Adventures in Walking From the Couch to 5K Chapter 1

It’s a warm and sunny early spring morning in Michigan with the sparrows chirping out the window. AJ is eating her breakfast oatmeal. Her twins, Cooper and Carson, are in the dining room of their townhouse. The boys are chattering away with the small television playing their favorite cartoon, Scooby Doo. A commercial comes on for a beginner’s training program to walk a 5K.

AJ thinks to herself I need to lose 25 pounds, this would be a great start. I need more energy with these boys. Plus, Ann Marie would want me to lose this weight. Tears roll down her cheeks as she thinks about Ann Marie. They were as close as sisters, even though she was her sister-in-law. It’s only been six months since Ann Marie passed away from type-2 diabetes due to her obesity. She writes down the website on a small yellow sticky note with her purple ball point pen.

The boys finish their bowls of Cheerios, get down from their chairs and go outside to play. Cooper grabs his basketball on the way out the door. Carson flies out the door and grabs his flat black BMX bike. Cooper shoots hoops while Carson is doing tricks on his bike.

She cleans up the breakfast dishes, sits down in the middle of the sectional couch with her laptop computer, and brings up the website of the 5K training program. AJ sees that she can still sign up and proceeds to do so. Then she sends an email off to her ex-husband, Michael, letting him know that she signed up for the training program and will need him to watch the boys when she has training walks on Thursday evenings.

Putting her laptop on the table to the right of the couch, AJ grabs her camera as she heads outside. She starts taking pictures of Carson on his bike doing tricks and Cooper shooting hoops.

Carson is riding around doing some bunny hops and going up and down on the ramps he has set up on the one side of the driveway.

Cooper is practicing his free throw shots. He’s doing pretty good for a 5-year-old. Then he starts dribbling up and down the driveway in front of the garage of the townhouse.

AJ sits down on the front porch continuing to take pictures of the boys while enjoying the heat of the sunshine. After taking quite a few pictures she puts her camera down on the porch and walks over to join Cooper with his basketball. They have fun going back and forth trying to make shots while the other one blocks.

After playing outside for a few hours, they all head inside. The boys run in the door and kick off their shoes. They run upstairs to their bathroom and get all washed up. AJ goes into the kitchen, washes her hands in the sink and gets the ingredients out of the refrigerator to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Carson pops into the kitchen and asks, “Can I help?”

“Of course! Wash your hands first,” replies AJ. He runs to the kitchen sink, jumps up on his stool and washes his hands. She hands him the bread. “Lay out the bread on the cutting board.” Carson places the slices of bread in a single layer on the cutting.

AJ is buttering the bread slices and Cooper comes sliding on the tile into the kitchen and says, “I want to help too!”

“You need to wash your hands first,” she tells him. He jumps up on the stool and washes his hands. AJ hands him the slices of American cheese and says to him “you get to put the cheese on all the bread slices that are buttered.”

Cooper places cheese on the buttered bread slices. She assembles the sandwiches and grills them on the stove. While the sandwiches are cooking, Carson gets the plates out and Cooper gets the potato chips out, and they set the table. When the sandwiches are ready, they all sit down to eat lunch.

While having lunch AJ says to the boys, “I am going to do a training program and you boys will be with your dad while I am out training with my group. However, when I have homework walks you boys can go with me.”

The boys get big smiles on their faces about the homework walks and say, “Can we go now?”

AJ explains, “It will be soon, but not yet.”

They finish up their lunches, put all the dishes away and head back outside to play. This time Cooper grabs his green mountain bike and rides up and down the driveway. Carson once again practices his bunny hops and riding up and down the ramps. AJ gets down next to her garden area and begins to weed her garden.

Thinking to herself, this nice garden area will have some great strawberries this summer that I’ll be able to add to salads and smoothies.

She takes a break by sitting on the porch while the sun is getting a little bit lower in the sky. The boys are loving their bikes. AJ decides to go into the garage and get her bike out.

“Hey, let’s all go for a bike ride,” she says and the boys excitedly yell “YEAH!”

After closing up the townhouse they head down the sidewalk towards the bike trail. AJ follows behind the boys so that she can keep an eye on them.

She instills in the boys, “While on the sidewalk and trail you boys need to stay single file on the right side of the trail and to let people know when you come up behind them. We will go out for a little bit and then turn around and head back home.”

About thirty minutes later she tells them, “Alright boys, lets turn around and head for home.” Carson and Cooper race back home. Carson wins by a tire. Both boys are very excited. AJ gets there and opens the garage door so the boys can put their bikes in the garage along with the bike ramps. Then it’s already time to get ready for dinner.

The boys go inside and get all washed up for dinner. AJ heads into the kitchen and gets out the ingredients for dinner, which are salmon, carrots and rice. She thinks to herself, I am looking forward to adding walking to my routine and slowly changing my diet for the better.

AJ starts up the rice cooker with some sweet-smelling jasmine rice, slices up the carrots, putting the carrots in the cast iron skillet that is sprayed with an oil and finally puts the salmon in it. She sprinkles the carrots and salmon with a lemon pepper seasoning and puts a lid on the skillet.

While waiting for the salmon, carrots and rice to cook, AJ sets the table and calls to the boys, “boys come to the table for dinner!” They sit down at the table and turn on the television, of course to Scooby Doo.

The rice cooker goes off. She gets up and plates up dinner for her and the boys bringing it into the dining room. Dinner was a big hit, as the boys ate everything on their plates. The boys take their dishes into the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher.

After dinner the boys head up to their rooms and sit at their desks to work on homework. AJ cleans up the kitchen and then heads to help the boys with their homework. Once homework is complete the boys take a bath and get ready for bed.

It’s been a busy day and both Carson and Cooper are really tired. They go to bed with no problems and go right off to sleep. She changes into her pajamas and sits down in the living room to relax and watch the Hallmark Channel.

Continue reading: Chapter 2