Friends Help

About an hour ago I got off the phone with my Wednesday 9am Warrior Group. We met at a James Ray seminar a month ago and we check in with each other every week in order to keep on track with our goals, stay positive and encourage one another. Because I have been focusing so much on my son's graduation, the graduations of friends' children (who are young adults now!) and the changes at this time in our lives (as well as attempting to win a seat in the World Series of Poker), I have not been walking as much as I have been in the past. I'm changing that. Today.

This morning Mayra, Donnie, Critter, Kevin and I were together again on the phone and as we were saying goodbye I promised to walk a mile right after the phone call. I did and just got back a few minutes ago. I took the dog and killed two birds with one stone. Because I had a little extra time I took Mellow across the street to play with a dog who was there fetching a ball. Her name was Maddie and I got to know her owner, Brad, a little bit. He and his wife are new arrivals in the neighborhood. I recommended Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad somewhere in our conversation about graduation and jobs and the world economy and having more than one stream of income. He said he'd check it out. Because I ventured out into the world I was able to meet and connect with someone new and have a little unhurried time. There are more reasons than exercise to take a walk. For those of you concerned about productivity, I also listened to a message on my mobile phone and rescheduled an appointment with Michael Tarighati, my dentist.

A friend of mine has figured out that he likes some of what he calls "adhoc time". He likes having time where not everything is scheduled. He has also figured out that he can't have all his time be adhoc time if he wants to continue making money at his job! His solution is to schedule in his adhoc or free, unstructured time. Sounds like a good solution. What do you think?


I have walked 297.25 miles in 2009.

Hippy Dippy Do At Peet's

This morning I walked 2.5 miles before 9:30 at Peet's Coffee. I had my Ipod Nano that my sweet wife got me for my 46th birthday and had a great time listening to Rocket From The Crypt's Hippy Dippy Do and The Smithereen's outstanding version of I Saw Her Standing There, among others.

I was inspired as my blood got pumping. I googled this saying, so you can say you "heard" it here first:

Why MARCH to the beat of a different drummer when you can skip?

Or Walk? Or Run? Or Rock?

I'm sure there's a bunch of them!


Keep walking!


Walking directions from Palomar Airport Road & Melrose Drive in Carlsbad, CA are below.

Walking directions to Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc
(760) 448-1835
0.8 mi – about 16 mins

Palomar Airport Rd & Melrose Dr, Carlsbad, San Diego, California 92009

1. Head west on Palomar Airport Rd toward Melrose Dr
0.4 mi

2. Turn left at El Fuerte St
0.1 mi

3. Turn right at Gateway Rd
0.2 mi

Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc
2641 Gateway Rd
Carlsbad, CA 92009

Relay For Life

Marianne and I are just about to leave for the Relay For Life. We will walk for two hours to help fight cancer at Cal State San Marcos. You can read more or donate by clicking here. Have a great rest of the weekend!


Keep walking!

Phone Order & Walking

I had a phone appointment at 8:30 this morning with Stacey Smith-Bacon and we called Waiora and ordered my product. I'll let you know when the shipment comes in. Stacey and I have known each other for several years in our local Toastmasters group, Expressions Unlimited, and I'm glad we can finally connect as a business team. We are both past presidents of our Toastmasters club and know each other better than most people you meet in a social setting. I consider Stacey my friend and so when she told me about Waiora I was ready to listen, though I have seen my share of home-based business opportunities. For me, this is good timing as I'm ready to use Natural Cellular Defense to reduce heavy metals in my body.

In recent years I've been reading more about prevention when it comes to cleaning up the environment and our bodies. However, I seem to have missed out on how to do a more effective job cleaning out what is already in my body. Yes, I have done Jordan Rubin's cleanse twice in the last year, but I was not aware that there was a more complete way to clean your body. Also, I'm not sure how many people are ready to do a 10 day cleanse. Are you?

Stacey and I will continue to learn more about this process and I'll keep you updated. There are different strategies for achieving better health. This one makes sense to me and I'm glad I'll be able to do a better job at something I had overlooked previously. Watch and learn here:

http://tinyurl.com/BigManWalkingWaiora

Those of you who have been reading my blog have noticed that I haven't been posting as much lately. I haven't been walking as much until the last few days, but I'm back on the wagon! I walked a quick mile after getting off the phone with Stacey and tomorrow my wife, Marianne and I will be walking a couple hours for charity.

Recently decided that nearly every time I go out for a quick walk, I will be walking at least 1/2 mile. Yesterday I did three miles more than I would have done by walking a half mile 6 times when I had 10 minutes or so to spare. My goal is to beat that today.

Keep walking!

Stacey Will Call Soon!

I'm excited about a new opportunity to increase my health and fatten my wallet. My Toastmaster friend Stacey just got me involved in Waiora and I'm looking forward to getting bad stuff out of my body. We will all benefit by getting heavy metals out of our bodies. Check out this link!

http://tinyurl.com/BigManWalkingWaiora

More soon!

Keep walking!

Still No Foolin' While Walkin'

Last night my wife, Marianne, told me that her grandparents used to do gentle April Fool's humor all day long to each other. One of them might stand in the doorway looking out at the front yard and say something like, "Come look at the kitty." The other grandparent would come and see nothing in the yard and hear, "April Fool's!" I hope that if you like April fool's jokes you'll see possibilities for gentler humor.

My wife's grandparents lived into their 90's (up above Mission Valley in San Diego) and her grandfather was still chopping wood at 95. They took walks regularly as long as they felt they were able.

All who can walk can benefit from walking. I've been walking more regularly for over a year and I've had ups and downs with regard to how much walking I'm doing at a particular time. My sweet wife got me an Ipod Nano for my birthday and today I'm shopping for another pedometer. I know a pedometer helps motivate me. Will a pedometer help motivate you? Will an Ipod make the walk more interesting for you? What does it take for you to be consistently walking?

For those with Ipods and similar technology I will start giving you suggestions about what you can put in/on them. You may like what I do or maybe not, but like the saying goes, "I don't know art, but I know what I like." Just so you know, I do have an affinity for what "they" call "alternative", but I am definitely not limited to that. Below are my first suggestions. I don't claim they're new, but some of them are free. Marc Seales is good for your cool down after exercise. Let it grow on you. Look for the BigManWalking FAVORITE OF THE DAY and give 'em all a listen!

Is It True - The Pillcrushers

Highway Blues - Marc Seales (JAZZ)

I Saw Her Standing There - The Smithereens (MySpace page)

Jesus Was a Motorcycle Man - Jeff Finlin (Official Site)


BigManWalking FAVORITE OF THE DAY

It Was a Better Time - The Hermit

BigManWalking rates It Was a Better Time a 91!

I rate on a scale of 1 to 100 (like RottenTomatoes.com uses for movies, er...excuse me...CINEMA!) and I consider all recommendations at least 65 or above. Clearly, these are my opinions and you may not agree, but it gives you a point of reference.

I hope you enjoy at least one of these tracks and I hope that they keep you moving/exercising.

Keep walking!

No Foolin'

Tomorrow is April 1st. I'll be making some changes in my blog, BigManWalking.

Watch for the changes!

No foolin'!

Keep walking.

Fundamentals

In sports you will sometimes see a coach or a team emphasizing fundamentals. In baseball or basketball or football you will see drills of the same exercise over and over and over. Blocking, fielding ground balls, free throws, and many other exercises constitute the fundamentals of the respective games. With walking I would say that it's walking short distances. You must be able to walk short distances before you can walk long ones.

Today I'm going to start emphasizing the fundamentals (as I see them) again. Please keep in mind that I don't have any problem with walking to the point that you are receiving aerobic benefits. However, if you only count walking distance when you get aerobic benefits, you will miss counting actual work that your body is doing. Every step you take is work that burns calories or fractions of a calorie. You could say that taking one step is a fundamental of walking. For our purposes, I suggest that we keep track of quarter miles (or even eighths of a mile if you prefer) or more.

I know that approximately 500 of my steps is a quarter mile. I'm 6'2" with long legs which are normal for my size. You will probably have between 480 and 680 steps in your quarter mile. You can visit the track at a nearby school to get a close measurement. You can count your steps or get a pedometer. I recommend the Sportline that costs around $10 or so. My last one wore out because I forgot when I was in the Bahamas and went in the water with it. Otherwise I would still be using it. They don't last forever, but so far they are the best deal for the dollar I've found.

How many quarter miles can you do in a day? I just walked my dog a quarter mile and that took 7 minutes. I know you can take 7 minutes and do a quarter mile. How about 5 times a day? 10 times a day? 15? I also know that without the dog I can do a quarter mile in 4 to 5 minutes. Keep watching BigManWalking and...


Keep walking!


I have walked 133.25 miles in 2009.

Recovery.Gov

I want everyone to know about http://www.recovery.gov so as many people as possible view what the United States government is doing with the money we put into it. In fairness, some would say that we are watching what is being done with the money that our children and grandchildren will put into it, but that remains to be seen. President Clinton produced surpluses during his administration and it's possible that President Obama and future presidents will do the same by the END (when all is said and done) of their tenure. Some people assume that when the government spends money, it all goes down a hole. If we are rational (Yes, I understand that that word is my judgement, but let us agree that being rational about politics and finances is a good goal.) about examining what happens to the money that the U.S. government spends, we can follow the trail and see if what we are doing is actually stimulative. That is, now that President Obama and his team have VOLUNTARILY created RECOVERY.GOV we can visit the site and see how our money is spent.

Some are not rational about this. They simply say that government spending is bad or more to the point, they don't want the U.S. government to take money from us in order to spend. They're like young school children who simply repeat what they are taught. (Did you know very young kids can be taught to do Calculus? They won't necessarily understand what they are doing, but they can be taught to do it.) It's fair to say that all human beings are fallible and that with human beings involved in government, mistakes will be made. But that is no different than you and me in nongovernmental activities every day. And, with a government large enough there will almost inevitably be corruption somewhere among those millions of people in government and doing business with the government. However, every day on TV or the net or other media I see and hear about people who are NOT involved in government who are committing crimes and that includes the crime of corruption.

Yet there will be successes. Let's look to praise the successes and correct the mistakes. Let's not expect the government to do nothing except tax cuts. I want better transportation systems and adequate police and fire resources and head start and better public education for kids and advanced education for those who take that path. I want better doctors than the one who squeezed my son's hand and knocked him out from the pain and sent him into an apparent seizure when he had never had one before. People who expect the government to do nothing (or to hardly exist, if at all) are building a (what's the opposite of spectacular?) fantasy world that they apparently want to live in. I think what they're doing is not helpful to their psychological well-being, too, and I guess in the United States of America that is their choice. But I sure don't want them to force me to live in their fantasy world which is really a nightmare for the poor and even lower-middle class. It's a pretty hard slog for the plain old middle class, too.

Hurray for Recovery.gov!

Now back to your regularly scheduled messages...


Keep walking!

A Quick Ten Furlongs Before Breakfast

My wife and I like to go out for coffee sometimes on Saturday morning. (Actually, I have tea a lot of the time.) This morning when we got back from our time spent reading the paper and sharing a hot beverage I decided to walk the dog before I went into the house. This is a good strategy for getting more walking in. Mellow and I did a mile and a quarter (ten furlongs) before breakfast. How many times can you do that in a year? Even three times a week means 52 times 3 times 1.25 miles and that's 195 miles extra a year. That is...do whatever you're doing PLUS walk 1.25 miles three times a week and you will have walked an EXTRA 195 miles a year. You'll feel better and you will weigh more than five and a half pounds less than you do now. Six times a week (it only took me a little over 20 minutes) and you'll weigh 11 pounds less than you do. IF you changed NOTHING else! If you added in a better diet/regimen/life plan/discipline (whatever you call it) you can lose even more. Over 5 years that's 55 pounds of weight loss. Think about it.

Walk always.

Keep walking.

You Can Start Over Anytime

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and we're not avoiding the guacamole and chips and pizza. Tomorrow will be a new day and a new start to the year for me. Marianne and I will go to the gym. When you fall off, you have to get back on and that's what we're doing tomorrow. Do you have goals or a New Year's resolution that's off track? Start again. It's ok. If you need an excuse, then start again on Groundhog Day. If you need permission, tell them Charlie said you could start over. Forgiveness. Grace. Look it up. It's real if you accept it.

I have walked 122.5 miles in 2009. Keep walking!

A Funny Thing Happened After Three Miles

Yesterday we got a brand new President, Barack Obama. Did you know you can use lots of occasions to make a new start or start a new habit? For me, it helps to have some familiarity with the new habit and since I've been walking more intentionally for a year and blogging about it, walking early in the day is now like an old friend with lessons to teach me. As I said, yesterday we got a brand new President. Today is his first full day in office. Using that new beginning as my inspiration, I decided to start something new. I'm walking early and this morning my dog and I walked nearly 3.5 miles before 6:15 a.m. and then I came back and checked my online networking while I ate a nice breakfast my wonderful wife made.

On Facebook I noticed that Mark Labberton had accepted my connection. He is a man of faith and he writes about it and speaks about it. I Googled him and found a recent post I urge you to check out - The Lima Bean Gospel. Even if you are a critic of the church you will find some agreement there. He says some things that should light a fire under those who follow Jesus and maybe give some verbal ammunition to critics of the church.

Keep walking!


I have walked 93 miles in 2009.