OTHER OPTIONS

Here's a quick recap of ideas for physical activities when it's too hot, wet, cold, or icy to walk outdoors.

Walk at the mall or a large store like Wal-Mart or Home Depot;

Walk in front of your TV to a tape or DVD of Leslie Sansone;

Linedance (find a class. They're everywhere.);

Turn on your favorite one hour TV show and walk around your house during every commercial. After a 60 minutes show, you'll have walked a remarkable 20 minutes;

If it's raining, get a rain slicker or umbrella;

If it's cold, buy and use silk underwear;

If it's windy, use a muffler and extra layers;

If it's icy, don't risk it. Walk in front of your TV.

Got it?





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

PATTY

Patty posted the following comment:
What a perfect time for me to find you. I just re-started walking this past Monday. I have fibromyalgia, so need to do it slowly, but I just came in from a 1 mile walk in 25 minutes. That is pretty slow, but it will get better.
I have already lost 40 pounds, not walking, in the past 2 years, and have 65 more pounds to lose, with walking. It comes off slowly, but I am so out of shape from taking it too easy because of the fibromyalgia, that it is pitiful.
Thank your for this great blog. I am going to start at the beginning of it, and read on through to the now posts.

PATTY IS AN INSPIRATION!

One mile in 25 minutes is a very respectable starting point - and yes, it will get better. Your time will get better as you get better and develop more endurance and re-find all those muscles that are there, still waiting to be tested.

Your weight loss is remarkable, especially if you did it without exercise. But, in my experience, the only way to really keep that weight off is exercise. And, walking is the perfect exercise. With fibromyalgia and other pain-inducing conditions, it's so easy to fall prey to the lure of the sofa, thinking that 'resting up' will make it better. Resting makes some things better, but not chronic ailments like fibromyalgia and arthritis. In fact, using those muscles, joints, and tendons improves them over time. Further, the endorphins that are released during exercise actually dampens the perception of pain that we so often live with.

I encourage anyone who is 'on the fence' (and wouldn't that be an uncomfortable place for someone with a chronic ailment??) about exercise, specifically walking, to at least give it a try for a few weeks.

Taking it slow, as Patty indicates, is the key to building endurance, regaining muscle mass, and the other benefits that accrue over time with an exercise regimen.

If you have read (or will read) my blog entries from the beginning, you'll have learned that even the smallest strides will add up to great benefit. If you start with only 5 steps, that's 5 steps you wouldn't have done otherwise.

In the past few weeks when it's been so extremely hot, on several days I have just stood in front of my TV and boogied for 30-40 minutes. Really! Walking in place, knee lifts, side steps, low kicks, arm lifts, etc. Not hard to do. If you want some ideas, check out some Zumba moves on youtube.com. Don't put yourself through a Zumba workout, though. Just get some ideas of the kinds of things you can do while occupying only a few square feet of floor space.

If I DO NOT do at least 20 minutes of a good workout of some kind, almost always walking or linedancing, every day, I DO NOT sleep well. For a person with fibromyalgia, good sleep is a hard to come by and absolutely necessary for cellular repair overnight. So, without the workout and the resultant good quality sleep, I get into a downward spiral of pain. WITH the exercise, I get better sleep and feel less pain. That's simple for me. A no-brainer. So I move!


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

WALKING THROUGH THE HEAT WAVE

Since the entire US seems seized by a heat wave, I'm sure everyone else has had about as much motivation as I've had to walk in this heat - that is to say - not much! Actually, I've been pretty good, but the vet told me quite clearly that the dog, wearing her full length black fur coat, was not allowed to walk more than two miles a day in the heat!

So, to keep the vet happy and the dog healthy, I've left Lizzie at home most days, opting for the mall instead. I've missed the families at the park and keeping track of all the nice things my neighbors are doing with their yards - flowers, mulch, shrubs, mowers. All that fun stuff that I'd never voluntarily do to my own yard!

I've been doing a lot of linedancing too. My 'new' linedance group is really a soul-slide group. Dances are easier and the teacher keeps us moving for the full 90 minutes. That means that on Thursdays, I walk my three miles in the morning and dance for 90 minutes in the evening. Amazingly, this is fun for me. Between those two activities, I actually get to work for 4-5 hours. That makes for a full day.

I never look forward to Fall. It's my least favorite time of year - rainy and allergy-suffering go hand in hand with Fall for me. But, for once, cooler temperatures are looking more appealing. In the meantime, I'm working on my heat tolerance, which is really pretty good so long as I don't have to 'look' respectable. After that outdoor workout, I'm a dripping mess!

A mess that only a dog could love!


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

BY THE WAY....

Don't give up. Please don't give up if you do not instantly 'take' to walking as a fun activity. Don't expect instant results, instant toning, instant fun. It takes time - like most great things.

So, start slow, move along steadily, increase your activity level or your time walking every week, post your start date on your calendar so you can look back on that and see how long you've been moving.

There's the idea of the Success Chain that can be quite motivating. Every day you walk, put a small X on your calendar. Every day. Even if you miss a day or two, don't worry. Just put those X's down when you walk. At the end of a month, see how many X's you've posted. You're winning if there are at least THREE X's each week. Four is better, Five is Fantastic. More than that is fine - just means you've really gotten with the program. You probably even look forward to your walk(s). I do.

But, it was not always so. In the beginning - about 13 years ago - it took some mental gymnastics to get my derriere out the door many days. But, I did it because, as you may recall, I had to give up racquetball and I needed some sort of physical outlet. I took up walking because my mom and one of my best friends were regular walkers. They set fantastic examples for me.

My mom is now 89 and still walks at least one mile every day. She'd walk more except she can't walk very fast as she has lost most of her vision and can't see well enough to walk confidently which slows her down. But, she does it! Almost every day! I'm really proud of her - and glad that I have such a good role model.

Let me be that for you. I LOVE my walks. I look forward to them. I've set myself up for success. I have a 14 year long Success Chain - and that's something I could not have predicted. Now, I know that I'll have 14 or more years to add to my Success Chain. Good walking buddies (and you know who you are out there) are part of my success and a great deal of the reason that I look forward to my walks.

So, get a friend, make a friend, adopt a friend (the 4 legged kind) and get walking!


***************************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 'NEWSFLASH' - BUT NOT FOR US!

Dateline, Thursday, June 9, 2011

"Walking is a very underrated exercise, health expert says" is the headline of an article written by Ellen Warren of the Chicago Tribune appearing in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Really! Haven't I been telling you that all along? Now, do you believe me?

Of course, if it appears in print, it must be true.

Well, in this case - it is!

Here are the tips for 'Getting Off The Couch'

* start with a slow walk, just a few minutes a day;
* increase time gradually;
* then walk faster;
* make a game out of it by spotting an object and speeding toward it;
* let breathing return to normal then speed up again.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll have read at least one article highlighting each bullet except maybe the make a game out of it part. But, it's all a game. Think how we played games as children - tag, capture the flag, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, hopscotch, baseball, softball, Red Rover, etc. They ALL involve walking/running/moving.

That's why most of us were slim as kids. Not everyone - but most of us. Now, kids play video games instead of these healthier outdoor alternatives. Sad. Oh, don't get me started on the serotonin part of the equation.

So, take my advice or take it from the newspaper - get walking! It needn't be competitive, but if that makes it more fun for you, then do it! A direct quote from the article states "Going faster will make you feel even better..." I agree. But, even a casual stroll beats sitting through another episode of Cops!


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

ROAD TRIP!!

One day this month, a friend and I are taking a road trip to Carlinville and Auburn, Illinois. We'll sleep late, hit the road, eat, see the 1.4 miles of the original Route 66 in Auburn, eat, tour the 12 blocks of Sears & Roebuck mail order homes that survive in Carlinville, eat, the head home.

Did I say we have plans to eat at a few historical sites along the old Route 66?

What does this have to do with walking? Well, at some point, I'll have to get out and stretch my legs. This particular friend is also one of my regular walking buddies. We'll find a park or trail some where along the route and get in at least an hour.

Then, we'll probably have ice cream.


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

HOT, HOTTER .....HOTTEST??

The weather reporter on TV said that yesterday or the day before had a temperature that registered the highest since 1911. Really?? It didn't feel that way when I was out walking in it.

While my four-legged walking partner has yet to become acclimated to Summer, I'm doing pretty well. I was delayed in my regular walking time, which has morphed to about 4 PM many days. So, it's pretty hot by then, with the earth still retaining the midday heat. Not to mention the humidity. St. Louis is long on humidity.

But, yesterday, on that record-breaking hot day, it didn't seem that hot to me. There was a bit of a breeze at the park where we walked and we did a couple miles in our usual time. We bailed after two hours because Lizzie (the 4-legger) was clearly nearing her tolerance level. And, we were the only people at the park! Everyone was at the pool. Who could blame them? But, kinda hard to walk the dog in the pool with all those screaming kiddies - and, well, the water.




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