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.

@gingerw

@fiesty76 Drive or walk to a park and walk. Get a bicycle [3 wheel if needed] or a pair of roller skates. If you are in a house, how about yardwork? Personally I much prefer the outside to inside a building of any sorts.

I like what your friend said. In the past I have gone to the ocean and stood looking out to sea. And realising the enormity of it all, and my little part in it. Very humbling.
Ginger

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I do that at Lake Superior. Just standing by the lake is very humbling. Sometimes I see a "saltie" (ocean-going cargo ship) leaving the harbor for the long journey back to Europe starting with 24 hrs across that deep, cold lake and I get very pensive.

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@fiesty76

@sueinmn, Thank you for the suggestion and Rats! I gave my stationary bike a few years ago to a friend who has since moved away. Great idea and I appreciate the suggestion! This was before my balance issues, neuropathy diagnosis and increased osteoporosis. I just wasn't using the bike but now could put one to good use. Will look into this! Great people and suggestions reside here!

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Another idea for cold, wet, snowy and icy days outside is walking inside with a dvd. Jane Fonda made a DVD when she was around 78 years old called, "Walk Out", very low impact and one can get 1 mile in while walking in front of the tv.

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@deborahfrick123 I think I have a Jane Fonda DVD but not a problem here in California

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@fiesty76

Yes, @wisco50, my concern is for those weather days when slippery or with icy patches. We must be on the same wave length because I called several of our gyms to ask about winter membership only and they are not set up for that.

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I know. It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

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@lioness

@deborahfrick123 I think I have a Jane Fonda DVD but not a problem here in California

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Oh wow, great weather in California!

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@fiesty76

A friend sent me this and thought it great to share: "When life feels too big to handle, go outside. Everything looks smaller when you’re standing under the sky."

Just being outside is a welcome experience and early morning walks start the day "just right" for me. So far I've met my personal challenge for the year of going for walks three times per week. Not a record, but so far I've managed and setting specific days for the walks increased the importance for me. It is far too easy for me to procrastinate about some things and since the loss of my wonderful 4 legged companion, I just couldn't gear up the discipline to continue until setting this challenge.

Until March and the onset of Covid-19, during inclement days, I drove to big box stores for the walks. Now, I'm starting to wonder what I'll do to fulfill my challenge through the end of year. I'm not comfortable going into stores so I can do as I did early in the year by setting a timer and trooping repeatedly through the house and garage (if I move the car onto the drive vbg) but that has very little allure at best and certainly a dull compromise. Probably require changing out the carpets afterwards too. Any suggestions for alternatives???

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I’m going to try to keep walking outside until the snow flies, which can come early where I live....the temperature is already dropping here, and since I’m “cold blooded”-I have to make myself bundle up and go outside. Today, though, an eagle soared very close to me to let me know my efforts can make me so grateful for life

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@fiesty76

Hokay, fellow walkers! Read on at your own peril!!!

On my early walk this morning, I came upon Four Naked Ladies, standing straight, tall and unashamedly in a front yard. Yes, they were! These naked ladies are also known as: Amaryllis belladonna but I like them by their common handle better. Yep! Naked as a jaybird up to their lovely blooms! Smiles: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/plant-naked-ladies-72891.html

Now off to do the annual summer wash of indoor silk greenery and rid it all of a year's accumulated dust. Once/yr whether they need it or not, yes?

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How do you wash your silk plants? Mine need it too— my lungs fight With the dust— judy

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I have trouble with shortness of breathe when humidity up. Today here where I live In Florida it was 97• with heat index of 113—the humidity with the water in the air makes it so hard to breathe for me. I can play golf and walk when it’s not humid. Does anyone else have that problem?

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@deborahfrick123

Oh wow, great weather in California!

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@deborahfrick123 Yep but tomorrow it's to be 106 that's our heat wave for weekend next day same

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@judyhodgern

I have trouble with shortness of breathe when humidity up. Today here where I live In Florida it was 97• with heat index of 113—the humidity with the water in the air makes it so hard to breathe for me. I can play golf and walk when it’s not humid. Does anyone else have that problem?

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@judyhodgern Here it's the opposite humidity in the teens or lower I have to run my humidifier

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