How My Dog Toby Will Save My Life in 2022

Happy New Year’s 2022! Are you making any resolutions this year? For me, it’s just one — transform my physique into a Baywatch body. Ok, that’s a bunch of crap, but I do plan to become healthier than I have been in over 20 years. For good reasons.

Starting Simple

I’ll start simple, slight edge it, keep it sustainable. Build one good habit on top of another. Of course, it begins with a healthy diet, and I also enjoy walking, but not that I ever do. That’s part of my problem. My current condition is a byproduct of a lazy, sedentary lifestyle. What I meant to say is that in the past when I focused on good health, walking is one of the least offensive things I found that promoted good health. And because measuring progress motivates me, I downloaded the Under Armour Map My Walk app and put it on my home screen, not buried 4 screens deep.

Walking also serves another purpose — my dog Toby loves taking walks. You ask if Toby loves strolling through the neighborhood, why don’t I take him just for his sake? Simple. Toby is a better dog than I am human.

You Reap What You Sow

Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash

Self-sacrifice isn’t a discipline that I enjoy practicing. Sleeping late, stress eating, binging Netflix, these are habits I revel in. But as the slight edge principle teaches, the once-a-week cheeseburger won’t kill you. It’s the daily burger that gets you. Or as the Bible teaches, you reap what you sow. And a recent doctor’s visit shows that I’ve sown bad numbers on quite a few important health areas that can kill me. Thank God, all of these negative indicators can be reversed and controlled by a healthy diet and exercise. I’m not one who cares to be held together by a cocktail of medications or the use of the latest medical technologies.

Good Rx

The right foods and long walks with Toby are my prescriptions for good health. He’ll love me for it, and I can multitask. I wrote this article while out on a walk.