NEW 'BUSINESS' CARDS

I recently designed and had printed some new 'business' cards. They aren't really business cards because they don't refer to a business. They're for my two blogs. I hand them out to the occasional person I run into who I think might be interested.

Why? Well, I run into so many sedentary people who I think would benefit from moderate exercise like walking AND I don't want to have to go into some evangelical type lecture about the benefits of such exercise. So, I'd like them to see my blog and learn in their own time. If anything I have written is of value to them, then I'm happy. If not, they won't hurt my feelings by reading something else online. LOL.

My card is a simple design, soft blue lettering on a white background. Has an overlay in blue of the St. Louis Arch. Then, there are the two blog addresses (this one and the crochet one), and my email address.

So far, I've only given out a few. One was to a friend who is extremely sedentary and was diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus a year or two ago. She's a very talented gal who is retired and has time to take care of herself now. I'm hoping that my simple blog postings will inspire her to get moving.

I've never known anyone who didn't improve his/her body and outlook with a good walk! Hope my enthusiasm will inform and inspire others.


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Remember my 100% GUARANTEE. Should you decide to stop walking and resume your old habits, I personally guarantee that you'll get back 100% of your former life - your pain, your lifestyle, your attitude.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD

Today, November 1, 2009, would have been my Dad's 84th birthday. He passed away in 1992 after suffering a stroke a few hours following surgery for prostate cancer. Dad was only 67. It took him 3 months to die. During that time, he worked hard to regain speech and physical abilities we all take for granted. But, he never saw the outside of that hospital after December 18, 1991.

What happened? It wasn't the fault of the doctors that Dad had smoked for 50 years. He was a chain smoker up til the day he scheduled the surgery. Apparently the damage done to his cardiovascular system (the cancer had not spread) and the inability of the doctors to thin his blood as they normally would after a stroke (because he had JUST had major surgery), set him up for more strokes. One on about February 12, 2009 left him vegetative.

Dad had retired a couple years earlier from sales, a career that kept him literally on his feet for at least 8 hours every day. He was tall, thin, and good looking. He had been severely injured in WWII. At one point, he had been told he would never walk again - but walk he did. He coached little league baseball for years for both my brothers. He mowed the lawn, kept the house in good shape with glue and duct tape as he could fix anything, and never missed a day of work. Upon retirement, he and Mom took to the highway in their RV, fulfilling their lifelong dream of traveling throughout the US. They had a ball.

But, Dad was way too fond of TV. Once he retired, he never took an active interest in anything that was remotely physical. He plopped himself in front of that TV for many, many hours each day. Drove Mom nuts as she's not a TV fan, much preferring to read, walk, and cook. Of course, with 8 grandchildren, all local, they had a house full on most Sundays. Dad would drive the little ones around on the riding mower while he cut their football field sized front lawn.

But, sitting was what he did. Mowing, driving, TV. He eschewed any form of physical activity. I firmly believe that Dad would have lived a much longer life had he given up the smokes earlier and taken up almost any physical activity. As I've written here before, walking during TV commercial is one way to get in your 20-30 minutes a day.

Of course, I have no idea what God's plan might have been for Dad. He was a good man who didn't take care of himself. The same could be said of so many of us. My message here, my gift to my Dad on what was his birthday, is to ask everyone to rev up their activity level - just a little each day - and stick around long enough to help raise those kids and grandkids who count on us so much.

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Remember my 100% GUARANTEE. Should you decide to stop walking and resume your old habits, I personally guarantee that you'll get back 100% of your former life - your pain, your lifestyle, your attitude.

INTERVAL TRAINING

One day recently, I caught the tail end of a news report on the benefits of interval training. For those unaware, interval training means taking whatever exercise one is doing and pumping it to an extreme for a small amount of time. So, if you're walking at your regular pace, you'd push yourself to walk much faster for, say, 2 minutes out of every 10 minutes. This is an idea I've used for myself.

The aerobic benefits of interval training are well established. Such bursts of activity increase heart rate, expand our lungs further, and improve endurance overall.

So, what's different about what I recently learned? The 'expert' indicated that all these health benefits can be obtained in just 6 minutes. Yep, SIX MINUTES. That sounds great. Six minutes during my walk and I'm a new person. What's the catch?

The catch is that the 6 minutes must be continuous and IT MUST HURT.

That's not what I want to hear. Pain accompanies many forms of exercise. You've heard the expression 'No Pain, No Gain'. But, pain is often an indication that one is overdoing, that there is some physical problem that needs to be addressed, or that the exercise is being done incorrectly. In arm curls, for instance, the arms must be held tightly next to the body, especially if holding any weights. Having the elbows away from the body during curls increases the dynamic weight of the held objects and works muscles not intended to support such weight. What do you get for that? Pain - either now or at some future time.

I must look further into this Six Minute interval training - that for me would be a sustained six minute sprint. Not sure I'm willing to do that. But, I AM willing to work up to that six minutes if an investigation reveals that the benefits are really as described in the initial report.

What about you? Are you up for a 6 minute burst?

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Remember my 100% GUARANTEE. Should you decide to stop walking and resume your old habits, I personally guarantee that you'll get back 100% of your former life - your pain, your lifestyle, your attitude.

THE TEN PERCENT SOLUTION

I think there was a book with a title like this years ago. Made me think of that when I was listening to something on TV (nope, not actually watching it). The 'expert' was talking about increasing our activity level by 10% each week. Now, there's an idea that would likely work great for a 'beginner' at the walking thing - or for any other formerly sedentary person who wants to become more active.

So, if you walk 100 yards this week, you walk 110 yards next week.

If you walk 30 minutes this week, walk 33 minutes this week and 36.3 minutes next week. Well, round it up or down to suit you.

Actually, to make it really simple, just keep increasing based on your starting figure. That would work too. So, if you walk 30 minutes this week, just keep increasing by 3 minutes each week. Determine what your longest 'reasonable' time available is and shoot for that. Once you get there - say 1 hour per walk - stay there and pick up 3 minutes of some other activity - ride a stationary bike, pick up some soup cans for your walk, whatever. Even something as simple as balancing on one foot (stand near the kitchen sink so you can grab hold and not fall) for 3 minutes will be a challenge for many and will increase your overall health and fitness level.


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Remember my 100% GUARANTEE. Should you decide to stop walking and resume your old habits, I personally guarantee that you'll get back 100% of your former life - your pain, your lifestyle, your attitude.

HIKER CHICKS

In the October 8, 2009 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there is an article about a group of women who have walked all 30 of the local 30/30 Trails - supposedly trails that can be walked in 30 minutes. This group met at a local Curves Gym whose owner had the idea to get outside the gym for fitness.

Wow. You think she read my blog? The 12 women vary in age from 48-76, proving that sedentary middle-age can be avoided with some simple effort - and with the help of a few friends to make it easier.

I'm going to check out the 30/30 Trails. I wasn't familiar with them. Now, I think I'll check them out.

Today (and yesterday, and the day before, and....), it's been rainy and dreary, necessitating walks at the mall. Tonight, I dance!

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Remember my 100% GUARANTEE. Should you decide to stop walking and resume your old habits, I personally guarantee that you'll get back 100% of your former life - your pain, your lifestyle, your attitude.

WHY SHOULD I WALK??

Why should you walk? Because your body was designed for walking - you have TWO FEET AND TWO LEGS. Because it's good for your heart, lungs, blood pressure, blood flow, and MOST IMPORTANT, the way you'll feel.

Walk because it's free, easy, accessible. It even becomes fun.

Walk because you CAN. If you're sedentary, if you're unhappy, if you're between jobs, if your health is not great - if you don't walk, you're likely to lose the ability to.

Check out those scooter ads on TV. They are really necessary for some people. But, I've NEVER seen a patient (I work in a doctor's office attached to a very large hospital) who has gotten one of those darn things and went on to get rid of it and walk.

My own brother has a very damaged leg due to a car/motorcycle collision years ago. He has trouble walking and is always in pain. He wanted one of those scooters to get to his mailbox. My wise husband strongly advised my brother against getting the scooter. His advice went something like this, "If you get one of those things, pretty soon you won't be ABLE to walk to the mailbox."

There are plenty of people out there with health issues that make walking difficult or impossible. This message is not for those for whom walking is impossible. But, if walking is difficult for you today, imagine what it'll be like in a few months or years if you don't move your body now!

So, stepping off my soapbox and into my walking shoes, I leave you with this thought.

If you have feet and legs that work, get walking. It doesn't get any better than that. Just ask an amputee........


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Remember my 100% GUARANTEE. Should you decide to stop walking and resume your old habits, I personally guarantee that you'll get back 100% of your former life - your pain, your lifestyle, your attitude.

HOW TO WORK IT

If you are new to this blog and new to walking, please go back and read some of the oldest posts. I believe you'll find some good tools there. But, some of them are worth repeating from time to time.

Walking 10,000 steps a day (about 5 miles) is what is now recommended for all of us. Five miles seems like a lot. So, set a shorter goal and work up from there.

My actual goal is 6,000 steps a day. I actually measure (by time) only about 3,000 steps. That's the duration of the walk for which I lace on my walking shoes. The other 2,000 steps come from waking here and there as part of my normal activities.

If you're sedentary - I didn't say lazy - you'll walk far less. If you are tied to a desk or tie yourself to an easy chair, you need to find ways to add steps to your daily routine.

Start with baby steps:
*Walk during your break at work.
*Walk up and down the stairs rather than take the elevator. If you work on the 15th floor, take the elevator to 14 and walk up one flight.
*Walk during commercials on TV.
*Walk for 5 minutes after dinner.
*Walk 2 minutes every day this week, 3 minutes every day next week, and so forth. Track this on a calendar so you can see how your walking time is expanding.
*Shoot for at least 20 minutes of sustained walking (all at one time) every day - but BREAK THAT DOWN into smaller chunks til you get there. It's not a race. Use your own judgment about how long you should be walking each day. Just increase that amount as soon as you become comfortable with the distance/time you are walking today.

WHY SHOULD YOU WALK? TUNE IN TOMORROW.


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Remember my 100% GUARANTEE. Should you decide to stop walking and resume your old habits, I personally guarantee that you'll get back 100% of your former life - your pain, your lifestyle, your attitude.