You’ve spent too much time in your car, in front of your TV, and eating pizza on Friday nights. It’s the summer now, the weather is warm and comfortable, and you have no excuse to stay inside on the weekends. What are you going to do?

Jumping head-first into a new physical activity, while respectable and ambitious, can turn you off to the experience you thought so highly of before you hopped on the bike or into the water. You want to get in shape, but the task is daunting. Some people are cut out for those head-first excursions, but for the average amongst us, slow and steady wins the race.

You have a park nearby with a river walk and some wooded trails. Walking around on the sidewalks in the city and the suburbs can be enjoyable, but tedious and ordinary. An excursion into the woods can be refreshing and revitalizing. It gets your legs moving, your blood pumping, and your imagination running. While some might think they need payday loans to pay for all the fancy backpacks, water bottles, walking sticks, and shoes, really all you need is a little motivation, a bottle of water, a pair of comfortable walking shoes, and an open morning.

Hiking is as free as it is freeing. And you don’t have to do the hardest trails in the system. Walk a mile around the lake, or hop a little off the beaten path and walked on some of the slowly ascending trails to the more picaresque viewing points. Hiking literally is as easy as putting one foot in front of the either. Who knows, you might like it, dedicate more time to it, do some harder trails, and maybe even do some backpacking. While you’ve been distracted having fun, you’ll eventually catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and be impressed with what your new hobby has done for you.

Soon, your TV remote will be as dusty as your TV and you will have forgotten the phone number to the pizza place, and these are good things.