walking – Go Retire Psychiatrist

Do You Really Need to Walk 10,000 Steps a Day?

Since we got this little step counter, I’ve been paying more attention to how I exercise. The step counter will even track steps when I juggle—probably because I drop balls often enough to chase after them a lot.

And then I ran across the 10,000 steps as a benchmark for walking to keep healthy. I get about 3,000 steps during a typical 30-minute exercise session, which I do at least 5 days a week. Most people probably know that the CDC recommends that older adults spend 150 minutes as week (5 days a week for about 30 minutes a day) of moderate-intensity exercise.

That includes walking, jogging, wrestling Bigfoot, things like that. Muscle strengthening and balance are also important.

The 10,000-step thing (or 4,000-6,000 steps for older adults) puzzled me a little. The 10,000-step goal has an interesting story behind it. It turns out that around the time of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games, that 10,000 steps goal had no scientific basis and was a marketing gimmick for selling the early pedometers.

In fact, if you really use your imagination, you might see how the Japanese character for 10,000 looks a little like a man walking—a stick man. The meter was called a Manpo-kei which literally translates to 10,000 steps.

Just walking 10,000 steps a day as a health goal probably doesn’t have a lot of scientific support. But you can increase the intensity of walking to get more benefit, such as walking up stairs or using a step platform, which I use nowadays. As a consultation-liaison psychiatrist, I walked all over an 8-floor hospital. I would usually use the stairs, often well over 20 flights pretty much every day.

I think the other way to make walking a more vigorous exercise is to develop and practice the well-known technique of silly walking, documented in the Ministry of Silly Walks documentary.

Monty Python

Look at Us Back on the Scott Blvd Trek!

The weather was pretty good for a walk on Scot Blvd the other day. Right away I got a video clip of an Indigo Bunting, a bird I haven’t seen in over 20 years! It was sitting on a thin grass stem which couldn’t hold its weight. It looked like it was sinking lower and lower on a slow elevator.

The people we passed along the way were friendly. Just looking at the landscape while sitting next to the Sitting Man was relaxing.

The video of the song “Then You Look At Me” by Celine Dion also fits, depending on your mood. Looking at nature puts you in the mood. Try not to think of robots.

Scott Boulevard Trek

We took a walk on Scott Boulevard on a gorgeous day. We said hello to the Sitting Man. And we found a new sculpture of a praying dog just inside the entrance to Harvest Preserve. It looks like a very pious Bassett Hound. We don’t know the significance of the piece. I did a quick google search and couldn’t find anything comparable although there were hits on praying dog sculptures.

The Sitting Man reminded me of a quote I thought was by Winston Churchill and it turns out it’s by Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “Be sincere; be brief; be seated.” Sena did a pretty good job of calling a Mourning Dove. However, we never got a reply.

Also, inside Harvest Preserve yet visible from Scott Boulevard, is a sculpture of a boy climbing out on a tree limb to catch a cat. I wondered whether there was ever a quote about going out on a limb. It turns out there is: “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb, that’s where all the fruit is.” There are variations of it and it’s often attributed to either Will Rogers or Mark Twain. Quote Investigator says it’s from a journalist named Frank Scully, who coined it in 1950.

I don’t know if we’ll ever find out what that praying Bassett Hound is all about.

The Masked Walkers on the Terry Trueblood Trail

Today we took another walk on the Terry Trueblood Trail. This time there was a different feel. We wore face masks and there were new signs directing one-way traffic in order to facilitate social distancing. We noticed a few people wearing masks, but not many more than the last time we were out there.

Sena got a kick out of picking up groceries the other day. The guy who brought out the groceries was wearing a face mask—just not covering his face. He knew the guidelines and could recite them, but he had complaints about the mask: “I can’t breathe!”; “It’s hot!”; “It fogs up my glasses!”; “It gets in my way!”

I heard that. But there’s a right way and many wrong ways to wear a face mask.

Over the Double Rainbow

We saw a double rainbow while out for a walk during a gentle rain. I know they’re not rare, they form because light bounces off raindrops, and all that. I’m not after the science angle here. I’m just hoping this was a sign of good luck to come. I’m pretty sure I’ve probably seen a double rainbow before. I just can’t remember when. And I doubt it was as striking as this beauty was.

These days I’m wondering what’s over the rainbow or the double rainbow. Going for a walk the other day helped me put things in perspective—at least for a while.

Out for a walk in the fall

My life is slower when I’m not on service in my role as a general hospital psychiatric consultant. And I’ll be fully retired in June. I just came off service earlier this week, when I was going at my usual fireman’s pace. Things seem to move so much faster nowadays.

I’m on service at 50% time now. That feels a lot different than the previous two years, when I was at 65% time. When I’m on, I’m going at a dead run. When I’m off, I just mosey along. It’s a little jarring to go from 0 to 90 and back again every so often—even though it’s less and less often.

I don’t mind telling you, I get a little bored sometimes. It helps to do something different every once in a while. I hadn’t made a pizza from scratch in over a year and a half. I guess it’s not completely from scratch. I’m still better at just sticking a frozen one in the oven.