Be Your Valentine

What will you do for your Valentine today?

Go for a walk. Go together – or alone.

Be good to your heart.

When you’re single, your heart is in your own chest.

When you’re in love, your heart belongs to another.

When you’re a parent, there goes your heart walking around in the body of your kids.

If you’re fortunate to grow old with your loving partner, give him/her your heart for good.

Take a walk and keep your heart strong.

Walk Your Way To Creativity

I am not feeling particularly creative. Nor have I been able to hike for a week or so. It’s been far too cold and icy in these parts. But, I’m still able to read – and I have been walking. More on that.

For the creativity part: Studies show that if you want to rev up your creativity, take a walk! Didn’t we already know that? How many times have we said or heard it said, ‘I think I need to take a walk to clear my head.’? Turns out, there is hard science to back up this seeming off hand comment. That starts the creative juices flowing again. I’m all for that!

The other side of that coin is to sleep on it. So many problems are solved and new paths revealed after a good sleep. It’s far easier for me to get a good night’s sleep if I’ve gotten in a vigorous walk. So, as usual, we see scientists back us up. We should all be walking more. Moving more. Dancing, jogging, climbing stairs, swimming, moving in whatever way you enjoy.

As for keeping moving in this polar vortex, I have found that Menard’s is a good choice for a physically distanced walk. The ceilings are very high and both times I have ventured there to walk, there were very few shoppers in the store. I wear my mask, keep my distance from others, and get in a 45 minute walk at a good pace. There’s a lot to see there. While I’m not really a fan of HGTV, the friend I walk with there is. We’re getting all kinds of ideas…….

Two Things Can Be True At The Same Time

I heard something on TV the other day that really struck me. Three sisters have written a book and I don’t recall what it’s about. No idea of their names except one of them is the very funny Amber who does a bit on Seth Meyer’s Late Show (I think that’s the one). A different sister than Amber stated this (I’m paraphrasing here), ‘Two things can be true at the same time. I can want this Whopper. And, I can want to lose weight.’

This was revelatory to me. I can want to sleep well tonight AND I can want to sit around and not go for a walk. Both can be true. Only one will get me the results I want about midnight. Hmmm. What to do?

I have learned through harsh practice that on the days I do not get enough exercise, I will not sleep properly. I have a sleep disorder (actually more than one) and I’m prescribed several medications. Even if I take those medications, I will still NOT SLEEP or will sleep much less or very poorly if I haven’t walked. Doesn’t seem fair. Nothing else works.

You can apply the wisdom to the above headline to a lot of things in life. But for me, I’ll just boil it down to this one. That’s one of the reasons I write this blog. One of the reasons I search for motivation and try to pass it on. One of the reasons I keep hitting the trail.

Micro Bursts

Have you read about the recent research into micro bursts in your workouts? These micro bursts range in length from 4 seconds to 4 minutes. Four seconds!!! I can do that! I thought 4 minutes might be doable. But 4 seconds sounds really easy.

Well, this may be a bit misleading. The 4 seconds was on a specialized bike so we may be taking some liberties generalizing that data. But, if I’m walking along, I’ll take a chance and speed it up to an uncomfortable rate for 4 seconds now and then to see if it benefits me. Doing that until the micro burst speed is no longer uncomfortable would be the proof, I guess.

The 4 minute bursts have more generalized science behind them that can work for most aerobic workouts like walking and jogging. With walking and jogging, one is typically not working at maximum capacity. Otherwise, they’d both be called running, right? So, pouring on some extra juice for 4 minutes in our walking really does add a lot of punch to that workout. It might be equivalent to walking up a couple flights of stairs when that’s not our routine.

I would not recommend pouring on that 4 minute burst all at once. Rather, it would be better to gradually work up to it by increasing one’s speed for one minute or even 30 seconds for the first week. Then add to that the next week. Check your heart rate before and after. Our point is not to wind up in the E.R. but to improve our heart health – or just to feel better.

I do like the idea of micro bursts. Maybe if I do enough of them, they’ll blend together…….