Each One Teach One

It's still January - the start of a new year and the end of the month when most of us have abandoned any resolutions we have made.

Now, consider making a resolution for the rest of this year. If you are a walker - get someone else who is not a walker up and moving. Make it your business to cajole, prod, but mostly encourage a friend or family member to take his/her first steps toward better health and a better mental attitude.

Even if you've only been at this for a few weeks yourself, you can still be the vehicle for change. Your activities will model the best way for others to follow you on the trail to better health.

Even if it's something as simple as parking at the FARTHEST spot at the grocery store, it's a move in the right direction. Even if you only succeed in getting another person to walk for 5 minutes a day, you've helped them a great deal - and help yourself in the process.

What you do for others, you do for yourself. Each One Teach One. You be the teacher.


***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

While I Was Walking ...

While I was walking at a nearby high school today, I was struck by the amount of litter on the grounds. This is an upper middle class community. The school district is AAA rated. The grounds not so much. I'd give them a D- .

Why, I wondered does it cost a gazillion dollars a year to support these huge high schools and another gazillion to maintain the grounds? Why is keeping their school looking clean and tidy not a priority for the students and their families? Why do we pay others (an entire grounds crew) to maintain the grounds when every class in high school has a required service project? Why is the school not its own service project?

What, you are asking about now, does this have to do with walking? Well, the kids do precious little physical activity during a school day. In many areas, there is no longer a P.E. class and some schools don't even allow outdoor recess. What do they think all that sitting around is doing to our kids?

First, the kids get on a school bus or are driven to school. Only a tiny percent walk to school every day. Then, other than walking a few yards between classrooms, they sit all day long. When they get home, the sit doing (we hope) homework for a bit - the it's off to sit in front of the TV or computer. Sit, Sit, Sit.

What you get from growing kids that sit most of the day is:
Boredom
ADD/ADHD - or something that looks remarkably like that
Depression
Anxiety
Obesity
Substance Abuse
Mischief

What results from getting kids to move for 20-40 minutes every day (ok, the schools only have them 5 days a week) is the release of endorphins in the brain - actual changes in brain chemistry - that result in a sense of wellness. You also get less obesity and mischief, better behavior in the classroom, and far less depression/anxiety/substance abuse.

Don't take my word for it. Read a bit. Research this on your own. Find out what moving your own body for 20-40 minutes a day does for you. Does it do ANYTHING negative??? Nope!

If it must be an activity that is institutionalized by the schools, so be it. Make it a service project to move for 20-40 minutes a day. Walk the grounds, pick up litter, plant flowers, sweep walks, shovel snow, spread sand and salt, paint stripes on the football field. Do whatever light physical labor needs to be done at the schools. Take pride in it. Own it!

There is no downside to this! It will benefit the community and each individual student in every one of our schools, from PreK to 12th grade.


***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

Lemon Aid

You know the saying, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade.

Sometimes you need Lemon Aid.

I had a bad two weeks recently. Mom was sick. I wasn't feeling chipper. Work was difficult. January is a bad month for income in my husband's business. I was unmotivated. I had a couple of 'command performances'.

You know about command performances, don't you. Those family or social events that you simply MUST attend for fear of suffering dire consequences. The consequences might fall in the category of making your family angry if you do (or don't) do whatever. The consequences might be that you'll make a friend angry or disappoint someone - or your boss.

So, you suck it up and just do it.

Then, you have to live with the consequences in your own head. The 'Itty Bitty Shitty Committee' begins its banging, living rent free in your head while rearranging the furniture. Not fun, to say the least. And, it goes on as long as you let it. Just that long and no longer,

How to evict the Committee? Walk it off! Dance it away! Work it out - at the gym or on the basketball court. Move yourself and the Committee moves on.

Really! It works! I promise.

We will all have command performances - many times in our lives. We can either live with the consequences we impose on ourselves - or we can choose to turn those sour lemons into sweet lemonade. Lemon Aid.



***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

Weather Or Not.....

I'm fortunate to have a few walking friends who are of a like mind when it comes to making walking a priority despite the weather conditions.

Today, I was fortunate to leave work pretty early. Had a couple important stops to make ont he way home, including the bank and Whole Foods to pick up some of my husband's favorite crackers. When I left Whole Foods, the sun had peeped out from behind the persistent cloud cover. I was so tempted to run home, leash the dog, and hit the trail.

But....I had plans to walk with KE and she was still at work. I texted her to be sure she was going to be able to walk after work - OR ELSE. So, instead of giving in to my baser instincts, I waited for KE and we walked about 6 PM at a track between our homes.

Here's the bottom line that I told KE this evening. I'm a walking 'slut'. I walk no matter what! If the weather is great now but is predicted to turn nasty in 3 hours, I'll ditch her like yesterday's laundry and walk right then!

Fortunately, she laughed! She understands - and approves. That's the kind of support we need to give each other on this walking journey. I know I sometimes nag my friends, calling them week after week to entice them to walk when I get the chance. They're good walking buddies. They understand, sometimes dropping what they're in the middle of to take advantage of a brief window of opportunity to get all hot and sweaty.

Tomorrow's weather is predicted to turn nasty at evening rush hour when I'm supposed to be on the drive to dance. I'll be cursing the whole way there - and may arrive there only to find the teacher (with her boombox and appropriate music) has cancelled. I'll curse her too! But in a nice way - cuz she's a good teacher and loves to dance and I know she'd be there if she could.

So, don't use bad weather as an excuse to slump on the sofa. If you can't get to dance, or the gym, or to the mall, march in place right in front of the television. Get all hot and sweaty by yourself. You'll feel so much better.




***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

Legs and Things

Right now, my legs hurt. I danced for two solid hours last night, didn't get more than three hours of sleep last night, worked most of the day, then went for a two mile walk. I'm aching!

But, it was worth it! I'm IN LOVE with linedancing! I'm not any good at it - but getting better. Fortunately there are none of those full length mirrors like you find at a lot of dance studios since we dance in church basements and a library meeting room.

I think I'd probably be less enamored of linedancing if I had to watch myself do it! I'm not shy and do not suffer from stage fright or any performance fear. I'm pretty brazen. But, I am definitely NOT GRACEFUL!

Fortunately, if anyone cares that I'm not graceful, they are kind enough not to share their feelings with me. Remember, their opinion of me is none of my business!

Things work out much better for me when I remember that!

So, aching or not, I'll continue to walk and dance. Join me!



***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

MY 'TAKE' ON DE-STRESSING

In a recent issue of a throw-away journal (as the freebies are called in the medical community) St. Louis Women's Journal, I ran across an article with ten ways for managing stress. What does this have to do with walking? Pay attention and walk right this way. I hope it's fun.

1. talk with family and friends - I'll willingly talk to my friends, but do I really have to speak to family members I only see once a year? There is a reason I only see them once a year.....

2. engage in daily physical activity - have you been reading my blog???

3. accept the things you cannot change - well, that's 99% of everything in my life. How about you? Acceptance is the gold-standard of learning to be happy/contented;

4. remember to laugh. Why is it that I cannot tell a joke to save my life. But, I heard this one today. Bob (the guy who claims to have invented this joke) has Pomegranate-itis. What is that, you ask? Kinda like Lyme Disease, only seedier. Did you hear me laugh? I did!

5. Give up the bad habits - but then I'd have no habits at all!

6. Slow Down - I have two speeds - very fast and stop. Pacing is not something I do well. Can you spell 'i-m-p-u-l-s-i-v-e'?

7. get enough sleep. This is a joke, right? How???

8. get organized. I take back #7. This is the real joke. Do you know me??

9. practice giving back. See my 100% Guarantee below. If you don't walk 5 days out of each week, you'll get back all the good things you gained when you DID walk that much. I promise!

10. try not to worry. Here is the actual text from the journal article:
"The world won't end if your grass isn't mowed or your kitchen isn't cleaned. You may need to do these things, but today might not be the right time." Yaaaaa! I win. I've been telling you to put yourself first!! Now, go for a walk.



***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

THE WISDOM OF AGE

I'll be writing more about this, but there's an article in the January 10, 2012 issue of the New York Times Science Times about the kinds of advice that people in the last third of their lives would give to people in their 20's and 30's. Now, since I have no properly functioning crystal ball, I don't know when the last third of my (or your) life will begin. So, I'm drawing a line, stating that by age 50, we all have accrued enough knowledge and experience (and heartbreak and hell) to pass along some good advice to those youngsters.

One of the questions asks if you've learned ways to retain good health. Well, have you?

I have! I'd tell my 20 year old self to get walking every single day. Had I done that in my 20's and 30's, I'd likely not have had the weight issues I've fought for years and the resultant adverse effect of osteoarthritis (well, not as much of it) and probably 10 other things.

Walking has certainly improved my disposition. I was a very angry 20-something (working in a pink-collar field that was jam packed with women with whom I had no clue how to interact) then carried that anger into my 40's while I was being double and triple-teamed with teenagers. How about you? Were your kids' teen years your best years? They are NOT the best years of the teens' lives and certainly not the best years of their parents. LOL.

Give me toddlers or give me Meth! Well, I probably don't need the meth and would never try it. But, if you've raised kids past the age of 12, you know what I'm talkin' about.

So, I want to hear from you. What wisdom do you have to share about your health? I'll ask some of the other questions later.



***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

CONSUMER REPORTS

The latest issue of Consumer Reports Magazine has reviews of home gym equipment. They detail stair steppers, elipticals, stationary bikes, and pedometers. I own a stationary bike, a modified recumbent which is a nice tool to have. It wasn't terribly expensive and is a nice 'fall back' when I can't get out of the house and just want to bike 'away' for a half hour or so in front of the TV. I'm fortunate to have a master bedroom suite with room for the bike. It doesn't fold up, so when it's there, it's there.

Stair steppers are wildly popular at the gym, but they are hell on knees. So, if you are tempted to try them, check with your doctor first. Or, just go climb some stairs and save the price of gym membership!

Elipticals are the newest machines in the game. They combine the motion of walking with a modified climbing like the stair steppers. I find them difficult to work efficiently, probably because I haven't spent enough time on them and I have really short legs while the machines appear to be designed for folks with a longer inseam than 28.5 inches.

The pedometer is your friend. They range in price from a couple of bucks (at Walgreen) up to the GPS type which will set you back hundreds of dollars. Stick to the cheap ones and throw them out when the battery dies since the battery costs as much as the device. Your goal with the pedometer is to assure that you get in your minimum number of steps each day. If you can get to 7,000 steps in the course of your day's activities, that's great. 10,000 steps is now the goal the exercise physiologists want us to aim for.

So, if you can get to 7,000 steps, you now have a new goal - and a New Year - in which to get there. Take your time. Check your pedometer a couple hours before you fold up your tent for the evening to see how many steps you've walked. Then, make it a point to add 25 more steps every day for a week. That's not hard. 25 steps is not very far! But if you add 25 extra steps each day for a week, you'll soon be able to add another 25! Then, you'll be at 10,000 steps before you know it.

I'm on the way tomorrow to buy myself a new pedometer. Going for the 10,000. Wanna join me?

***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT DANCING?

Have I told you about linedancing? I think I have. Were you paying attention? I LOVE it. I would dance every single day if:
a) I didn't have a job to go to;
b) My husband didn't want to have a few minutes of conversation with me every day;
3) My feet would hold out;
4) I could find a place that would have me every day!

Now, my husband is very supportive of all of my craziness. He actually seeks out yarn for my yarn addiction in various stores. He used to come home after a very long day of work and 'sit on the kids' so I could go to quilting bees with my friends. He's never complained about a single cent I've spent on a hobby or anything else for that matter. And, he's completely supportive of my dancing. I just know that he hates eating alone so I hate to leave him to eat alone every evening.

That said, I think the gals I dance with are actually creating my addiction. Oh, yeah, I love moving to that music and learn the dance steps pretty quickly. I have no 'performance anxiety' and am almost impossible to embarrass even when I know I dance with all the grace of a drunken grizzly bear. But, these ladies all tell me how GOOD I am! Really? I can't even imagine that I'm good. I think they are all suffering from heat exhaustion after a 4 minute fast dance and confuse enthusiasm with competence. Really!

There's no way I'm good at dancing when I've never danced a lick til the past 5 years and I'm no Spring Chicken. I'm happy when I dance and the buzz stays with me for hours. I so look forward to my Tuesday and Thursday evening dances that I'll pretty much plow down anyone who gets in my way.

So, I need to walk the same way, right? I don't really need a fan club to tell me that I'm good at something, altho' it's always nice to get positive feedback. But, I continue to walk, almost daily, because it's a reward in and of itself. It's what I do for me. The fact that it might be seen as beneficial in other ways is just icing on the cake. I do it because it feels good. Not because I want (oh, need) to lose weight. Not because I 'should' do it. Not because I 'need' to do it. Not because it's good for me/my health. All of those things may be true, but bottom line is I do it cuz I like it!

Same for dancing. I will continue to dance like nobody's watching and will continue to be pleased by the mistaken consideration of those around me that I'm good at it. Good or not, it's one of my favorite things to do and I'm gonna dance on!




***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

EXERCISE AT HOME WITH HELP

I'm an insomniac, so late at night I can sometimes be found channel surfing for something that will numb my mind to sleep. I run across an awful lot of exercise gurus who are selling all sorts of videos to do at home - some with equipment involved, some not. They are all a bit pricey if you ask me. But, some of them are appealing. Zumba is a good example as you know I like to dance. But, there are workouts for your abs, for belly fat, to jump start your metabolism, to build biceps, triceps and aniceps (ok, I made that one up).

Here's a tip. Before you invest your money in any of those videos, check out the videos on that same subject or something similar on youtube.com. You might not get the full 20 minute workout, but you'll at least get a genuine sampling to see if:
1. it's something you can do
2. it's something you WILL do
3. it's worth doing.

Anyone can make a video and buy some TV time in the middle of the night to separate you from your money. Almost anyone (not me) can have someone video them at home or in a gym going through a routine and upload it to youtube. Only you can determine the value of a video.

If the exercise is something that appeals to you, that you'll do more than once or twice, then the $39.95 is probably a bargain. But, $5 is not a bargain if you don't use it. So, check it out first on youtube.

And, please let us know which, if any, such videos are beneficial for use at home on your own. I am always wanting to find new means to remain motivated and to continue to get in my 20-45 minute exercise every day. I prefer the least expensive methods for doing that as I have a short attention span and don't want to waste a lot of $ on stuff I want return to again and again.


***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT PATTY

I know this blog does not have a gazillion readers, but the readers I have are pretty interesting. Let me tell you about Patty.

I don't know what originally brought Patty to this blog, but she has stuck around, read, learned, and communicated with me on a regular basis. I have another 'walking buddy', one who is dedicated to walking to make her life better.

Patty suffers from several health issues and has led a rather sedentary life until recently. Now, she has incorporated walking into her life. She has started slow and kept at it despite several set backs. She is now the proud owner of some Leslie Sansone walking DVD's so winter's bounty of snow and ice won't derail her walking program.

Further, Patty has let me know how walking has helped her - alleviated some of her pain and improved her sleep and disposition. THREE CHEERS for Patty!

One of the wonders of the internet is that we get to 'meet' people from everywhere. I have learned a great deal from others - on this blog and from other sources. And, I'm really honored to be told that my blog has been a beneficial part of someone else's life. Patty's emailing me to tell me of her successes just makes my day.

Those tiny baby steps we take at the beginning of any new endeavor are the most difficult. But the real work is sticking with it. Patty is sticking with it! I hope she will post a message to all of us - or be a guest blogger here - to share her experiences with all of us.




***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.

TAKING YOUR FIRST STEPS IN 2012

Have you seen the articles of videos of the crazy folks who jump into frigid ponds on New Year's Day to start off the New Year with a very cold splash?

Not interested? Me either! I'm game for a lot of fun things, but that doesn't sound like fun to me.

My suggestion for you to start off 2012 with a big splash is to take some time out of New Year's Day to go for a walk. Unless it's icy outside, bundle up and walk outside - no matter how cold it is. Remember, you're not jumping in the water!

If it's too icy or you just Can Not Face Outside, plan your route around your house. Walk a way you have not walked before. Walk backward or sideways or take baby steps or double steps. Just do something a bit different.

Remind yourself that you are alive and able to move forward on those fantastic feet you have. Look forward rather than backward. Don't let anything deter you. If the whole family is over for a huge meal and football on TV, that's fine. Walk on by them.

Just do it for a few minutes (oh, about 20 minutes if you can) and ignore their heckling or praise. You aren't doing it for them. You're doing it for YOU AND THERE IS NO ONE MORE IMPORTANT!




***************************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. You can trust the information you find here. It's from a dedicated walker. Trust me and your life will get better! I promise.