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Birds of Inwood - Visit Teri's new blog about birds!
A visual journey exploring the birds of Inwood and Northern Manhattan

Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 1 - 7

The first post of the new year on this website, A Winter Walk in Hudson River Park, suggested a new way to think about diet and exercise resolutions. This post is the first follow-up, offering clarifications and more ideas, illustrated with images from the first daily walks of 2011.

Day 1. A winter walk along the shoreline on New Year's Day
revealed the beauty in shades of winter blues.


In place of weight loss as a primary goal, another mission - seeing new things and living a larger life - is substituted, so that the experience becomes the primary goal and losing extra pounds become the ulterior, or underlying, motive.

Day 2. I discovered many charming places during a walk
to Stuyvesant Square and beyond, enough to write about it.  



The post suggested a walking strategy in service of these goals. The idea is to walk daily to a new place (although it could be a familiar site or neighborhood worth revisiting) for a round trip of 2.5 miles. And what is a goal, but a destination?

Day 3. An ordinary walk in early evening through the West Village
 turned out to be the last time to see some of the holiday lights in the neighborhood.


Like many conventional exercise plans, this one suggests a period of 10 weeks or 70 days. And in place of an exercise or diet journal, the idea is to document the walk with words and/or pictures in a personal travel diary. And wouldn't an exercise diary look better with pretty pictures of the Empire State Building or Central Park or wherever you may live?

Day 4. Walking at night obviously has the benefits of illumination.


Sometimes, it's easy to rationalize not going for a long stroll, and 2.5 miles may be too long for beginners. Still, it feels better to get out there and see the sights, even when the weather makes a turn for the worse, than staying home and overcome with lethargy. Making the walk a part of everyday life, something one must do, like eating a good breakfast or making up the bed, can help put a stop to the rationalizations. If I start rationalizing about making up the bed, I will seek professional help.

Day 5. A walk south and east from my place took me to Little Italy.
I had no idea the holiday decorations there were so charming.
Note to self - go to Little Italy before Christmas. 


Walking leads to many revelations, as the activity is known for inspiring ideas, and a good walk may help solve a problem. Walking to a new place can expand one's boundaries, and even changing around the time of the walk, like switching out a few morning walks to after-dinner strolls, opens up completely new perspectives.

Day 6. Swinging past Otto, the upscale but affordable pizza place
on lower Fifth Avenue. Didn't go in, because I established
a ground rule that I shouldn't stop for pizza while strolling. 


Not all walks are equal. Some might fall on the mundane side. Others, though, feel transcendent...


Day 7. When the snow started falling Friday morning, my impulse was to walk up to the Flatiron Building and take one of the cliched pictures of the building in snow. It was snowy, and the wind blew snow into my face on the walk uptown. When I arrived in Madison Square Park, I walked over to the spot where I thought Edward Steichen had taken his famous image of the building from 1904 and snapped a picture with my iPhone. I was pretty close to that spot, as it turns out. While there, I shared this picture on Twitpic, and several people positively responded to it. When I got home, I printed out the picture and pasted it in my walking diary. Even if I hadn't lost a little weight this week, I still would have this experience and this image. This is what I'm talking about. 


Images by Walking Off the Big Apple, from January 1 through 7, 2011, made with the iPhone camera and various apps. The original post can now be found near the bottom of this page on the left. Every Saturday for the next ten weeks, look for a new installment of Pictures from 70 Days of Walks.


Posts in this series:

•• A Winter Walk in Hudson River Park, with a Plan for New Year's Diet and Exercise Resolutions (posted January 2, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 1-7 (posted January 8, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 8-14 (posted January 15, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 15-21 (posted January 22, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 22-28 (posted January 29, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 29-35 (posted February 5, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 36-42 (posted February 12, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 43-49 (posted February 19, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 50-56 (posted February 26, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 57-63 (posted March 6, 2011)
• Pictures from 70 Days of Walks: Days 64-70 (posted March 12, 2011)

Comments

  1. What a great idea Teri, in all respects. I wish you well on this one and I look forward to sharing in the wonderful new places you've discovered and the inevitable wonderful shots that will accompany them.
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks so much, Rob. It's been fun and stimulating so far, giving me much more material and photos than I expected.

    ReplyDelete

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