone in the office and had an intoxicated, irate man come in and demand that I fix his problem. After having him up in my grills and being quite certain I would loose a tooth, and street worker I know popped in to get needles and dealt with him for me. It was pretty crazed.

And the best thing to do after something like that? Go play soccer. Soccer has become a HUGE stress relief. I get to run around and kick a ball. The hip checks are really good at letting steam out, though I do get a lot of red cards. Who knew organized physical violence could be such a great coping mechanism?

And what would life be without random limbo parties?

Even while at work, my friend and I take breaks in the afternoon to go for walks. Of course we always have reasons to head out: the mail has to be delivered or something needs to be picked up. It just so happens that we need to walk to the post office box farthest from the office and maybe had to hit up the mall while picking up supplies:

Work involves other forms of activity too, like moving furniture for our housing clients. I should note that we only look this happy while moving furniture because we had just eaten a whole bucket of Mary Brown's chicken. That may have offset the benefits of the cardio work, but only a little.

I am lucky, too, to have a forest in the backyard. This, of course, means hikes and snowshoeing. Last week, when it was -40 with windchill, I could only stay out for 30 minutes at a time. You get tired SO quickly, but I was warned by someone that "if you sit down for a rest, that's where they'll find your body the next day." The body temperature drops quicker that your heart rate. So, as a good friend, I made Jessica make me a snow angle. You know, to keep her warm:

Then there are the weekend walks in the rare and precious sunshine. Granted, this walk was to get a movie, which we watched indoors with the lights off while the sun was shining. Meh- it's the thought, right?

So staying active has just become part of the challenge, I guess. I am not going for the $75 a month gym membership. I honestly don't believe that I will be willing to put on my snow gear for the walk from the parking lot to the gym and back. It's quite a shift to go from the gym 4 days a week, and 40 or so kilos a day on the bicycle to sedentary sloth (is their any other kind?). But hey, who needs cardio around here? Half the year it is too cold to breathe deeply outside.