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Saturday, August 20, 2011

Utata Walking Thursdays

For several years now one of my Flickr groups (Utata) has grabbed their cameras each Thursday and just walked--to see what they could see!


Utata Articles

enjoy and keep walking!

Doug

Friday, June 3, 2011

Yeah, it's official and legal



I am now ordained as a ULC minister and availible to do "Walking Weddings" in Calcasieu Parish Louisiana (registration with local officials will be complete in about 2 weeks). Any denomination welcome, but I prefer non-denominational natural services written by the bride and groom. All participants must be able to walk/wheel around a walking path as this will be a moving wedding. Price: $50 plus food and drink.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

If you are reading this . . .

Ok, put on your comfy shoes, fill the water bottle, get up from the computer, go outside (with optional dog, ocelot, or other pet), and give it 1 mile around where you live. Take the cell phone to photograph proof of compliance.

Post a picture below and give me a brief description of how much better you feel!

Signed,

The annoying walking coach.

New Balance Men's MW955 Walking Shoe,Brown,10 D

Camelbak Better 0.75L Bottle, Sky Blue

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Ditch the Distractions

Sometimes it is too easy to become distracted while walking, both by internal and external factors. The ever present cell phone is demanding attention; traffic is raising noise levels; that big meeting tomorrow is demanding unjustified worrying. These are just a few of the distractions that can interfere with the goal of recreational walking – relaxation!!

To overcome this, here are a few steps to follow. First, choose your location. Get away from your your normal turf. Go to a place where the traffic is minimal, the country, a park, or, during the week, a residential area where everyone is at work. With the crime rate the way it is, it would be best to choose an upscale area, preferably where you can have at least one person to vouch for you as nothing ruins a good walk like neighborhood watch and/or the city police having you spread eagled on the ground.

Second, shut off the cell phone. Life can get by without you for an hour; this is why God invented voicemail. Instead, invest in a small MP3 player such as the iPod nano. Load it up with some rousing classical music or an audiobook. Keep the volume fairly low, and practice staying minimally aware of your surroundings as you are effectively deaf while listening.

The results are amazing. After a few minutes of body and mind warmup, you will find yourself relaxing, your mood lifting. Try to keep moving, working just a light sweat to remind you of the calories being burned.

Enjoy!

Doug
The LA Brother

SanDisk Sansa Clip+ 4 GB MP3 Player (Black)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Shout out to Missy Ann

If you are in the New York City area, check out the following website for tips on healthy living:
Quantum Nutrition Now


Welcome to Walking Wellness


Hello and welcome to my blog.

Just to start off, I want to put forth what I am trying to do here. I started seriously walking several years ago during a brief period of unemployment when it seemed that depression was setting in, and I could not clear my head enough to think through what my next options were. Since the weather here is usually good (living in the Southern United States), I would go to a local park with a walking track surrounded by many live oak trees and plenty of hibiscus, bougainvillaeas, as well as many bird species and plenty of (ready all dogs?) SQUIRRELS. I found that after about 5 minutes of focus on problems, my mind began to free associate on many topics, and most importantly, my attitude took a 180 degree turn for the better.

Here I would like to share various posts on clothes, shoes, nutrition, and equipment ( music players, music) that make this a most healthy endeavor. I welcome your input through comments and suggestions for further posts. Especially, I would like to hear about various locations around the world that enhance the walking experience. I will try to keep each post fairly short to avoid the deadly TL;DR comment. Let me know what you think!!

Throughout this blog you will see advertisements from Amazon.com. These are by choice. Since I work in customer service each day with a major retailer (15 to 20 miles a day walking on concrete floors), I have become acutely aware of the value of good customer service, and thus can strongly recommend Amazon.com as I have had the best service and follow up from them on all purchased items.
Drew Park -- my first and favorite walking park