Barbara Scully: 'Walking is good for my weight and for my marriage'

November is a bleak and barren month, as desolate as the denuded trees whose October beauty lies strewn about in soggy piles. The first month of a long and weather-uncertain winter is often marked, as it was this year, by day after day of rain, of low leaden skies, consigning the vibrant autumnal hues to a mere memory, as we live life in the grey and the damp.

People moan about January being a mean month but for me it’s November that bleeds away my joie de vivre lurking as it does, quietly and maliciously in the glare of our too early Christmas lights.

Unsurprisingly, November was the most challenging month so far on my ‘journey’ to a new, healthier me. She robbed my days of energy and willpower as, in her malevolence she whispered to me to abandon all thoughts of going to the gym or walking or swimming. ‘Be kind to yourself’, she said. And there were days when I listened to her enticements and took to the sofa. However, I didn’t succumb to eating cake or chocolate.

But I am in no doubt that November is the reason that I have no further weight loss to report to you. I am currently becalmed at a loss of one-and-a-half stone. Although according to the HSE Clinical Lead on Obesity, Professor Donal O Shea, slow and steady is the way to go and apparently is more likely to be sustainable.

Better news however, is that myself and Mr Sherwood, to whom I am currently married, have found a new way to spend our Sundays, which has more than just physical benefits. I hear your guffawing but I am talking about walking. On Sundays we walk.

For years I have harboured a wish to go hill walking because being in nature restores my soul, especially if there is the opportunity to see interesting wildlife. But hiking scares me. I am afraid I might break an ankle or something. I am also terrified of getting lost because my sense of direction is awful and mountains often have no phone signal.

So, I hear you say, sign up with a group of hillwalkers. Well, yeah but besides the fact that I would have to buy a whole new wardrobe of appropriate gear, I am not good with organised group events which tend to bring out my dark, anarchistic side (or maybe it’s merely my immaturity). Also, hill walking groups walk for hours and hours. And well, I like to do other stuff on the weekend too. Like reading. Or shopping.

So, I began to research interesting walks in and around Dublin, preferably away from traffic. Living near Dun Laoghaire, I was familiar with the lovely walk along ‘The Metals’ to Dalkey.

‘The Metals’ is a walk and cycleway which follows the old route used to transport granite from Dalkey Quarry for the building of Dun Laoghaire harbour. It was also the route of the atmospheric railway, which opened in 1844 and operated without a locomotive. Instead the lightweight train carriages were literally sucked up the hill to Dalkey and used gravity for the return journey. Sounds like my weight loss. Sucks on the way up and gravity is ever present, trying to bring me down! In the end, rats eating into rubber tubing apparently did for this unique railway but the route is preserved and provides for a very pleasant walk of about 3.3km each way, meandering along back gardens and laneways away from the noise and fumes of traffic and of course offers the opportunity of a half way coffee in either Dalkey or Dun Laoghaire.

We have also walked some of the Grand Canal, from the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, as far as Harold’s Cross, a distance of about 3.5km each way. This very urban walk provides some lovely canal-side views and of course the chance to commune with the bevy of swans at Portobello. However, it seems that no matter where you walk in our capital city you will be confronted with the cruel reality of homelessness. We passed three tents pitched at various points by the canal which is a damp and wet place in winter.

The most surprising walk however was when we took some advice given on Twitter to walk around Glasnevin graveyard; we opted however to investigate our local cemetery, Deansgrange, where 150,000 lives are commemorated. Some 150,000 people from all walks of life; from the world-renowned singer Count John McCormack, to beloved Dubliner, Noel Purcell, to the master of comedy, Dermot Morgan. It is also the burial place of my maternal grandparents, George and Kathleen Power, who we couldn’t find. But the wander around the graves was poignant and at times very funny and another 7km was easily achieved.

We have a list of more walks to be undertaken over the winter, such as UCD perimeter walk, a walk from Ballaly Luas to Marlay Park along the Slang River (Slang River Greenway), a walk around IMMA and onto the War Memorial Gardens. We may even investigate the northside too.

In my first column of this series I described walking as very boring. And it can be. But by seeking out special walks for our Sunday sojourns and by constantly varying my weekday walks, I am actually quite enjoying myself.

I am like that chap in the Dunnes Stores Christmas ad who gets a glimpse into lots of homes as darkness falls in the suburbs. But best of all is that on Sunday when Mr Sherwood accompanies me, we not only walk but we talk. Not just about when we will do the grocery shop and if this is bin week or not, but real big conversations. And sometimes we even laugh.

So, November you are a cruel wagon of a month. You made it fierce hard to stay on track.

But thanks to our Sunday walks, I managed to maintain both my weight and possibly improve my marriage.

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