When I finally learned how to take the bus to some places, I felt I was born again as a native in Hangzhou. Actually, I hate to take a bus, because the driver (or the bus itself) hates the passengers. If you don't get a seat, you spend more energy trying to hold on to your dear life than, say walking. However, I only attempted to walk one stop in the past. I would patiently wait for almost an hour, simply because I didn't know any other way to travel in China. Today, the city was quiet, no traffic jam, no nothing. The temperature was pleasant, for walking. So, I walked one stop, then another, and decided I would walk all five stops. It was nothing, much more enjoyable than doing the balance act inside a bus! After having a slim-fast dinner with my mom, I decided to take the bus back. But, I got side-tracked by a bakery. One thing led to another; soon, I was holding a cup of bubble tea with red beans! I knew I wasted RMB8 for that, but I felt ok to try it. (It wasn't very good, especially compared to what I had in Taipei.) With a cup of energy drink in hand, I decided to make up for the lost opportunity to lose weight, that is, to walk five stops on the way back. As I walked on, I passed a shop for steamed buns. Even though I was not hungry, I had to get two. Then, I walked by a store that was selling chestnuts, freshly roasted. I had to get some since I love chestnuts... Only then, I realized how expensive walking can be...
Thanks to the pedometer I received as a Christmas present in 2009, I am taking a small step to improve my daily life: to walk after dinner. I never really cared about doing any exercise my whole life until 2-3 years ago when I started to swim regularly. I felt so refreshed and energized after each swim; in fact, I was addicted to it: I wanted to do it daily. The problem with swimming is it takes too long to wash off the chemicals in the pool. I felt bad about wasting so much water taking a long shower every other day. Then, there was the report about how unhealthy the pool water could be... Walking is a lot simpler. I could get up and go for a walk. I even solved the problem of not wasting electricity by taking stairs down and up, which was not easy since I live on the 12th floor (so that I could see the Pacific Ocean every day). After today's walk, my pedometer told me that I took 4721 steps, and burned about 157 calories. Not bad. With a little longer walk, I can burn 200 calories each day, which would be 10% of 2,000 calories I believe I consume daily. Come walk with me!
标签: walking
