A slow evening walk before I cook

Around six most evenings I take a slow walk around my neighbourhood before I cook. It is not exercise the way my old gym self would define it. There is no pace and no goal, and my phone stays in my pocket. It takes fifteen minutes, sometimes twenty if the light is good.

I started by accident. Two weeks ago I walked to the corner shop for butter102 kcal, took the long way back, and felt properly hungry for the first time that day. I wanted a specific dinner. That night cooking and eating both felt easy.

Making it a habit

From what I have read since, light movement often increases appetite, while hard training can reduce it for hours. I am careful with that. I do not treat the walk as earning dinner, because that kind of thinking damaged my eating for years. The walk marks the start of the evening and that food is next.

It rained twice this week and I went anyway. The weather made little difference. I need a clear break between the working day and the evening. Six o'clock used to arrive while I was still answering emails, and I was expected to feel hungry on demand. Now there is a transition, and I usually notice it around the second corner.

The route has fixed points now. I check the fig tree outside the blue house, and I decide what I am cooking around the halfway mark, so I walk back in with a plan instead of standing in front of the open fridge.

Tonight I chose the miso butter noodles that just went up on the site. I decided at the corner where the jasmine hangs over the fence. By the time I got home, the water was on before my coat was off.