Adventures in Walking From the Couch to 5K - Chapter 6

It’s a beautiful warm, sunny Saturday morning and AJ is just waking up to the sun shining through the window blinds into her upstairs room. The townhouse is still quiet, as the boys haven’t woken up yet.

AJ thinks to herself, today’s homework is a 15-minute walk. Time to get up and get motivated. Do I eat first? Do I go for my walk first? What should I wear? Gotta get the boys up and moving with me.

After laying in bed a few more minutes she finally gets up and takes a shower and gets ready to go for her walk. She picks out her black running shorts and purple tank top and lays them on her bed while she showers.

Her hot and steamy shower is done. AJ gets dressed for her walk, and she wakes up the boys. “Boys, time to get up! We’re going out for a walk!” she says to the boys.

Cooper wakes up and stretches all out on his bed, opening his eyes and says, “Can I ride my bike?”

AJ responds to him, “Of course you can.”

Carson peeks his eyes open and in a very groggy voice say, “Do I have to get up??”

“Yes” she tells him. “You can ride your bike too.”

Cooper bounces out of bed, gets his clothes changed and runs downstairs to the kitchen. Carson slowly sits up, then slowly puts his feet on the floor and very slowly gets dressed. He then sits on his butt and slides down the stairs.

In the kitchen, AJ is setting the table for the boys to eat some cereal. For herself she mixes up her protein smoothie of Phyzix MD Daily Pro - Dutch Chocolate Vegan, coconut milk, banana, natural unsweetened cocoa and extra crunchy peanut butter. The boys sit down at the table and eat their cereal. AJ has her protein smoothie and is cleaning the kitchen up so that when the boys are done with their cereal they can get moving.

The boys put their cereal bowls and spoons in the dishwasher and go put their shoes on. AJ puts her shoes on and takes her protein smoothie with her. They all go into the garage to get the boys’ bikes. She opens the door for the boys, they each go out the door and wait in the driveway while she locks the door.

AJ turns on her fitness watch to track her route, pace and time during her walk... They start out on the sidewalk going to the right. The boys go ahead of her.

“Not too far ahead boys!” she shouts.

The boys stop to let her catch up. They get to a corner and she checks her watch. They have been walking for 5 minutes. She sees a turn around point up ahead to the right and tells the boys, “You guys can go to that fire hydrant and wait for me.”

They speed on ahead of her. AJ’s watch is doing the 1-minute fast walk, 30-second slower walk intervals.

The boys get to the fire hydrant and stop. Finally AJ gets there and she says, “Time to turn around and head back for home.”

They race to the corner, where Carson wins the race. “I won!” yells Carson. They wait patiently for AJ to catch up to them.

She finally gets to the corner and tells the boys “You can ride home now.” The boys race home. Cooper wins this time.

“Ha! I won!!!” yells Cooper. Cooper lays his bike down and picks up a basketball he had left outside and starts shooting hoops. Carson rides back and forth in the driveway waiting for AJ to make it home.

AJ gets to the driveway and stops her fitness watch walk. She is pleased with her walking time and that she got up and went out walking. AJ unlocks the garage door and then the house door, goes inside, sets down her empty bottle of the protein smoothie, takes a bottle of Phyzix MD Energy Stix Natural Mixed Berry out of the fridge that she had premixed, grabs her tablet and goes out the front door to sit down on the front porch.

The boys are playing and AJ gets to read her e-book. As she sits on the front porch she looks up from her book and thinks to herself I am grateful that the boys are exercising and having fun. So, she sits her tablet down and joins Cooper playing basketball.

Carson puts his bike down and says, “I’m hungry! Is it time for lunch?”

AJ checks her fitness watch and sees that sure enough it is. “Yes it is. Let’s go inside for some lunch.” They put up their things, go in through the garage and into the house.

AJ goes into the kitchen and prepares the boys’ lunch, which Cooper gets a strawberry jelly sandwich and Carson gets a peanut butter sandwich. AJ fixes herself an apple cider jelly and extra crunchy peanut butter sandwich. They eat at the kitchen table sharing a bag of baked potato chips and tray of green seedless grapes.

After they finish eating AJ cleans up the kitchen and the boys go into the living room to watch some TV. Once the kitchen is all cleaned up she goes into the living room and turns off the TV.

“Ok boys, let’s do some exercises.”

“Awe mom!!! We want to watch TV!” the boys reply.

After a few exercises from her booklet, “Let’s stand up and do some jumping jacks.” The boys get up and do some jumping jacks with her.

“Now let’s fly like superheroes,” and they follow her lead of lying on their stomach and pretending to fly.

“Let’s jump like a frog!” The boys respond with “Ribbit, ribbit.”

“Alright, now walk like a duck.” The boys are now quacking.

“Ok, now you can watch some TV. I’ll continue my exercises.”

“Yeah!” they both reply.

Carson turns on the TV and turns it immediately to Scooby Doo.

AJ completes her exercises and sits down on the couch. She grabs her laptop and catches up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and email.

Looking at the time on her laptop, AJ sees that it’s almost time for dinner. “Hey boys, what do you want for dinner?”

“Pizza!” they both exclaimed.

“Ok, I’ll fix it while you guys watch tv.”

She goes to the kitchen, gets the cheese and pepperoni out of the refrigerator, the pizza sauce out of the pantry, and the English muffins out of the bread box. She opens the oven to make sure nothing is in there, with boys, you never know what you might find. Nope, nothing in the oven. AJ turns it on to 375 degrees grabs a cookie sheet, sprays it with non-stick spray, pries apart the English muffins and lays them on the cookie sheet. Next up is spreading the pizza sauce on all of the English muffins followed with sprinkling shredded pizza cheese very liberally over the pizza sauce. Carson doesn’t like pepperoni, so his pizzas are done. Cooper likes pepperoni and so does AJ, so those get 6 pepperonis each on them and then more pizza cheese on top of the pepperonis. The oven is preheated now, so the pizzas go and she turns the oven light on so that she can watch them cook.

“Boys! Pizzas are in the oven, get washed up and sit down at the dining room table,” she yells out to them.

They immediately get up and go to the bathroom to wash their hands and then sit down at the dining room table.

AJ checks the pizzas and they are done, as the cheese is all melted. Taking an oven mitt, she takes them out of the oven and sets them on the stove top. Grabbing plates out of the cupboard she puts four muffins on each plate, of course, Carson’s are the ones with only cheese. AJ takes the boys’ plates out to the dining room, gets them a glass of Crystal Light Wild Strawberry with ice and then brings her own plate and drink to the table.

“These are YUMMMM…..MMMMMYYYY, says Carson.

“I like them too!” chimes in Cooper.

“Glad you both like them. They are quick and easy to make for you guys.”

“How about after dinner you guys go outside and play?” she says to the boys.

“Yeah!” both boys answered.

The boys finish their pizzas, take their plates out to the kitchen and put them in the dishwasher. They come back out to the dining room table to get their glasses and put those in the dishwasher too.

AJ finishes her pizzas and takes her plate and glass out to the kitchen and puts them in the dishwasher as well.

They all go outside. Carson rides his bike and does some bunny hops and rides up and down the ramps. Cooper shoots hoops and dribbles around the driveway. AJ gets his Dribble Stick out, and he dribbles around the Dribble Stick.

She enjoys watching the boys do what they enjoy doing. The sun is starting to set just over the trees. AJ says to the boys, “time to go in and get ready for bed.”

“Ok,” they both answer. Carson puts his bike away and Cooper puts his basketball and Dribble Stick away. They go in the house through the garage and go upstairs to get ready for bed.

AJ goes in the front door and goes upstairs to the boys’ room. “Good night,” she tells them and gives them a hug and kiss on the forehead.

“Good night,” they both reply.

She goes downstairs and watches her favorite channel, the Hallmark Channel.

Continue Reading in Chapter 7