My Attempt At Family Exercise

Things are starting to get back to normal. I've lost about two and a half pounds from the four I'd gained, so that's good news. It's amazing how easy it is to gain, but how difficult it is to lose. I'm still struggling to get back on the wagon for good, but it's getting there. Slowly but surely. I'm back to exercising everyday, now I've just got to rebuild those healthy eating habits again.

Our company participates in the "Walk Across Texas" program. It's a state-wide program that encourages people to be active and log enough miles to walk across Texas. You don't just have to walk; any physical activity can be counted as miles toward the goal. Since I'm already exercising, why not join in and have fun? So, we got our team together and have started to track our miles.

With the weather as nice as it's been lately, I thought I would try and get my family outside to walk around the neighborhood for a little while. Nothing too strenuous... just a nice time to get out of the house and enjoy the time together. Plus, I can earn some extra miles for my team. It's a win-win!

After everyone got their homework done, we headed out. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to be able to talk to each other without there being a TV on, or a computer screen, or an iPod. Good, clean, wholesome, old-fashioned family time.

We walked through a few streets in the neighborhood, talking about our day. "How was school?" "How was work?" You know, the usual stuff. We saw a few neighbors out, enjoying the weather as well.

As we turned to go down our street and head towards home, we noticed several people standing around outside. "Be careful," they said. "There's a dog loose down the street." We didn't think much of it. I mean, we know most of the dogs in our neighborhood, nothing to be afraid of. Plus, we had to get home and there wasn't any other way to go. So we trudged on.

About three houses away from our house, we saw the commotion. A large boxer dog was running around in circles excitedly, while a woman chased behind him trying to get him back in her car. Just about all of our neighbors were out in their yards watching. My parents have a boxer, and she's very docile and friendly, so we didn't think much of it. Soon, this boxer saw us walking and ran over to us. This one wasn't docile and friendly. He had an angry bark and was not at all happy to see us. We circled around the kids and stopped moving. He barked and then ran off to bother someone else.

We kept moving toward home, trying not to draw too much attention to ourselves. But he would have none of that, and came back around to bark at us again. This time he started to jump, so I put my foot out to block him or kick him if I needed to. He bit my shoe angrily. He then circled around behind us and a few seconds later I heard one of my daughters scream. He had bitten her on the leg.

Luckily it wasn't a bad bite. A small puncture, some scratches, a lot of slobber. We were finally able to get the kids inside. After we got her doctored up, we went back outside to see what was going on. After about thirty more minutes, the owner was finally able to get her dog back in her car. We got her information, asked about the dog's shots, and then went back inside.

Apparently someone had called the police, because about thirty minutes later they showed up at our door. They took some pictures of the injury and went on their way. A few minutes later, a man from Animal Control showed up to say that he had picked up the dog and were quarantining him for ten days. We took our daughter to the doctor the next morning to make sure everything looked OK, and it did.

So, my attempt to create a little healthy family activity ended in blood, tears, and cops. But we got to know our neighbors really well that night. Made some new friends. Nothing brings a neighborhood together like a crazy dog I guess. I'm just not sure if I'll ever get my daughter back outside again...


After decades of dieting only to gain it back, two That's Fit readers have decided to finally rethink their relationship with food and exercise over the next year to move toward a lifetime of fulfilling, healthy living. Come by every week as Ashley and Lee share their successes and challenges as they tip the scale.