Every day I'm shufflin'

Because of all the complications after Amelia was born, combined with the fact that I just went back to work, my cadre of doctors wanted me to wait to return to exercising until we were all confident that I truly felt "normal" at about four months postpartum.

At my eight-week visit, I asked if I could stroll her through the neighborhood, but they didn't want me to get away from the house, especially with a baby in a stroller, and have another blood-pressure event, leaving me essentially helpless. So I hadn't so much as walked around the block since I had Amelia.

All that changed yesterday evening, when I pulled on my running shorts, laced up my shoes and clipped on my pedometer before I left work. And here is what I learned:

1. Stretching alone can be painful if you haven't done it in five months.
2. I'd already walked 2,200 steps yesterday by the time I started stretching. But we're supposed to walk, you know, TEN THOUSAND every day.
3. My iPod doesn't work anymore unless it's plugged into its base. So it died while I was stretching.
4. But my songs are loaded on my phone, so YEA!
5. My phone has some sort of setting that when it's shaken, the songs shuffle. As I began to walk, it shuffled to a new song about every 10 seconds. THAT WASN'T ANNOYING AT ALL.
6. I piddled with it until I figured out that you have to make the screen inactive before you move so that it doesn't count your body shakes as an invitation to shuffle songs.
7. If I piddle with my phone while walking, I will trip.
8. The two-mile route that I covered took me 5,000 steps.
9. Leaving me 1,800 short for the day.
10. I'm gonna have to up my game.

But the important thing is, I'm back in the saddle. Wish me luck.