Today I left the house not only before the sunrise, but before there was even any hint of daylight.

I'll explain why in just a moment.

Welcome to Walking is Fitness.

This is a podcast of action providing a little extra motivation to help you keep

that fitness promise you made to yourself. Hi, I'm Dave. I've been walking for fitness since

2013, averaging about 21,000 steps a day. I'm walking right now and would love to have you

join me for the next 10 minutes.

Summer is no longer the shiny new object.

Even for those of us who love summer,

and I love summer.

I am the president of the July fan club.

But now that we're into mid-August, approaching mid-August, it's no longer the shiny new toy that it was back in May and June.

As we're coming out of the cooler weather, things are starting to warm up. The pool is open. Summer vacation is still in

front of us, not behind us. The sun feels great. Summer is like, oh, wonderful. I don't know if that came across as I meant it, but...

Now we've had day after day, after day, after day of heat and humidity, and perhaps that summer vacation that you were so excited about and looking

forward to is in the rearview mirror and you're just getting tired of it.

They call these the dog days of summer.

I'm not entirely sure where that phrase came from and what it means, but you hear dog days of summer, these are them.

And if you get outside for fitness every day, it can start to wear on you.

The humidity and the heat can really start to zap your energy and your motivation.

I want to change my perspective and perhaps change yours as well.

And instead of seeing these as kind of days, actually look at them as days of opportunity.

...