I know it’s Monday and Mondays usually suck but I want to focus on some pretty amazing progress being made by one, Mr. Gavin.

I’m so thankful to have my kids in my life every single day. Many single Dad’s don’t have that and I know how lucky I am. At the same time, it does present a few challenges that have forced me to make unwanted changes in my life.

One of those challenges is that I can no longer go walking in the mornings like I have been for years. This impacts my health, both emotionally and physically, as well as my weightloss.

The kids can’t stay home alone for a multitude of reasons, and that means I have to take them with me, everywhere I go. It’s inconvenient at best and extremely frustrating at its worst. Most of the time I don’t mind but sometimes it’s a problem. This is particularly true when it comes to walking walking in the morning because if I go, I have to bring Gavin along with me and that means that I can only go at his pace, which isn’t very fast or intensive. It also means that I can’t continue with the distances I was prior to being a knighted a single Dad.

That sucks and while Gavin is always willing to go walking, the change in my workout is very frustrating for me. Plus, he constantly talks and that drives me fucking crazy.

Rather then feel defeated and give up all the progress I’ve made over the years, I’m working with Gavin to help him improve his fitness levels and it’s already working..

Typically, I would walk between 3 and 4.5 miles each morning, depending on what was going on or how much time I was working with. Gavin has Ehlers-Danlos and that means his joints are loose. He’s never really been able to walk even a single lap without being in pain. The idea of being able to pick up where I left off, with Gavin in tow, simply wasn’t realistic.

I decided that it was better to walk a slower 1.5 miles than not walk anything at all.

For the first couple of weeks, Gavin and I did a single lap. It was slower but he could finish it. We worked on picking up the pace until we could consistently finish 1.5 miles in under 30 minutes. Once that happened, we would work on increasing the distance a little bit at a time.

Today was the first day that we increased the distance. We went from 1.5 miles to 2 miles. The plan is to do this for the entire week and if Gavin does well, then we’ll bump it up another half mile next Monday.

My Mom has started walking with us in the mornings again and she’s about 3 months post total knee replacement so this works out well for her also.

In the image above, you can see that we added additional distance. Everyone did well and if all goes well, I’ll add another section next week.

Thankfully, there are areas that allow for us to sorta segment out the walk, so we can add a little bit at a time.

I’m really proud of Gavin because I know this wasn’t easy for him but he’s doing great and he needs the exercise. He’s discovered that he can listen to music while he’s walking and that means he’s mostly quiet the entire walk.

It will take some time to get back to doing what I’d really like/need to be doing but progress is progress. ☺