ARE YOU STRUGGLING?

Are you struggling to keep to some sort of walking schedule? It can be difficult to keep that commitment. Here are some strategies that work for me:

1. put it on the calendar
2. make a date with a friend
3. always have your walking shoes and some comfy socks in your car
4. walk indoors if you can't walk outside
5. use your cell phone to stay in touch with your walking bud(dies). Walk and talk together even if you're separated geographically
6. ask someone to remind you to walk
7. ignore housework, office work, other people's ideas of what is important
8. don't give up. If you miss a day or two, get back to it when you can.
9. write it on your hand
10. make yourself a priority.

Remember that Kipling poem with a line like "When everyone around you is losing their heads and blaming it on you"? Life's like that. Don't take the blame. WALK away from it if it's someone else's 'stuff'.

***************************
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.

WHERE'D I GO???

It's Fall in St. Louis - and that means ASTHMA. Drat it! It's the worst thing...... well, not really the worst - but pretty bad.

The medicine may actually be worse than the cure. Being surrounded by a family full of asthmatics - except for the dog who actually causes some of the symptoms some of the time - I'm well aware of my personal 'seaon'. This is it. Last year, I tricked Mother Nature (or the Wicked Witch of West County) by taking preventive medicine every day. This year, I forgot. No one to blame but myself AND the fact that we had September weather in August.

Anyway, my walking has been shot full of holes - days and days of me not putting on my walking shoes. The RULE, I'm told, is that if you're sick from the neck up, you can go about your usual activities, but if you're sick from the neck down, no dice. The lungs are right there in the middle.

I have walked about every third day for the past 2 weeks. That's not much for me. Today, I took the MIL and the pooch to the park to SIT and watch the kiddies play. The dog behaved, as did the MIL, and we drove home after 45 minutes. I feel good enough to go for a walk, but I learned the miserable way the past few weeks to give it a little more time - and a lot more inhalation treatments. So, okay. It's me and the DuoNeb. Not nearly as much fun as walking, I can assure you.

What have you been up to during my absence? Walking I hope. It might have been that weekend of linedancing that did me in.......

Going back to that tomorrow night if I can. We MUST have our priorities.


***************************
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.

GIVING UP AND GIVING IN AND SURRENDERING

I have known a number of people who just give up when it comes to mending their health. Walking is probably the best thing one can do for one's health except maybe for never eating anything bad for you or too much of anything. I'm not a person who does much in moderation. You may have figured that out about me by now!

Giving up is not surrender. Giving up is giving in to the slacker side of one's self. Giving up is saying to one's self: I can't do it. I'm not good enough. I'm not worth it. It doesn't matter. No one else cares, so why should I? No one else thinks I'm worth the time for my walk, so why should I?

Do you say that to yourself? If you do, you're giving up by giving in to the Itty Bitty Committee in your head that tells you bad things. Have you heard about the good dog and the bad dog? If you have a good dog and a bad dog and you only feed the bad dog, which one is going to thrive? The bad dog! If you feed the negativity in your head - that Committee that you allow to live rent free in the space you should be saving for all things beautiful and loving - you'll give up.

How is that different than Surrender? Surrender is unconditional turning over of your fate to a Power Greater Than Yourself. No, I'm not an evangelist. I'm not pushing a certain religion. I'm not defining what/who that Greater Power is. For some it's God. For many, it's Nature, the Power of the Universe, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha. But, a Higher Power (hereafter referred to as HP), a power greater than one's self, is - or may be - at work in your life. If that's the case, then you can Surrender yourself - your plans and outcomes, your fate, your future, your wellbeing - to that HP and know that the right path will be revealed to you.

Hmmmm. Why is it called a Path, a Journey? I guess we're each meant to walk our own path. I prefer to share that path with my loved ones and good friends, those who'll walk beside me and wish me well, encourage me, give meaning and richness to my life.

If any of this is a stretch for you, just ignore the HP thing and try to concentrate on doing the next right thing for yourself . If you need help figuring that out or accomplishing it, ask for help. Ask your family and friends. If they don't help, they might not really be friends or people who love you.

There are saboteurs all over the place - many with good intentions. But, telling you that you don't have time to walk, to take care of yourself, telling you or showing you that other things are more important than taking care of yourself, then they are saboteurs. Not intentionally, necessarily. But, if you have saboteurs in your life, PLEASE determine a way to get around them.

Write down your walking goals and other goals you have for taking care of yourself, post those goals where everyone can see them, decorate them with markers and stickers so that everyone can tell they're important. Then, when someone tries to derail you - point to your Pretty Goal Chart and tell the person that you're oh, so sorry that you can't do X, but you have to walk for the next half hour. It won't take too long before THEY give in - before they surrender to your power to take care of yourself.

So, don't give up, don't give in, but Surrender when you can. Lead the way for others. Be that person who takes care of him/herself. In so doing, you'll be far better able to take care of those around you.


***************************
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.

I HAVE A GREAT EXCUSE....

I actually had a great excuse to not walk this past Friday and Saturday. Really! What was my excuse? I danced my way through several hours Friday night and for the vast majority of Saturday from 10:00 AM to 9:30 that night.

It was a lot of fun, to boot! I've written about my linedancing before. This past weekend was the 10th annual Rebels and Rogues Dance Convention. The Friday night dance was a freebie. The convention itself was very reasonably priced - $45 for a day's worth of classes. Two were offered each hour from 9:00 AM til 4:00 PM, so a total of 14 hours worth of classes. Of course, you could only be in one location each hour.

I took 5 classes, so 5 X 45 minutes for each class, so almost 4 hours of dancing during class. Then, I stayed for the Open Dance Saturday that started at 7:00 PM. I stayed til about 9:30. That's a lot of dancing.

I thought I'd be stiff or at least a bit sore the next morning, but not so. I guess all the walking has paid off in that way too as it's been months since I've been linedancing.

So, please accept my excuse. I did, however, get back to my 'regular' schedule with a 3 mile walk the next day. No excuses for that.


***************************
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 MUCH BETTER CAN IT GET??

It's Fall in St. Louis. Not officially. But, we've had September weather all of August, so I predict October weather for September. It doesn't look like this yet - but it will soon.

Actually, while driving to a meeting yesterday evening, I saw my first tree ablaze with bronze and gold leaves! Such a beautiful sight for such a season of dread for me.

I just hate cold weather. St. Louis is typically damp, windy, and cold in late Fall and much of winter. We get our share of snow, but it doesn't usually stay on the ground for long. Ice is another issue. Many Fall and Winter mornings, walking outside is just not safe because of the ice that remains in shady areas.

But, this afternoon and yesterday afternoon - late afternoon, after work - I walked. It was just beautiful. Not terribly humid. Sunny but with a nice, gentle breeze. How much better can it get than that?







***************************
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.