S.O.L.

For the native English speakers out there, when you hear SOL, what’s the first thing that springs to mind?   Yeah, not so good, right?

Well, when that phrase comes up in Danish, it means something entirely different.  In this case, SOL means Sundhed og Livsstil, or in English (yeah back to that again), Health and Lifestyle, or more succinctly, Healthy Lifestyle.  And this, my friends, is what I’ve been trying to do for the last few months.

As my blogging friend, Stephanie, said one day on Facebook… “There’s an app for that; I’ll do anything for an app!”  If you’re lost and don’t know what an “app” actually is, well, it’s a program that runs on your mobile phone and helps keep you motivated to do things.  Basically, it’s life as a video game, with bells, whistles, badges and achievements for things you really should be doing anyway, but are incredibly more motivated to do when it means you can share with the world that “Hey, I walked 5 Km today” and get instant feedback from your friends.   So yes, I’m a sucker for a good app.

And so, for the past 2 months or so, I’ve been spamming my Facebook friends with little maps of my walking and cycling routes.  I know they probably don’t care and have probably hidden the app from their feed.  And, I’m sure some are secretly hating me because I’m making them feel guilty for sitting at their computer.  They’ll get over it. :)

I turn on the app when I leave the house and start walking/cycling and when I get home, I tell it to stop running and it creates a great little map of my route, telling me exactly how far I went and how long it took me.  How cool is that?  Oh sure, I could go out and walk and never really know the exact distance of my journey, but this is way cooler, and I’m amused by it so it keeps me motivated and isn’t that what it’s all about?

As for the danish SOL… the local county has a program encompassing all sorts of things to try to make us all healthier.  As part of the SOL program, there is a group of women that get together to go cycling every Tuesday evening.  The county apparently provides the extremely fashionable bright yellow reflective vests we all had to wear.  And, since it doesn’t get dark here until about 10pm at this time of year, we can get in quite a bit of cycling while we still have daylight.  Tonight was my first ride with this group but I don’t think it will be my last.  Though I do think they tricked me!  I could’ve sworn I had read that their trips were approximately 10 Km, but tonight we did that one way, and there was no one waiting at the other end to drive us back!  All I can say is that I either need more padding on my seat or in my shorts in order to survive these trips that should eliminate some of my own natural padding, if all goes well.

Now about those accomplishments.  The app tracks it all!  And I am pleased to say that, in the month of April, I accomplished the following:

• Walking – 89.55 Km (55.64 Miles)
• Cycling – 30.22 km (18.77 Miles)
• Zumba Class – 3 times

And, since I take both dogs when I’m walking, I have the added benefit of upper arm strength training while I try to keep Lexi walking on my left and Zoe walking on my right, at the same speed, without stopping to sniff every little silly weed/shrub/blade of grass along the way.   Dog Training 101 – Hey, maybe there’s an app for that!