This is Thursday, so I’m doing everything in my Activeweah. Worked out with my trainer, went to the hardware store, filled up the gas tank – made my pilgrimage to Starbucks with the puppies – will run into town after this blog post to pick up my farm-raised chickens that were still on the hoof yesterday.

My trainer and I were talking this morning (“If you’re talking, I know you’re breathing,” she says) while I did seated cat-and-cow. I mentioned how pretty much everyone I know has some kind of fitness regime going (not one is an athlete, although quite a few are into sports such as tennis, golf, running, biking), lots of us wear some kind of tracker on our arm, we have trainers and fitness club memberships, we wax and wane on watching our diets. I can attest that my two co-writers here at Stilettos, Stoli and Scribbles are way more conscientious about what they eat than I am. They are constantly sharing fabulous, healthy recipes.

Anyway, my trainer observed that, now that we don’t have to cultivate, grow and harvest our own food (again, K. R. Brorman, is an exception living as she does in the middle of a huge, family-run agricultural enterprise), and don’t have to saddle up or harness our primary means of transportation to get from Point A to Point B anymore, nearly all of us are sedentary in the extreme. Even those of you who get out and run or exercise for an hour a day are only really, physically active for about four percent of your life. And I’m nowhere near that level of activity.

Still, what we are doing is better than nothing, right? Some people even really enjoy it.

From President John Kennedy’s school fitness challenge initiated in the 1960s to FLOTUS Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” program, there has been a cultural emphasis in the US on working on and maintaining physical fitness and health for all of my lifetime. Who remembers having to wash out your gym clothes on Sunday nights?

I hated PE class. I was an 85-pound weakling in junior high (what we now call middle school) and couldn’t do one pull-up, or free throw to save myself.

Do you think we have an ingrained awareness and knowledge of, even interest in, physical health and fitness now? Is it really part of our culture, even if we don’t engage ourselves in healthier habits? Does it come from our nurture as children and young adults, or do you think the media’s obsession with body image is a driver? Do you love to strap on your Nikes and take to the trails?

Me, I’d rather just play with puppies.

Gratuitous pic of wee Sophie being cute.

Gratuitous pic of wee Sophie being cute.