While Sitting On The Sofa

Do you want to feel better but find yourself spending too much time sitting on the sofa or doing whatever that keeps you stuck in the place you seem glued to?  Well, while you're sitting there,
 read this and consider how you can help yourself feel much better while doing very little.  Baby steps.

Consider this your 'One Direction' (you know....the boy band pictured above all the teen girls are making millionaires). 





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

Another Study

I read yet another study that touted the benefits of exercising.  In fact, this study, published in the AARP Newsletter (yep, I'm old enough to read it!), indicates that walking is the very best 
form of exercise.  It can be done daily or on a regular schedule, requires no special equipment, takes up a minimum of time (20 minutes 5 days a week), and offers the greatest overall benefits to the health of your muscles, heart, and brain.

Yeah, I kinda knew that.  My 92 year old mom is still walking and still has all her wits about her.  So, put on some happy shoes and get to moving your happy feet.


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

Serenity Walk

An Al-Anon group from a neighboring district in Eastern Missouri invited all who wished to attend a Serenity Walk at Cuivre (sounds like quiver) River State Park.  The walk was scheduled for the afternoon of October 18.  When I first heard the announcement, I made note of the date, time, and location, hoping that our very iffy October weather would allow a road trip and hike.

I asked my friend Kris to join me.  As the weather was PERFECT, we headed out for the approximately one hour drive to the park near Troy, Missouri.  We were to meet at the Stone Lodge at the park.  We knew no one else who planned to attend, but I'm not shy, so we started asking people in the parking lot as we made our way to the rustic lodge.  Cheri had started a fire for the s'mores and had all the fixings ready for us to chow down.  Soon, about a dozen people gathered, mostly women, but also including one man and the charming 14 year old Chandler and we decided to keep the s'mores for after the walk.  Cheri led us to the trail head and off we went.  Two 'smore's police' stayed at the lodge to protect our precious assets!

This walk was wonderful.  The trees, mostly maple and sycamore, were in their finest Fall colors - aflame with huge leaves.  The trail was not too difficult as we headed uphill for about the first half of the walk.  At the top of the ridge, there were several overlooks where we could see the glorious vistas - the Cuivre River, a canal, some horses grazing and crops growing in a checkerboard of fields below us.  Sunny, breezy, warm, with new friends, quiet, cheerful conversation, and the trail ahead all down hill.

Kris took these photos so you could see what we saw and drool.  It was a fantastic afternoon.  After the walk, we burned our marshmallows to make s'mores, ate them, then had a cozy meeting on Serenity led by Cheri.

 

The only thing better than a perfect walk in the woods is a perfect walk in the woods with friends.

If you look closely at that last photo, you can see a few of us walking through the cathedral of trees.  Thanks, K!




*************************** 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 The Sun Shine In

Fall is not my favorite season.  In St. Louis, the crispness and brilliantly colored leaves one associates with Fall are often smothered with cold rain, triggering my asthma.  Rain means gloomy skies.  A couple days of that and I feel like I'm going bonkers.  I'm not a depressed person.  I have a great life that I enjoy.  But, a few gloomy days and things seem a little less rosy.  Know what I mean?

So, I have learned a way around the gloomy skies and the cold rain.  A way to make even the asthma better.  I put on a happy face and walk at the mall.  I'm not unique.  There are lots of mall walkers.  In fact, it's hard to find a time at the mall when I don't see others walking briskly, ignoring the gazillion things they could buy, intent on getting in their walks.  I also see folks pushing walkers and a particularly sweet elderly couple, holding hands, and walking at a very slow amble, seeming to enjoy every window they pass.

There's a lesson there.  Ever wonder how they got to be an old couple, holding hands, walking a half mile an hour, but enjoying the view?  I feel sure this is not the first mall they've walked.  They've been doing so - moving and looking forward - for many years.  And, with smiles on their faces.

So, trite as it sounds, I put on a happy face and smile at all I meet when I walk at the mall same as I do when I'm walking on sidewalks and trails.  So far, it's working.



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

Deep Existence Speaks

Stephen from Deep Existence has a new article about stress.  Here's an excerpt from it:


The APA does a yearly report on how stress is affecting our lives. Here are three interesting takeaways from their 2013 report:

1. Exercise reduces stress, and people value it, but most still don’t do it

• 50% of people said exercise was extremely or very important to them.
• Of those people, only 27% said they did an excellent or very good job at doing it.
• Just 17% of all people surveyed reported exercising daily (the other 83% need an exercise mini habit)

So, which of these three groups of people are you?  I'm one of the 17% who exercise daily - and most of that is walking at a brisk pace.  I can definitely confirm that it is a huge stress reliever!

Read more of Stephen's articles.  He's got a lot of useful information and good tools for creating good habits.  




*************************** 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 Paths

Could not have said it better myself!  Thanks to Kristin Omdahl for this vivid reminder.





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

Chester Mills, Quick, We Found Your Egg!!!!

 If you've seen the TV show, Under the Dome, you know what the headline above is all about.  If you've not seen the show, well, it's just a large, rather plain sculptural egg with no special significance.  I prefer to think of it as the giver and taker of life as seen Under the Dome.  It's really quite a mischievous ovum.

How did we find this magical (or not) egg?  At Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis County near the intersection of Interstates 270 and 44.  As the name suggests, the park is full of sculpture.  I'm no judge of art, especially sculpture.  Much of it does not speak to me like paintings do.  But, I do find the occasional piece of sculpture that I'd like to take home with me.  Not the egg.

The Sculpture Park has lots of trails.  The most obvious trail is a loop of about a half mile that is paved and teems with all kinds of sculptural pieces and the plaques to identify the artist and explain the piece.  There's even a giant piece that looks like huge paper towel rolls that have been welded together at interesting angles and encourages children to climb on it.  The other pieces have clearly stated No Climbing signs.  Even with the one that you can climb on, you better be:
young
agile
fearless
not afraid of heights
energetic

I seem to be lacking in a couple of these areas, so I remain on terra firma.  Which works well if you want to walk.  There is a maze of trails through the woods that we have yet to inspect.  The first time Kris and I walked there, we were pleasantly surprised with the quality and length of the trail we walked.  The bonus is that sculptural work is sprinkled throughout the woods, from some tiny pieces to huge wooden treehouse type works, towers, and a giant caterpillar looking thing which is composed of 55 lead naval buoys that appear to wriggle along the trail.  I was captivated by that one!

Laumeier is a place Kris and I will walk again - probably many times.  The trails are well maintained and have a nice range of hills and valleys.  In summer there is plenty of shade on the wooded trials.  We are hopeful that the trails sill still be walkable in winter weather.  We don't mind the cold, but harsh wind and ice are deal breakers that have us heading to the mall to walk.  We much prefer to walk outdoors, but sometimes weather and darkness just don't allow it.  Our Plan B is the mall which works well until about Thanksgiving when Christmas shopping begins in earnest and walking amidst the crowds loses much of its appeal. 

Do you have a park or great walking venue somewhere near you?  How do you know unless you go looking? You may well be amazed at the joy walking in the woods, on a muddy trail, or through a meadow will bring you.  We saw six dear while exiting Castlewood Park just yesterday.  That's a good thing!



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