Steps will be taken

Laura Lippman wrote about dieting -- "Fat is a Feminist Issue" by Susie Orbach to be specific -- on her Memory Project blog yesterday.

She asked, "Is it better to eat ten rice cakes and still feel hollow, or to eat double-chocolate breading pudding and push the bowl away halfway through? Last week, I opted for the latter, and I hope you did, too. But what are you doing this week? Did you ever fast? Or do something equally stupid? Because I sure did."

I don't diet, but I do plan to drop some weight so I can get up and down the steps -- both inside (we have three levels) and outside -- easier.

People don't believe me when I tell them that every time I go out, I have to walk uphill (both ways!), but it's true. Our walking path heads uphill to the Filbert Steps and then it's either down the Steps to Sansome and the Embarcadero and wherever I want to go from there or up the Steps to Montgomery, then up Montgomery to Union and wherever I want to go from there.

Coming back from wherever I've been, it's always uphill, but that's what I get for living on a hill.

The closest I can get to the place by car is to doublepark on Montgomery at the top of the Steps and run stuff down the steps (42!) then over, then up the front stairs (18!) Carting anything in (or out) and keeping the kitchen stocked are minor challenges. The cars are stashed in leased parking a half-block down Union. If we aren't double-parked at the top of the Steps, we're toting things up from the garage.

We walk everywhere, which means I'm getting far more exercise than I used to. I'm in better shape and don't whine when I'm going uphill anymore, but dragging around any excess weight is nuts.

My plans for the New Year are to take some sort of walkabout every day it's not raining that ends with me walking =up= the Filbert Steps to get home until I'm in good enough shape that I don't make detours around the other side of Telegraph Hill just to avoid trudging up the Filbert Steps.

I don't know why but, psychologically, the trudge up those steps (223!) is harder on me than walking around the other side of Telegraph Hill and walking up Montgomery or Union or Greenwich. His nibs points out to me, in his oh-so-practical way, that if the Steps are there, coming home any other way than just straight up the Steps is a lot more work because I'm not only walking farther, I'm walking to a higher point and then walking down again.

Oh, well.