Let’s Go Walking! Join me for a virtual walking support group

Posted by Becky, Volunteer Mentor @becsbuddy, Feb 19, 2020

Many of you living with cancer or an autoimmune disease, like me, deal with daily fatigue. You know that exercise is so important to your health, but it’s so hard. There’s always an excuse: it’s too cold or hot, it’s going to rain or it’s raining, or it’s snowy and icy, or I just don’t want to. I, too, have all these excuses, but I have a new rescue dog who wants to go out and who doesn’t care about my excuses! And I’ve got traction devices for my boots.Now I just need a walking group who will keep me accountable. People who say, ‘let’s go for a walk.'

And I thought: What about my virtual friends on MayoClinicConnect?

Mayo Clinic has an easy 12-week walking program to get us started! Here’s the link:
- Get walking with this 12-week walking schedule https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/get-walking-with-this-12-week-walking-schedule/

So let’s form a virtual walking group. We can agree to walk every day and encourage each other through Connect. We can walk outdoors, in a mall, or in the red center, or in the hallways of our apartment building.

Who’s in? Who’s going to join me?

Come on, Let’s Go Walking!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Just Want to Talk Support Group.

Hi, Lioness and other "walkacizers", my walking days are Tues, Thurs & Sat so, like you, while March 1-7 will be the first official week, yesterday, Thur, brought an unexpected location. My best friend was hospitalized with Cellulitis and the hospital reconstruction brought a much longer walk than usual due to "temp" pkg lots much farther away. Glad I'd been building up a bit more distance since my start in Jan.

Looking forward to getting acquainted with other members. I like to flower garden, try new recipes, enjoy PBS programs, read murder mysteries and historical fiction. Although I'm 76 with chronic kidney disease, Precious kitty at 3 rules this roost. Thanks to her up close and personal supervision while doing tax prep, I completed that dreaded task this week. Yes!

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@becsbuddy, count me in as part of the Walking Group. Fibro and back pain have been seriously kicking my butt for several weeks now, so time for me to take charge.

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@fiesty76

Hi, Lioness and other "walkacizers", my walking days are Tues, Thurs & Sat so, like you, while March 1-7 will be the first official week, yesterday, Thur, brought an unexpected location. My best friend was hospitalized with Cellulitis and the hospital reconstruction brought a much longer walk than usual due to "temp" pkg lots much farther away. Glad I'd been building up a bit more distance since my start in Jan.

Looking forward to getting acquainted with other members. I like to flower garden, try new recipes, enjoy PBS programs, read murder mysteries and historical fiction. Although I'm 76 with chronic kidney disease, Precious kitty at 3 rules this roost. Thanks to her up close and personal supervision while doing tax prep, I completed that dreaded task this week. Yes!

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Hi Feisty, it’s nice to meet you. Like you I already have a regular exercise program. I have a variety of health problems that have developed over the last 3 years that make it a bit harder to stick with it so I appreciate having exercise buddies. I share all of your other interests so it sounds as if we have a lot in common!

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@becsbuddy

What a wonderful group we’ve got! And everyone’s ready to get started, some on their feet, some on bikes, and some doing chair exercises. Everything counts, we just have to do some kind of exercise and increase our time by 5minutes a week. We’re a varied, but determined, group of people who have cancer or autoimmune diseases or back problems or or or.... Two of our walking partners even have 4 legs and fur! Take a minute and get to know each other se we’ll be ready to go on Sunday!
Guidelines say to try to exercise 3-4 days a week and not to overdo. Keep a log of your progress and report in every Friday or Saturday and have fun!
Week 1 is March1–7 and 5 minutes of warmup, then 5 minutes of exercise, then 5 minutes of cool down. Let’s go!

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@becsbuddy- You have done a fantastic job! See you Sunday.

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@beachbum80

So sorry for your fight with cancer. Cancer is a miserable thing and hits a lot of people. My myopathy is very hard for me to deal with because when I am sitting I feel like I could champion the world until I stand up. I have always been active and to ground to halt as I did is very difficult . But I think this group will be fun to participate in and give me momentum to move on. Life is to valuable to spend it on being glum.

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@beachbum80- Although I'll be walking outside I'll be looking forward to hearing about your progress. Becky has done a fabulous job setting this up. I've always been used to doing things too fast so when I get up from a chair now and take off to do whatever I am always surprised that I have to slow down! And after 22+ years.See you Sunday.! lol

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@fiesty76

Hi, Lioness and other "walkacizers", my walking days are Tues, Thurs & Sat so, like you, while March 1-7 will be the first official week, yesterday, Thur, brought an unexpected location. My best friend was hospitalized with Cellulitis and the hospital reconstruction brought a much longer walk than usual due to "temp" pkg lots much farther away. Glad I'd been building up a bit more distance since my start in Jan.

Looking forward to getting acquainted with other members. I like to flower garden, try new recipes, enjoy PBS programs, read murder mysteries and historical fiction. Although I'm 76 with chronic kidney disease, Precious kitty at 3 rules this roost. Thanks to her up close and personal supervision while doing tax prep, I completed that dreaded task this week. Yes!

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@fiesty76 Welcome to connect . Becky is getting a lot of walkers to start yea . Im 78 and feisty you stay feisty . That what golden years are about . My exercise class was canceled today so I will be starting Sunday . So onward and upward .

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@becsbuddy

What a wonderful group we’ve got! And everyone’s ready to get started, some on their feet, some on bikes, and some doing chair exercises. Everything counts, we just have to do some kind of exercise and increase our time by 5minutes a week. We’re a varied, but determined, group of people who have cancer or autoimmune diseases or back problems or or or.... Two of our walking partners even have 4 legs and fur! Take a minute and get to know each other se we’ll be ready to go on Sunday!
Guidelines say to try to exercise 3-4 days a week and not to overdo. Keep a log of your progress and report in every Friday or Saturday and have fun!
Week 1 is March1–7 and 5 minutes of warmup, then 5 minutes of exercise, then 5 minutes of cool down. Let’s go!

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Oops. Started yesterday as had not been following the plan outlined here but had been thinking of increasing my walking for some time. It is a part of my broader "Healthy Lifestyle" initiative that I have on the go which includes 3 components - physical activity, nutrition and the mental aspect of it. Each of those have sub components such as mental includes social and mental health aspects.
I have adapted my approach to concentrate on distance/steps to start as I cannot walk for any length of time and only for a distance of less than a block continuously. I also will only doing it 5 days a week for several reasons - (1) to avoid overloading myself as I am busy working on other aspects of my lifestyle improvement plan and (2) avoid burnout. As usual I will reviewing this plan periodically as I go as that is usually required to keep on getting better at what I'm doing and adjusting for issues that arise.

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@bulgebattler

Oops. Started yesterday as had not been following the plan outlined here but had been thinking of increasing my walking for some time. It is a part of my broader "Healthy Lifestyle" initiative that I have on the go which includes 3 components - physical activity, nutrition and the mental aspect of it. Each of those have sub components such as mental includes social and mental health aspects.
I have adapted my approach to concentrate on distance/steps to start as I cannot walk for any length of time and only for a distance of less than a block continuously. I also will only doing it 5 days a week for several reasons - (1) to avoid overloading myself as I am busy working on other aspects of my lifestyle improvement plan and (2) avoid burnout. As usual I will reviewing this plan periodically as I go as that is usually required to keep on getting better at what I'm doing and adjusting for issues that arise.

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@bulgebattler I think this plan that @becsbuddy has lined out, is very flexible. The big thing is to get moving, more than you have been! I am starting today, and will head out before the fog goes away. Currently I am doing a topical chemo on my face, and need to avoind the sun for next three weeks.
Ginger

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What a great group of people, the old P.E. teacher in me says anything is better than nothing!! We are all survivors with ups/downs/other!

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OK, everybody! Tomorrow is March 1st and that means we’ll start walking or doing chair exercises! Remember, week 1 says 5 minutes of warm up, 5 minutes exercise, and 5 minutes of cool down. If you can do more, go ahead, but take it easy. We’re trying to build a routine, a healthy habit. It’s going to snow tomorrow in Colorado, so I’ll probably stay in and exercise with Jenny McClendon on YouTube. After you walk, tell us how you did and felt!
Becky

Walk more, Worry less

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