Boosting Brain Power

Dateline:  NYTimes, April 16, 2013
Correspondent:  Gretchen Reynolds

Guess what!  Walking improves brain function.  Ahem...I think I've written about this before.  But, once again, I can quote a reliable, scientific source to bolster my opinion.  The research is in.  My hypothesis is affirmed.  Here are the specifics.

In tests with human females and rats of all genders, testing aerobic exercise (walking), weight training (fun with rats they say), and resistance training, walking wins, pretty much feet down.  Hands up!  Resistance training may add to the benefit - so lift your arms and use one of those elastic band thingies you can find at every corner Walgreen/CVS/Sams/Costco.  Weight training won't hurt your memory, but seems to have no benefit for it.

What this article didn't tell you?  Walking is more fun than resistance training or weight lifting.  Since I'm not a lover of the gym, walking is much easier for me to incorporate into my daily routine than either of the others - although there's not much excuse for ignoring resistance training.  I'm going to get some more of those bands and begin to incorporate some resistance training into my walks.  I have finally found a way to make a great thing 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.

New Rules

This is not a blog about dieting or weight loss.  It's not a blog about eating plans or the size of one's waist line.  It's about moving one's body and getting to feel better because when we move we feel better.  Plain and simple.

However, the time has come.  I've gained 10 pounds and I gotta get it off.  This despite my daily walking of three miles, my dancing twice a week, and the other physical work I do.  But, no matter how much one moves, if one eats too much, the weight is going to come on.

So, I have some new rules for myself.  My one true weakness is eating late at night.  I get along well during the day, not overeating and getting things done.  But, late at night when I'm still busy with reading, writing, or crocheting, I begin to graze.  So, my new rule for myself is no eating after 10:00 PM.  Ten sounds late to a lot of folks, but we eat supper late and I'm often not home from dance or other activities until 9 or later. 

So, I'll see how this goes.  If I give it two weeks and make no progress, I'll reevaluate and get a new plan.  In the meantime, I will continue my walking and dancing, maybe adding a few extra minutes to my exercise routine to kick start the process.

Update:  I have been successful at this for the past 2 nights.  I'm using my 12 Step work to help me with this.  Please post in the Comment Section if you have any positive information, success storeies, etc.  Thanks!


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

If You Can Do It In A Dorm Room....

You can do 'it' anywhere.  It = walking/exercising.  No excuses!!

Check out this video on youtube. It's a free to watch, 30 minute workout that is based mostly on plain old walking steps.  Since it's called a Dorm Room Workout, it may be a bit aggressive for some of us - like me.  I've had two knee replacements so things like lunges, squats, and jumping jacks are off limits.

But this video, and others you'll find on youtube or can buy for yourself, are mainly for inspiration - a bit of enticement to get us moving.  Hey!  Dance like no one is watching - because they really aren't interested in you anyway.  Most people are far too wrapped up in their own worlds to give a flip about what you think might look ridiculous in a work out.

So, I brazen and I'll dance right on Main Street despite have an enormous lack of grace and talent!  I have no stage fright, no jitters, no fear of embarrassment in such a situation.  But, I know that my attitude is not the norm.  But, it's okay if you are a bit self conscious, a bit intimidated by those sleek twenty-somethings at the gym.  Don't go to the gym!  Stay in your own TV room and work out.

When the moves in the video get too aggressive, just march on through those parts to keep your heart rate up.  Do the parts you can do and walk on through the other parts.  No one can do everything!  So, do what you can - and before long you'll discover that you can do more than you could last week.

Feeling good is free.  You just have to sweat for 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.

Building Up

At my dance class, we try to learn at least one new dance each week.  Of course, we enjoy dancing through ones we already know and we like to practice ones that are newer to us, but if we don't learn new ones, we get stale and bored.

I have two great regular teachers and a several other 'guest' teachers who come around from time to time to teach us something they've just learned or recently choreographed themselves.  With each new dance, we start with the first step or group of steps, then add on to build the pattern until we have memorized the total number of steps we go through before the pattern repeats.

We build up to learn the whole dance.  Typically, there will be from 16 to 32 steps we must learn before the pattern repeats.  Sometimes, there are 64 or more steps to learn!  Those are not my favorites.  Then, there are tags and restarts - variations in the step pattern dictated by the music so that we can stay on pace.

No one expects us to be able to watch a dance demo and be able to run through it the first time -without practice, without learning each movement, without repeating things a few times.  Of course, some dances are easier than others.  Those with 16 steps are learned quickly.  Those without tags or restarts are a breeze.  But, they're all learnable.  We can all walk and each dance is merely a combination of all the steps we've ever learned.  We have two feet and we can walk - thus we can dance.

When you start walking - as a beginner - you cannot expect yourself to be able to get through 1 or 3 miles without practice.  There can also be tags and restarts in a walk.  We get sidelined - meet a neighbor and stop for a brief conversation (resulting in a lowering of our heart rate).  We encounter cracks in the sidewalk, those hateful sweet gum balls that require some fancy sidesteps, pain from a corn or a new pair of shoes.   As in dancing, we learn to step around these difficulties to keep a pattern to our stride.  But, it takes time - and practice.

Then, as we progress and gain endurance, we might add a few new 'dance steps' to our routine.  We might add some sprinting (faster walking segments) or some weight training (ankle weights) or add upper body work - swinging our arms or using hand weights. 

Each one of these new 'dance steps' requires learning how to walk with new steps.  We won't do it perfectly the first time - or first 100 times.  But, if we persevere, we'll master the new steps and be able to comfortably incorporate the new steps into our routine.  We'll learn the new dance by building up to 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.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

I've blogged before about make a list and putting yourself on it.  In that regard, I was mostly thinking about my list for today.  But, what about tomorrow?

Wanna make God laugh?  Just make plans.  That's how the saying goes.  But, I find plans to be helpful, even while I try to retain my ability to remain flexible.  The fact is that my life runs better if I make a plan for each day.

So, what will I put on my plan for tomorrow?  Will I put myself on it?  Will I write a line item that goes reads something like:

walk a mile tomorrow
walk 5 minutes  tomorrow
go to the mall and park in the most distant parking place
put the baby in a stroller and walk around the block

Whatever it is, write it down when you are planning your tomorrow - then take that 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.

Walking As Therapy

Can you walk off your problems?  Can you walk off your worries?  Can you walk off stress and unhappiness.  Well, yes!  Not ALL problems or all worries or all stress or all unhappiness.  But, a lot of those things will simply disappear as the result of a good walk.

Walking is also a perfect time to have a good conversation with your walking buddy, you dog, or your God.  Really!  Some of my most spiritual moments have come during walks when I thought I was walking alone.  But, I clearly wasn't.

I know that walking with a friend, talking about all that's going on in one's life - with job, kids, spouses, etc. - can certainly give a new perspective that diminishes the perceived problems.  Physical exercise itself can alleviate a lot of the stresses of our lives.

This message has been presented to me lately by two youngsters who attend the Alateen meetings for which I am an adult sponsor.  One is 14 and one is 16 - but both have quickly learned by working the 12 Steps that they want to make their lives better despite the adverse effects of alcoholic(s) in their lives.  Both were physically aggressive before this and have learned that hard physical exercise seems to inoculate them against the desire to be aggressive when they encounter problems.  That's quite a lesson to learn so young!

So, let's jump on that bandwagon and learn that we, too, can learn to cope better with the problems we encounter in the course of our daily activities by destressing with exercise as simple as walking.  It works!  It may not replace a psychiatrist, therapist, or other mental health professional - but it will make things better.  I guarantee 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.

Saving Sole

Those dratted corns and calluses were causing me so much pain that I was limping around after my walks.  I could tough it out for the 3 miles, but then the pain would get to me.  But, my life has been changed!  A fairly simple product, Vita-Gel Toe Protector, has taken away most of the pain and given me a more enjoyable walk.  Also, i was reminded today about the benefit of using moleskin on the sole of my one foot to cover a plantar wart during sandal weather.  Made all the difference last summer, so I will continue using them.

This is the moleskin I use that I buy here:

In addition to good shoes and socks, these items have become essential to my walks.  I just placed an order for 10 more of the toe protectors.  The first two I used lasted about 3 weeks.  I've worn through one of them (the callus on my big toe) but the one protecting the corn between my toes is still going strong.  But, I want to have a good supply on hand.  They are not that easy to find - and, having found the 'perfect' ones, I don't want to experiment with any others. I found these particular toe 'condoms' at amazon.com and here.

I have not been able to find the Profoot Vita-Gel Toe Protectors in a brick and mortar store.  The moleskin adhesive pads are available in my local Walgreen store - and the Walgreen brand works very well.  The pads are thin and protective and the adhesive lasts from 14-21 days.  Not a bad deal.  I cut the adhesive pads to shape, so I get 3 pieces per sheet - so 9 pieces per package.  YMMV.



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