Unfortunately for my motivation levels I am trying a new healthy thing where I'm trying to make sure I exercise daily for at least half a hour. I play basketball one night a week and mixed netball another night but other than the occasional dog walk I was behaving rather like a sloth lately. I went to a ladies lunch last Tuesday where we had a guest speaker Dr Dingle, a west Australian doctor who has an extremely healthy attitude to eating, exercise, lifestyle factors etc. Anyway he sort of sparked this health kick.
His lecture was pretty motivating if not a bit overlong but he really was very enthusiastic. Anyway yesterday I set off for my 3rd walk of the week, ipod in ears with some very catchy 80s tunes helping me along at my local park/sports oval. Let me point out I was not even on the road or on a pathway, I was walking the perimeter of the oval when I was whistled at by a young guy in a red ute. I don't think it was the 'hey you're good looking' kind of whistle but more a 'hey I'm going to whistle really loudly and annoy and scare you' kind of whistle.
And even if it was a 'complimentary whistle' I wouldn't have liked that either. There were 3 guys at the park all doing some light jogging around: do they have to put up with any kind of verbal abuse?
It's just ridiculous that in this day and age I still feel self conscious while doing something as innocent as walking around a park trying to get some exercise. Usually I wait until a bit later to go for a walk/jog but then that also raises issues about safety especially when I have my headphones in and are not as aware as I should be.
When I got home I went and told my Dad, wondering what his opinion would be. He basically said not unkindly that I should be flattered. Thanks Dad. My mum, who'd had a few wines by this time was not too helpful either. My dad also piped in with the fact that he gets honked etc when he rides to work (my Dad is a really annoyingly healthy person who rides 15 kilometres to work and back frequently in the warmer months). I explained that this is because he rides on the road (as he is meant to as the paths are meant to be for pedestrians) and a lot of car drivers like to think they own the road and see him as an inconvenience.
I told him it's is not the same thing as I think I was just being singled out for being a youngish girl on my own walking.
If I had been with my boyfriend as I was the day before I really doubt it would have happened. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or not but it did have me a bit upset yesterday and it did cut short my walk as I then felt more self conscious than ever. Do I now have to restrict my walking to just doing laps of the inner oval which doesn't have any cars near it? Am I an oversensitive crazy person? Time will tell.
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