Sometimes progress takes time (ugh! but yay!)

The other day when I was on my morning walk with Harlow it hit me that 18 months ago it felt like a mammoth effort to walk from my house to the dairy. It's literally 400m from our place.

Four Hundred Metres.

*brain implodes*

That's so close! But back then, it might as well have been a marathon. I did it sometimes, in an attempt to improve my fitness, but it wasn't enjoyable. I do lots of steps just around the house and in daily life, and I've always managed to overextend myself dramatically if the need arose (special events etc), but it would result in post exertional malaise for days afterwards.

And then we got Harlow in August 2023. She was four months old, and I had committed to exercising her daily. She was either sleeping or ON, and the walks helped spend some of that energy (though it in no way stopped her desire to chew all the things...)

How it started vs how it's going

Over that time, she's grown (you can see from the pics!) as has her need to stretch her legs. After we found out she had hip dysplasia and could no longer walk on the beach, I spent months just going around the block. It's about 1.5kms and includes a hill. For a long time, that did me in. I couldn't get to the top without puffing (and I used to have to stop on the way up). It was a good amount of effort without wiping me out (most days). We would then also sometimes walk to the clifftops and look at the sea, and that was lovely (though she would often see her old beach dog friends and be sad).

Slowly, I've been extending myself. Looking at new routes, making tweaks. A year ago, I couldn't imagine a time I'd be able to walk a specific route with a longer up hill/down hill section, but I kept driving that road and seeing other people walking their dogs and then one day a few weeks, we did it. And it was easy. Oh my god.

After almost a year and a half I can now easily walk over 3kms in the morning. I don't need to stop, even on the hills, though Harlow often needs to stop and sniff/watch traffic/watch birds/watch rabbits/whatever else takes her fancy. She is a big watcher. I feel like I could do more - and some days when it's busy I DO walk a lot more. I got in a couple of 16,000 step days when friends came to town for a visit a few weeks back - and that's delicious and exciting to me. I can do BIG days and still cope. I don't always crash and burn afterwards now (though it's inevitable sometimes).

And it reminds me that progress can be slow - incremental, almost invisible at times - but it's still progress. Movement in the right direction. This is success. It's change. It's improvement. Despite being chronically ill, I have more in the tank than I used to and that gives me hope in all areas of my life. If I can claw back some level of fitness, then I can probably claw back in other areas too as long as I have patience, and maybe some good motivation like a lovely dog who needs to burn off some energy.

It’s all about giving myself that time and space, and figuring out what that motivation looks like - and not being too much of an asshole to myself when I can’t yet see the changes, because they are happening, even if not at the pace I’d ideally like.

What might be changing in your world that you haven’t noticed yet?