Urbanized

When I lived in NYC, I did plenty of drinking, eating and the like and never gained a pound. I has no gym membership.

I did have the City's 13,000 miles of sidewalks at my disposal, however. Getting to work involves a 10-minute walk to the subway and five after getting off. The same after work. I would take the train to Herald Square and walk to SoHo.

Then I moved to Charlotte and bought a car.

I had a good life in Charlotte. I also had a gym membership and heaven help me if I hadn't. Short of walking the dog through the neighborhood, something that sounded good, but rarely really happened, most transportation was via the car.

Now, here I am, back in an urban metropolis. My commute now? A 10-minute walk that starts by climbing a big hill. This morning, I needed to go to the hardware store. four blocks later, there I was. We needed to go to Trader Joe's. Bus ride, then 12 blocks. Hell last week, we walked most of the way to the store. And the dog? No choice but to walk her. I cannot just open the door and let her run. Good lord a TRAIN runs down my street, to say nothing of cars.

Point is, I'm back to walking. A lot. For every day things and often many times a day. For kicks, I weighed myself in my Portland hotel the other evening... sure enough. A few pounds lighter.

We still use the gym regularly in our new home, but we're conscious of the fact that we're more active simply by virtue of living where we do. There are already other benefits of the urban setting that seem to have potential.

For instance, we're somewhat limited at the grocery store to what we can carry. It's then up to us to not go to the store every day to pick up something else up.

And really, apartment living is probably better now than it was 30 years ago, chock full of modern amenities... but city life is what's happening outside. And it doesn't have to cost an arm an a leg. There are kayaks to rent on the lake eight blocks away. There are parks to explore and neighborhoods to peruse.

It's nice to be back to urban life, but I'm determined to make the most of all it can do to my benefit.