Moving again - Being connected

Isn't this a lovely painting by Corot. A Girl Reading...Inspired by what we read or who we talk to can really boost our health. What is she thinking about? I have no idea. What are you reading today?

It is the second day since I was discharged from the hospital. My day actually started the night before with an encouraging talk with a good friend and my daughter. I had a good night sleep and healthy meals surrounded by fruits and veggies. We are off this week due to spring break so it is a great week to recover. I felt stronger today so I got out dumbbells and went through a routine working my muscle groups. I did 20 push ups and a series of crunches. Ate lunch and drank water and a juice and the break was nice. After lunch went out to Rock Run and went for a walk. I started out easy and increased my pace. As I walked I enjoyed watching the geese and ducks and song birds along the way. The skies were overcast and the weather cool. I was ready to control how long I walked. At first my goal today was to walk a mile but as I walked along I felt pretty good so I walked 2 1/2 miles today. Worked up a nice sweat and stretched afterwards. Worked on papers for my future website and am sitting here feeling pretty good. I will do some gentle stretching later and move a little more around the house. Note to the reader getting out of the hospital and returning to your walking depends how sick you are and what your doctor and you think. Indoor walking may be a better option and how much you move is entirely based on what you are dealing with. Today I was ready to increase my blood circulation and take in fresh air. If I would have gotten tired I would have cut short my walking. On my agenda today is improving my health and taking in good food and water.

I can not tell you how much talking to my daughter and friend really boosted my mood. The blessings of being connected is priceless in walking in life. The technology of connecting with people on the web and cell phones, they are around us and after awhile blend into the frame work of our lives. I was thinking of older people I know who send out daily emails. One was political and another was religious. In their own ways they were trying to connect with others. But like life connections are made through interaction of give and take. It takes both listening and sharing. This blog I am practicing to write so that along with my website I can encourage people to move and walk. The daily experience falls into habit and routine but we begin to see the benefits of how we feel. Strength training, aerobics, flexibility with a good diet of nutritious food restore our health. Spirituality and fellowship that takes work too. Maybe the later is more important to health but I know it keeps me walking. Keep walking!

Baby Steps - Finding safe habor

It has been a week fighting an viral respiratory illness. Landed the fat man in the hospital. One thing about the hospital it is no place to rest. Get stuck with needles until that have a hard time finding a vein to access. Major things OK but getting over the illness a no go. Working on fighting back with baby steps: good nutrition, small walks, rest. That is alot like life. Some problems are to big to deal with. Sometimes we have to start out with baby steps. One day at a time: faith, love, truth figured out as we go. We need these things because we often move in uncharted territory. Our own journey has its own twists and turns. With faith, love and truth we sail these waters with risk that life brings to safe harbors. Through it all health wise I am committed to lose weight and get out of the fat zone. Practically I am shooting for a waistline below 40 inches. committing to diet changes to reduce the amount of medicine needed, to become more fit and improve overall health. Tall order and need for baby steps to get there. Keep walking

Prayer ain't easy - TEMPLE OF GOD unbroken fellowship



Took photo from Rock Run

I hope my thoughts on prayer encouraged someone. Praying when it hard to do is not a hot topic. Stress from the problems we pray about affects our health. Jesus taught his disciples to pray simple and direct and not to get over repetitive. God has good ears and He can hear us once. I think it is the emotions and problems that persist that challenge us to repeat prayer. In prayer we have an advocate and a brother that sticks closer than a brother.
The enemy attacks and we doubt and stress. At that time remember He (Christ) who is in you is greater than the one (Satan) in the world. Satan can read our lips like Hanna' lips were read but an angel is limited and can not read our minds. They can read body language but in your heart that is where God meets you alone. (Please not that in your heart God meets you alone. Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit) Satan has no privy to it. Even if Satan reads lips and body language, people can get good at this as well. You remember that teacher or parent who knew what you were thinking. Recall also those who totally misread the lips and body language. Be simple in prayer, be direct, Know who you are praying too and He has your back, He is on your side to teach us the right way, to correct us and lead us to His higher paths which are not our paths. His ways are better than our ways.
Battle of prayer not easy but God is there to walk us through it. It is something that no one can do for us and if we would pray we will see for ourselves the promises of God worked out in our lives. It is a mystery!
Today I battle what appears to be bronchitis and I am hoping to prevent pneumonia. Bad timing in the whole thing. Health presents scenarios that are always challenging. Lots of rest to day, 5 servings of fruits and veggies to boost the weaken immune system. On line I tried to leave little encouragements through out my contacts. being sick quite the opposite happens, I get really negative so on line and in conversations I take time to send brief words.
I will battle for sleep tonight. Walking I know boost the system and helps restore a positive out look, but that will have to wait a day or two.
Trials come in bunches and it is my turn to get them. Sort them out and take on one at a time has help me in the past. I am not good in the school of Job.
The last two posts were spiritual in nature but I think they are linked to our health. Wish I was a better writer. Keep walking and to one of my good friends keep the challenge. Your health is precious to the Lord and to me, inside and out.

Hard decisions, prayer & health - move moutians

The following may be helpful to those who need to pray for the big problems of life.
Hard decisions are stressful. To me they get in the way of our usual routines of health. My present goals of eating are still intact. Today I only ate one meal which is not good but coming down with strep and weighing a decision on my mind. Along with a decision I have a heavy burden I need to trust God with. I just did not feel like eating. Anybody who knows me, knows that is weird. It is not like me to spend hours in prayer about something but today I did. Being sick, multiple concerns that matter to me, lead to a big mountain to be removed into the sea. (Matt. 17:19-21)
Three thoughts help me sort it out. To begin with I didn't really know how to pray. Mentally and spiritually I was confused and angered. So I started to remembered who I was talking to. God is the healer or the one to move mountains into the sea. In Matthew it tells pray we can move mountains. No mountains have been moved so mountains must be a metaphor for our big problems.
I had a big problem that first I had too sort out to know what I was praying for. It took awhile but I cleared up what I should pray for. (It is amazing how confused I can be at times, Have you ever experienced that?)I knew who I was praying to and I now knew what I was praying for.
Finally I have to believe the prayer will be answered in God's will. In the past God has cared for me, He has answered my prayers. God cares for me now whether I feel that care or not. I can give God my burden or in this case two burdens I am caring about knowing He cares for me. (1Pe. 5:7). Concerning my decision the Lord I think cleared my path to see the light as knowing His will. I was then free to set into action a response. My other burden I have no idea what God's will. My heart is right and so is the other party so I think in time it will work out. Of course I keep breaking the rules to give it time. I am not very patient. I feel like I the "Beaver" blowing it and making a mess of things I cry to the other party, "Gee Wally, this is hard"
One of my favorite lines is Geoffry Rush in Shakespeare in Love where he says, "Its a mystery" referring how things worked out in 16th century drama. In the process of prayer is helping sort things out and trust. "it is a mystery how things will work out but the parties involved are doing the right things. Sometimes it is hard to trust people even when they care for you.
What does all this have to do with health? True friends and family allowed me time to pray. My family made me eat a very healthy meal. They also made sure I took my medicine and they supported a big decision I made. Health improves with good nutrition. My other burden I am still sorting out, but I know who I am talking to, God the remover of big problems. I am identifying some of the problems in me to pray for. And I know God cares for me and the other party who also cares.
Sickness prevented a workout today but healthy praying turned stress into learning to trust both God and those who care around us.

Weigh in day - Is it working

My I look tired, The flash closed my eyes

It has been two weeks since my last weigh in. I have lost 12 lbs from that weigh in. I have lost 28 lbs since I decided to lose weight and 20 lbs since I went attack the snack diet. One thing I did not do at the start of this is measure my self at the belly button. Men often fool themselves and me included by wearing their pants lower wearing a pant size smaller. Here is scary information, to reduce our risk of sudden death due to heart attack or stroke many doctors want us to have a waist size under 40 inches. So with tape in hand Barb measured and I have 8 inches to go to get to 39 inches. My goal is 36 inches and then I will check for what my BMI (body mass index) should be. Those of you doing the math on all this might be thinking Billy you are fat. And you are not far wrong. For those of you obese, the first 25 lbs you loose may be life saving.
I am encouraged by two things, walking works to keep a fat man healthier. All of my health numbers have been better since I started walking, blood sugar, good and bad cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and number of the things my Doctor looks at. My attack the snack diet has targeted my problem area which is comfort food late at night and that along with moderate eating of my meals has helped my weight to decline. Where do you have a problem? Are you ready to deal with it for better health? For the fat man, I am. Keep walking!

He lived the walk Remembering Gordan Huber

Had a good walk this morning, was over 10,000 steps at works in. Planning to work out tonight. Sometimes you get noticed. I heard a younger co-worker behind me, "You're getting skinnier," It is nice to be noticed, sort of puts a hitch in your step. I am still on the attack snack diet. For those who may wonder what I mean, I am not eating deserts or snacks and I am just eating my meals, which are portioned to get the nutrients I need with out the excess calories. Sunday is my weigh in.
This week a friends father passed at the age of 90. He was quite a man. Lately I have been thinking of fathers who have been abusive and the awful affects they have on their families. It makes me sad and mad on one hand and on the other it supports my overall view to be gentle and kind in dealing with kids. Which brings me back to Gordon Huber. Out of all the friends dads I have known, he stands out as a "jewel of a man". He always made you feel welcomed to his home and if my friend Mark wasn't home I was always made comfortable to stay awhile. He would look straight into eyes with this bigger than life smile and be totally interested in what ever you had on your mind. In our conversations, he always expanded my thinking and challenge me when I needed and always saw something good in what I was thinking.
He was logical and his wife wasn't but he loved her and if they differed he often would say, "Ellen you may right" as he scratched his head. I have never seen two people so different yet love each other. She on the other hand would laugh and tell Gordon "I don't know what you are saying but you must be right." then they both would laugh. Listening to them both I had no idea what they understood but I would laugh with them.
Gordon was a captain in WW2 and he fought in the pacific. When we won the war in Europe he helped find the dead who were lost and sent them home to their families. He did research and found his own brother buried in his crashed plane buried in a farmer's field and personally took his brother home.
Gordon used his skills to advance the cause of Christ and help people. He was an active man and exercised all of his life. He would bike on a stationary bike and rid 5 miles up to six months of his death when his health declined after a fall and injury to the head. He walked the Life. Thank you Gordon for being such a mentor to me. I can never repay the debt. keep walking.

Encouragement - Coach George Legan

I remember as a freshman football player the head coach came over and kicked us in the seat of of our pants and blurted off a few choice words and went to another part of the field. We laughed and thought it was cool to be noticed. The abuse was almost a badge. When I played varsity under a different head coach who had high expectations and let us know what he thought but without the abuse. In private he showed a different side. He was a gentlemen and treated us with respect. His record was very good and we won and competed with the best. Years later he opened up to me his fears of playing me with my handicap and he told me he was proud to have me on the team. He did take a chance and put me in the game once and a while and I was always thankful I was part of the team. The kids made me feel that way too. I was far from a starter but I was a full member of the team. Even at reunions I take part in the stories that get better as time goes by.
Thanks for the encouragement Coach George Legan.
Affirming and encouraging others in this fitness for life and health may start with a wake up call from the doctor on health issues or not fitting into our clothes, but I think it progresses with encouragement, love and respect. We will have ups and downs but the habits of walking, strength training and flexibility will pay off big dividends as we feel better and even look better inside and out. Habits of fitness take some time to develop.
Eating smart where we put good food in moderation will pay off to. With each positive choice we make we can feel the difference. Today I was encouraged with new information concerning childhood trauma has on the feelings of working out. It gives me more awareness to be gentle and kind to those seeking to improve their health. The fat man is still Walking and on his attack the snack diet plan. Clothes are looser and 20 lbs leaner. Ups and downs but keep walking and you'll catch on be be on the team of good health. Keep walking

common cold

Today was a day when the common cold makes you feel like a big germ. Spent allot of day resting. Not much walking today. Enjoyed talking to a few friends late until they chased me off the phone. They were patient with me, but it was pleasant listening to friendly voices. Watching TV with Barb and keeping my distance. The good news concerning the fat man is I am still on the attack the snack diet and I am noticeably looking just a little thinner. My granddaughter noticed my weight loss. I am not missing the comfort food late at night. I do know when you are sick it is better to rest than workout. With a cold you have the feeling it will travel to other parts of the body and last for ever. Rest, good thoughts, and baby yourself leads to recovery. Soon walking, Keep walking

Friendship and health - friends matter

I have been thinking about friends, friendships and what they me to my health and walking. Without the friendship of family, mates, and friends of faith and in the workplace where would we be? I have been surprised it is not the friends I have chosen but the ones who have chosen me that have taken me by surprise. Many I have chosen but few have responded. The ones who have shows the truth that love has to be returned and shared to be tasted. Love that is reciprocal is most satisfying.
A daughter who chooses to go out on a father daughter date, she loved it and I got a kiss on the cheek for it. I long lost friend who has chosen to open up her heart to me to explore a friendship for faith and family that is close and enduring. A friend who accepts me and challenges my thinking. Another who similar battles of health remains close. My dear wife who allows me to reach out to love ones of both sexes and trust me. Friends at work who care about me, friends at church who affirm our bond together. When I add them up It is I who has received and returned so little.
"The righteous should choose his friends carefully" Prov. 12:26

James Burkey a Kindred Spirit

A man who has friends must show himself friendly; but there is a friend that sticketh closer to a brother" Proverbs 18:24

John 15:15"No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you."

Robert Louis Stevenson remarked "friends are a gift to you" Friends are equal but I suspect they are more than that. What do they have to do with health? They are are right in the middle of it. To each of my friends you have been born to through the ups and down and you have selected to remain. Bless you.

My cold have taken a turn for the worse today. My steps came mostly from work at 7,000 +. Tonight I have napped and rested. Posted a note or two and keep my phone ready. Friends have encouraged my steps and many have with me keep walking.

Breaking need for comfort food - lost a bowling bowl

Had a good week. I ran three times this week and walked on off days. Saturday I ran two miles and was actually moving in my pace. My breathing was good where I could talk and yet aerobic. I will keep the distance the same for a while as I monitor my right ankle. In time I will push to three miles as my weight continues to go down and the stress on my ankle improves. Weighed my self and since started to lose weight a month ago I am down 17 lbs. In guy terms that is losing a bowling ball. I have lost 12 lbs in my attack the snack diet two weeks ago. That is allot of weight and I believe it is based on three factors. One I was eating way to many snacks. Two I am too heavy and the calories to maintain the heavy weight has been reduced. As my weight lowers I will slow down the loss. Three my exercise now is playing a factor. It is easy to out eat your exercise.
This week I have been on the phone more contacting friends. I also have reach out more to other people on the net. Included has been an effort to be more aware of family. I am working on a theory to get more involved with people than food. One thing I look for is things I can pray about and encourage others. If food is comfort and emotional then maybe social connection can be part of my break with food? Right now it is a theory. Little breaks from the TV maybe good for me at night. Reading for fun, writing, maybe sketching, listening to music all may help break the food connection late at night.
As always keep walking!

Life matters

In a class I teach on walking with Jesus there have been people who have benefited and seen good results from a walk program. One fellow has adopted a healthy eating program and despite back problems has found help in walking with the aid of a cane and another has loss allot of weight walking everyday. The spiritual lessons and insights from the point of view of a walker everybody in the class has enjoyed.
In the battle for health though is sometimes very hard for some to grasp and get a hold of. One fellow who studied with me had a severe mental illness and is morbidly obese and physical condition in very critical condition. Despite my encouragement to seek medical help, he had many difficulties that left him in a hopeless condition. He passed today. Not everybody can get it together to effectively change the course of their lives. The one thing I observed was the fact he felt accepted and loved despite his crippling impairments. I brought happiness to him many times as he would laugh with me over many funny antedates. He knew he was loved and he taught me many of the obstacles we have to move from a critical state of sudden death to a better place of health. For a brief time each week he was accepted for who he was. Every day he would call me and several times a week we would share a few ideas together as friends. I will miss him. I wish I could have helped more but health can be elusive at the end despite our desires. He prayed for me everyday.
He was an outcast to many but to me he was a friend. When I was in the hospital very few "normal people" visited me. There were some, but most were who I would call unexpected visitors. They were different in one way or another. I thought I was helping them but they were the ones helping me when I needed it most.
Don't take life for granted, make good decisions and keep walking

Walking and Attack the snack diet

I am still on the no snack diet. Meals are packed with taste and nutrition. Barb has lost 4 lbs as she has lent her total support by also not eating a variety of goodies at night. Talked with a life long friend of mine about some of dynamics I am attempting. He pointed out dealing with the emotional need of comfort food that has allot to do with it. Right now I am taking a break form snacking and giving myself some time to lower my weight. How I will deal with comfort food in the future I am not sure, but I hope to relearn my eating habits that will be filled with joy and moderation. Those lessons I will take up but today I want to leave the world of the obese and enter the world of a healthier body weight.
I do not know how I did it today, I walked 30+ minutes (15 minute a mile) before work and I did allot of walking in the classroom, helping kids. Teaching at the institute I walked over a thousand steps. I logged over 16,000 steps. Where did I get the energy? I still feel good at this time of posting the blog.
Part of my energy comes from the encouragement I get. We feed off the energy of our friends kind words and actions.
I took time to stretch my achilles heal and feet with a band I keep in my bag and using the steps to stretch the heal and tendon. For me a stretched body fights the fatigue my Cerebral Palsy gives me daily. Movement is good for my arthritis and CP. Relieves pain big time.
Dr. Ken Cooper turns 80 this week. He has been a mentor these past 5 years through his web site and books. Google his site and you will find a wealth of information that will bless you. Thank you doctor.
I am blessed with friends you I will never be able to repay. Keep walking!