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Let’s Go Walking! Join me for a virtual walking support group
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!
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Thank you John. Went to the website and also viewed some of the videos. Think this would be great for osteo, peripheral neuropathy and balance! Putting one on my order list.
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2 ReactionsGinger, I'm feeling a wee bit jealous of your lovely outdoor time today. With several days of continuous rain and then another sudden drop in temps, I am "chomping at the bit" to join you in some down and earthy weed pulling. With a milder winter, looks like there will be a dandy crop to keep me busy and out of mischief!
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4 Reactions@johnbishop I finally got to watching the video on this SandDuneStepper. It definitely looks interesting, but the price is higher than I expected for something so simple. I suspect the help it gives for osteoporosis is not in strengthening your bones probably, but in balance which is just as important and stressed strongly by doctors and physical therapists.
As you continue to use it, John, I hope you will let us know how it's going. As I said, I think $279 is a bit pricey for this so I would have to give it a good amount of thinking before purchasing.
JK
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2 ReactionsJK @contentandwell I thought it was a little spendy at $279 myself but after receiving it and using it the past week I feel it is money well spent for me. It's really well made and I love the storage bag it comes with...really nice canvas bag. I may invest in a couple of walking sticks so I don't have to bend over using it when relying on something to help with the balance. I've raised my walker as high as it goes but I still have to bend over to use it. I have to pick it up when I'm done because I've got 2 cats that still have claws and could wreck it quickly clawing the soft stretchy cover.
Today's my fasting day on my intermittent fasting schedule so no breakfast or lunch to give me the 16+ hours of fasting. I had my coffee and then used the SandDuneStepper for 30 minutes which bumped up my steps to 3407 for the day so far. I usually end up with between 6 to 7,000+ steps a day if I've done my exercises and daily to do's.
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4 Reactions@johnbishop Thanks for your input. I do have a hiking stick that I used to use when we went to Maine, the terrain there was very rough, but I also have a walker from when I had TKRs and for me that would probably be high enough -- I'm shrinking daily.
One of the advantages of your stepper is that you can easily tote it around to any room you want to use it in, and store it easily. I could use it in our family room when watching TV, or if my husband is watching something I don't care for I can use it upstairs.
I will wait a bit longer to see how you are doing with it, or I will buy a treadmill which of course would be more expensive than the SandDuneStepper. Decisions, decisions.
Good luck with your intermittent fasting. How many days a week do you do that? I think it is not recommended for some people and I but I can't remember why. Probably if you have diabetes but at this point, with an A1c under 5, my diabetes seems to be in remission.
JK
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3 Reactions@contentandwell I started intermittent fasting on Feb 25th and do it every other day. I learned about intermittent fasting from @LeeAase on his Health Journey - https://social-media-university-global.org/my-health-journey/. I watched a video by Dr Jason Fung that was linked in Lee's blog entry An Unfortunately Named Book (The Obesity Code). The video kind of struck a chord with me and gave me the motivation to try intermittent fasting. I did a 24 fast the first day and then read how Lee does the intermittent fasting by just skipping breakfast and lunch, eating only dinner. Here's the link with the video - https://social-media-university-global.org/2020/02/an-unfortunately-named-book/. I'm planning to keep doing intermittent fasting until I reach my weight goal of 215 pounds which is what I weighed when we first were married. I've got a little over 20 pounds left to go so it's given me some optimism for a struggle that I've had for 30 years. I'm anxious to see what it does for my Triglycerides, HDL, LDL and A1C numbers. I have a blood draw appointment for next Friday but according to my daughter Mayo has been cancelling a lot of non critical appointments and I'm not excited to visit the clinic right now anyway so it may be awhile until I know if it's had an impact on the numbers.
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4 Reactions@johnbishop Thanks, John. I will check out that link later. Maybe this would help me lose the "at least" 10 pounds I have gained. If you are looking over a long period of time, I somehow got down to 10 pounds less than my usual weight without even trying before my daughter's wedding in 2017 and I would love to get back there, but if I can only get to my usual, that's OK too.
JK
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3 ReactionsMy friend had been on intermittent fasting for at least over a year, he had lost a lot of weight (over 35 lbs), even though he is not overweight to start off with. Now he looks very scrawny, not as robust as before. He told me he recently had a 3 days fast and plans on doing it once a month. But he seems to be lack of energy and he sleeps very poorly. Not sure if there's anything connected to this fasting. He is also a vegan and one would think his lipids would be ideal but it's not. Actually his fasting glucose was over 100!
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2 Reactions@fiesty76 It was great to smell the earthy fragrance. Trying to figure out which of the green things might be plants, which might be weeds ;)) Our neighbors across the street are experiencing their first Spring here, also, but she has a lot more experience with gardening, so I lean on her for tips.
Back on the walking subject [see, @becsbuddy, I am trying to keep it on topic!] since my husband is now working from his condo down south, his daily step count has gone down dramatically. He was routinely doing 12-14,000 steps per day including several flights of stairs. Now he finds it easy to not put his fitness watch on because the step total is discouraging.
Ginger
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4 Reactions@gingerw What a hoot! Stay in touch with yourselves. 💗 Chris
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3 Reactions