Today’s Nebraska nature expedition turned into one of those “this is why I keep walking” mornings.
I headed outside planning to do a short walk before Memorial Day family activities and somehow ended up outside for over TWO HOURS because Midwestern farmer’s daughter Christy completely took over my brain.
The second I stepped outside:
🌳 giant green trees
🌿 thick grass everywhere
🐦 robins supervising the lawn
🐿️ curious squirrels playing peekaboo around trees
🐸 mystery frog soundtrack
☀️ perfect weather
Meanwhile Arizona Christy was standing there emotionally attached to every patch of green like: “PLEASE DON’T SEND ME BACK TO THE BROWN DIRT PLACE WITH THE SPIKY THINGS.”
The squirrel absolutely stole the show.
This little dude came RUNNING toward me, circled trees, peeked around trunks dramatically, scratched, stared at me suspiciously, disappeared, then came BACK AGAIN like we were having a full conversation.
I even got video of him doing his little squirrel investigation routine. Honestly, he had “tiny park ranger checking credentials” energy.
And somewhere during all this wandering, I realized something important again:
Not every walk has to be intense to matter.
Today was:
💚 low heart rate
💚 slow pace
💚 light cardio
💚 LOTS of time on my feet
💚 nervous system recharge
💚 curiosity-based movement
And Fitbit actually reflected that pretty perfectly.
📊 Walk Stats:
👟 4,769 walk steps
👟 5,093 total steps so far
📏 1.95 miles
🔥 452 calories burned
⏱️ 2h 14m outside
❤️ Average heart rate: 88 bpm
💙 93% of the walk stayed in light heart rate zone
⚡ 9 zone minutes
Walk Receipts
This wasn’t about pushing hard.
This was aerobic base building, recovery movement, exploration, stress reduction, and honestly just reconnecting with the environment around me.
The funniest part?
I genuinely did not want to go back inside.
I felt like a toddler being dragged out of a candy store while trying to negotiate for “just five more minutes.”
Also Nebraska landscaping is gorgeous and now I apparently have opinions about decorative gravel because I found a parking lot rock bed prettier than some resorts.
Still counts.
Actually counts a lot. 💜
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