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.