1. < Just Want to Talk
Mentor

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.

JK | @contentandwell | May 23, 2020
In reply to @pollyanne "@contentandwell It is definitely best to not repeat the same exercises each day and if you..." + (show)
@pollyanne

@contentandwell It is definitely best to not repeat the same exercises each day and if you have different routines that is great. I think your son is right and I have to watch overuse when using weights. I don't do very much with weights myself but I do think they are good for lots of reasons. I really feel they help your metabolism more than walking because you are building muscle and in fact it isn't good to just walk, so a mixture is perfect. We need to work on flexibility and strength just as much as walking. However, I am not an exercise freak and so don't think that I am continually exercising. In fact I just hit my 80th birthday and my energy level is definitely going down from 6 years ago when I went to the gym 5 days a week. That was when I had a trainer and did weight lifting with him. But it was too much for me and made my back worse. It was great for weight control though.
And your comments about using music with your work out is exactly right. Music can give you a lot of energy and that is why it is one other thing to be aware of because I found that music made me overdo things. I still enjoy it though and I was doing advanced high impact classes, so that;s a bit different from what you are doing.
Also, concerning your statin options. I do think that in spite of the new recommendations, different Drs have different ideas. I have found that the older Drs are still not so gung ho on using a statin whereas the younger Drs, especially the females, go by the book. Women are always more exacting than men which is often a good thing. It took a woman Dr to discover my daughter's broken neck 2 years ago. Two male Drs had already examined her. I hope my present Dr who is an older man is right about me not taking a statin, but I shall be talking to him again soon. I think it is a difficult decision to make when you are border line like me. Plus the medical field is always changing it's mind!

Jump to this post

@pollyanne Weight lifting is very important as we age, it helps us to maintain muscle. Now, if only the weights I have on order will come in it will be great, no one has any in stock. Maybe that was why I was controlling my weight better when I was going to the gym.

I agree you need a mixture. My sister is fixated on getting in 10,000 steps a day but doesn't do many other exercises. I have a friend who is also obsessed with 10,000 steps but she does lots of other things too. The crazy thing is that whole "10.000 steps" was actually a marketing ploy by a company:
"I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard University T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the lead author of a new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, began looking into the step rule because she was curious about where it came from. “It turns out the original basis for this 10,000-step guideline was really a marketing strategy,” she explains. “In 1965, a Japanese company was selling pedometers, and they gave it a name that, in Japanese, means ‘the 10,000-step meter.’”
Based on conversations she’s had with Japanese researchers, Lee believes that name was chosen for the product because the character for “10,000” looks sort of like a man walking. As far as she knows, the actual health merits of that number have never been validated by research."

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/10000-steps-rule/590785/

Regarding statins, the doctor who prescribed them for me is sort of in the middle, age-wise. I think it probably also depends on how far up your cholesterol level is. I forget off-hand what mine was but it was not borderline. My BP is borderline and although my PCP would like me to take a BP medication I have resisted and he has not been overly aggressive in pushing it.

I would love to get out for a ride but I need to go to the bathroom somewhat frequently and I do not want to have to use a public restroom. 🥺
JK

REPLY
1 reply
pollyanne | @pollyanne | May 23, 2020
In reply to @contentandwell "@pollyanne Weight lifting is very important as we age, it helps us to maintain muscle. Now,..." + (show)
@contentandwell

@pollyanne Weight lifting is very important as we age, it helps us to maintain muscle. Now, if only the weights I have on order will come in it will be great, no one has any in stock. Maybe that was why I was controlling my weight better when I was going to the gym.

I agree you need a mixture. My sister is fixated on getting in 10,000 steps a day but doesn't do many other exercises. I have a friend who is also obsessed with 10,000 steps but she does lots of other things too. The crazy thing is that whole "10.000 steps" was actually a marketing ploy by a company:
"I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard University T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the lead author of a new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, began looking into the step rule because she was curious about where it came from. “It turns out the original basis for this 10,000-step guideline was really a marketing strategy,” she explains. “In 1965, a Japanese company was selling pedometers, and they gave it a name that, in Japanese, means ‘the 10,000-step meter.’”
Based on conversations she’s had with Japanese researchers, Lee believes that name was chosen for the product because the character for “10,000” looks sort of like a man walking. As far as she knows, the actual health merits of that number have never been validated by research."

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/10000-steps-rule/590785/

Regarding statins, the doctor who prescribed them for me is sort of in the middle, age-wise. I think it probably also depends on how far up your cholesterol level is. I forget off-hand what mine was but it was not borderline. My BP is borderline and although my PCP would like me to take a BP medication I have resisted and he has not been overly aggressive in pushing it.

I would love to get out for a ride but I need to go to the bathroom somewhat frequently and I do not want to have to use a public restroom. 🥺
JK

Jump to this post

@contentandwell I so agree with everything you say and yes we need to maintain that muscle. I have always thought the step thing was a fallacy and a marketing tool for the fitness watches and Apple watches. It doesn't make sense to me to be counting the steps you take all day towards your fitness level. I stick to walking my mile or two at a brisk pace each morning and then my exercises at home after my walk. I would probably go back to the gym 2 or 3 days a week if things were safe right now. I'm sure the weights at the gym did help you keep your weight down. They certainly kept mine down but I don't use such heavy weights as I was using at the gym. I also have to watch my energy level as I get very tired. I am a good hiker.
I have a problem with frequent bathroom visits in the morning and then I settle down. Like you, I don't want to use public bathrooms. I am always very careful even without the virus around. It is something that concerns me about flying right now. We are booked to fly to London and on to Athens in November but I read to not use the plane bathrooms. How can you not on a flight that length. We shall have to see if we will be able to go or not. We are supposed to be taking a cruise [Small ship] from Athens to Dubai and we would be visiting the Valley of the Kings and Petra and Wadi Rum which is one of my goals in my lifetime. We shall have to see if it is sensible.

As for the cholesterol, I know I am not too bad but it is difficult to know what to do for the best. Remember how the medical profession were handing out hormones to all the menopausal women and then some years later they stopped them because they changed their mind and said they were wrong and that they caused cancer. I always refused to take them but I went to a Naturopath Dr and was given plant based hormones made with completely different processing. So who knows, they may change again about cholesterol. If I start having angina pain I would definitely be taking them but so far so good.

REPLY
2 replies
lilypaws | @lilypaws | May 24, 2020
In reply to @pollyanne "@contentandwell I so agree with everything you say and yes we need to maintain that muscle...." + (show)
@pollyanne

@contentandwell I so agree with everything you say and yes we need to maintain that muscle. I have always thought the step thing was a fallacy and a marketing tool for the fitness watches and Apple watches. It doesn't make sense to me to be counting the steps you take all day towards your fitness level. I stick to walking my mile or two at a brisk pace each morning and then my exercises at home after my walk. I would probably go back to the gym 2 or 3 days a week if things were safe right now. I'm sure the weights at the gym did help you keep your weight down. They certainly kept mine down but I don't use such heavy weights as I was using at the gym. I also have to watch my energy level as I get very tired. I am a good hiker.
I have a problem with frequent bathroom visits in the morning and then I settle down. Like you, I don't want to use public bathrooms. I am always very careful even without the virus around. It is something that concerns me about flying right now. We are booked to fly to London and on to Athens in November but I read to not use the plane bathrooms. How can you not on a flight that length. We shall have to see if we will be able to go or not. We are supposed to be taking a cruise [Small ship] from Athens to Dubai and we would be visiting the Valley of the Kings and Petra and Wadi Rum which is one of my goals in my lifetime. We shall have to see if it is sensible.

As for the cholesterol, I know I am not too bad but it is difficult to know what to do for the best. Remember how the medical profession were handing out hormones to all the menopausal women and then some years later they stopped them because they changed their mind and said they were wrong and that they caused cancer. I always refused to take them but I went to a Naturopath Dr and was given plant based hormones made with completely different processing. So who knows, they may change again about cholesterol. If I start having angina pain I would definitely be taking them but so far so good.

Jump to this post

@pollyanne Good for you and yes it is important for your health to exercise. I haven't been able to because of my back. Have lost my stomach muscle tone and gained 11 pounds, although my endocrinologist said it was from The Tymlos I was injecting everyday to increase my bone mass. He said I could go off of it for 2 weeks and see if it make a difference, but I have to get my surgeons ok. My surgery is June 9th. I can hardly wait. I know I will have pain afterwards, but at least I will be on pain pills then. It much be frustrating having all those freqent bathoom visits. Maybe you should check in with your doctor. What a trip, that's one I wouldn't be able to do because of my depression and anxiety. We went to Paris a long time ago. My son was attending Stanford and he had an exchange with Oxford for six months. We stayed in Paris first and it was so cold that the top of the Eifle sp tower was frozen. Then we went to Oxford and I enjoyed my trip more at Oxford. Once I got home I had very bad depression. My doctor told me it was because I traveled a long way. I don't know, maybe it was just a bout of depression that I do get, but haven't for awhile.

REPLY
1 reply
lilypaws | @lilypaws | May 24, 2020
In reply to @pollyanne "@contentandwell I so agree with everything you say and yes we need to maintain that muscle...." + (show)
@pollyanne

@contentandwell I so agree with everything you say and yes we need to maintain that muscle. I have always thought the step thing was a fallacy and a marketing tool for the fitness watches and Apple watches. It doesn't make sense to me to be counting the steps you take all day towards your fitness level. I stick to walking my mile or two at a brisk pace each morning and then my exercises at home after my walk. I would probably go back to the gym 2 or 3 days a week if things were safe right now. I'm sure the weights at the gym did help you keep your weight down. They certainly kept mine down but I don't use such heavy weights as I was using at the gym. I also have to watch my energy level as I get very tired. I am a good hiker.
I have a problem with frequent bathroom visits in the morning and then I settle down. Like you, I don't want to use public bathrooms. I am always very careful even without the virus around. It is something that concerns me about flying right now. We are booked to fly to London and on to Athens in November but I read to not use the plane bathrooms. How can you not on a flight that length. We shall have to see if we will be able to go or not. We are supposed to be taking a cruise [Small ship] from Athens to Dubai and we would be visiting the Valley of the Kings and Petra and Wadi Rum which is one of my goals in my lifetime. We shall have to see if it is sensible.

As for the cholesterol, I know I am not too bad but it is difficult to know what to do for the best. Remember how the medical profession were handing out hormones to all the menopausal women and then some years later they stopped them because they changed their mind and said they were wrong and that they caused cancer. I always refused to take them but I went to a Naturopath Dr and was given plant based hormones made with completely different processing. So who knows, they may change again about cholesterol. If I start having angina pain I would definitely be taking them but so far so good.

Jump to this post

@pollyanne I'm on a statin which I have no side effacks (sp) and it has helped my cholesterol. It called Rosuvaastatin calcium 10mg.

REPLY
3 replies
Mentor
Becky, Volunteer Mentor | @becsbuddy | May 24, 2020

Hi everyone! To day begins our last “official” week of walking! But us walkers, chocolate eaters, foodies statin users, weight lifters can continue. I’m actually not walking today—it’s raining. Poor excuse, but it works for me! Here’s some motivation! I need it!

REPLY
4 replies
Mentor
Becky, Volunteer Mentor | @becsbuddy | May 24, 2020
In reply to @becsbuddy "Hi everyone! To day begins our last “official” week of walking! But us walkers, chocolate eaters,..." + (show)
@becsbuddy

Hi everyone! To day begins our last “official” week of walking! But us walkers, chocolate eaters, foodies statin users, weight lifters can continue. I’m actually not walking today—it’s raining. Poor excuse, but it works for me! Here’s some motivation! I need it!

Jump to this post

I forgot !!
REPLY
mayofeb2020 | @mayofeb2020 | May 24, 2020
In reply to @becsbuddy "Hi everyone! To day begins our last “official” week of walking! But us walkers, chocolate eaters,..." + (show)
@becsbuddy

Hi everyone! To day begins our last “official” week of walking! But us walkers, chocolate eaters, foodies statin users, weight lifters can continue. I’m actually not walking today—it’s raining. Poor excuse, but it works for me! Here’s some motivation! I need it!

Jump to this post

@becsbuddy.. I walked today! Beautiful weather. Just unloaded my farm veggies box. Got kale, Maui onion, carrots, micro greens (pea shoots), radishes, beets, cucumbers, oranges, apples, strawberries and corn. I have so many cucumbers I don't know what to do. Not a great fan.

REPLY
2 replies
pollyanne | @pollyanne | May 24, 2020
In reply to @lilypaws "@pollyanne Good for you and yes it is important for your health to exercise. I haven't..." + (show)
@lilypaws

@pollyanne Good for you and yes it is important for your health to exercise. I haven't been able to because of my back. Have lost my stomach muscle tone and gained 11 pounds, although my endocrinologist said it was from The Tymlos I was injecting everyday to increase my bone mass. He said I could go off of it for 2 weeks and see if it make a difference, but I have to get my surgeons ok. My surgery is June 9th. I can hardly wait. I know I will have pain afterwards, but at least I will be on pain pills then. It much be frustrating having all those freqent bathoom visits. Maybe you should check in with your doctor. What a trip, that's one I wouldn't be able to do because of my depression and anxiety. We went to Paris a long time ago. My son was attending Stanford and he had an exchange with Oxford for six months. We stayed in Paris first and it was so cold that the top of the Eifle sp tower was frozen. Then we went to Oxford and I enjoyed my trip more at Oxford. Once I got home I had very bad depression. My doctor told me it was because I traveled a long way. I don't know, maybe it was just a bout of depression that I do get, but haven't for awhile.

Jump to this post

June 9th is so close now. I'm sure that everyone on this site will be thinking of you. How long will you be in the hospital?
When we travel we try to go to places in their summer as neither of us like the cold, in fact my husband has a real problem with it. I think some of the November trip will be cold but a lot of it will be hot. We keep travelling as long as our health enables us to travel together. We have made a lot of friends through our travels.
I hope that when you recover from your surgery you will be able to walk and exercise again as I think it helps mentally as well as physically. I know it will take a while and you are bound to need physical therapy but it will give you a goal to work towards and remember, it will be baby steps at the beginning. Keep us posted and good luck.

REPLY
pollyanne | @pollyanne | May 24, 2020
In reply to @mayofeb2020 "@becsbuddy.. I walked today! Beautiful weather. Just unloaded my farm veggies box. Got kale, Maui onion,..." + (show)
@mayofeb2020

@becsbuddy.. I walked today! Beautiful weather. Just unloaded my farm veggies box. Got kale, Maui onion, carrots, micro greens (pea shoots), radishes, beets, cucumbers, oranges, apples, strawberries and corn. I have so many cucumbers I don't know what to do. Not a great fan.

Jump to this post

@mayofeb2020 I like the English cucumbers. I'm not so keen on the Field cucumbers or the little Japanese ones. Everything in your box is so healthy. Enjoy!

REPLY
pollyanne | @pollyanne | May 24, 2020
In reply to @becsbuddy "Hi everyone! To day begins our last “official” week of walking! But us walkers, chocolate eaters,..." + (show)
@becsbuddy

Hi everyone! To day begins our last “official” week of walking! But us walkers, chocolate eaters, foodies statin users, weight lifters can continue. I’m actually not walking today—it’s raining. Poor excuse, but it works for me! Here’s some motivation! I need it!

Jump to this post

@becsbuddy I didn't walk yesterday. I had one of my no energy days and today is terribly hot and humid but I must walk.I might not go so far.

REPLY
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