Home
>
Weight Loss
>
Walking: Its Never Too Late to Lose Weight!

Walking: Its Never Too Late to Lose Weight!

How did a thin person like me become overweight? My mother had probable Alzheimer's disease and I was her caregiver for nine years. During this time she lost the ability to read, understand television, converse with others, and the ability to speak. Eating was the only thing that gave her pleasure.

To give her some quality of life I took her out to lunch every Wednesday and cooked a gourmet meal for her every Sunday. Slowly but surely, I put on extra pounds. Though I had to buy larger clothes, I wasn't aware of my weight gain, and continued to think of myself as thin.

Looking back, I realize I was so busy caring for my mother that I forgot to take care of myself. After she died I still didn't take care of myself because I was grieving. But the day came when I stepped out of the shower, looked in the mirror, and gasped.

Who was this person?

When I went for my annual physical exam my doctor told me that tests showed a slight increase in my blood sugar level. She cautioned me about becoming a late onset diabetic and said I could avoid this by shedding a few pounds. "The next time you see me I'll be thinner," I declared.

I bought some walking shoes, a pedometer, and jined a health club. In the evenings I walked in my neighborhood. A year and a half later I was back to my college weight and clothing size. My blood sugar was normal, I had renewed energy, and could out-walk people half my age. Now my goal is to maintain a healthy weight.

I walk 10,000 steps a day, which is about fve miles. On snowy or rainy days I walk around the center island in my kitchen, inside at a local mall, or every grocery store aisle. Instead of piling thngs on the bottom step to take upstairs, I look for excuses to climb stairs.

Sometimes I don't get in 10,000 steps a day and when this happens I don't punish myself. I just walk more the next day.

In addition to my daily walking. I cut my protein intake, ate more fruit, vegetables, and fiber, and cut portion sizes. I'm 5' 5 1/2" inches tall, flucuate between 115-117 pounds, and have a Body Mass Index (weight adjusted for sex, height, and age) of 19 - an excellent number.

Daily walks help me to prevent diabetes, maintain a normal blood pressure, reduce the risks of heart attack and colon cancer, and slow bone loss. Walking can do the same for you. If you haven't been physically active lately, get a medical checkup before you start walking. No matter how old you are, it's never too late to lose the weight!

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 26 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. A member of Mayo Clinic's Action on Obestity Task Force, she continues to write health recourses for chidlren and adults. Her latest book, Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief, co-authored by Dr. Lois Krahn, is available on amazon.com by entering the title or her name. Hodgson is hard at work on her next book, Doctor in the House: An Inside Look at Medical Marriage.

move in cleaning service Lincolnshire ...

In The News:

Identity theft recovery starts with securing bank accounts, freezing credit and enabling two-factor authentication within the first 24 hours.

Apple's $299 HomeView smart display uses facial recognition to personalize screens for up to six household members and show live security camera feeds.

Domonique DuBose spotted red flags when a man on Hinge with 85,000 followers and a blue checkmark claimed to be a San Francisco 49ers player.

Your phone's location data can expose visits to doctors, pharmacies and places of worship. The FTC took action against data brokers selling this data.

Hackers targeted Danfoss refrigerator controls across French supermarkets, forcing chains like Carrefour and Monoprix to discard massive food stocks.

iOS 27 finally lets iPhone Shared Albums store photos and videos at full resolution in iCloud, but new items count toward the owner's storage.

A fake Facebook Marketplace text scam uses your real name as the seller to trick you into replying, and Malwarebytes warns even one response helps.

The Pentagon data breach exposed 2.76 million Social Security numbers and military records, raising long-term identity theft concerns for veterans.

Kodiak AI plans to haul IKEA freight on Texas highways with no one in the cab, raising urgent cybersecurity and safety questions for drivers.

Apple Intelligence in iOS 27 adds Extend and Reframe tools to Photos, letting iPhones generate new background areas beyond your original borders.

Microsoft's X account was hijacked to promote a crypto pump-and-dump scheme, exposing its more than 13 million followers to a scam campaign.

Scammers can combine your name, phone number and address with data breach details to attempt SIM swaps, phishing and even identity theft schemes.

ChatGPT Work, Meta Muse and Gemini Spark can monitor flight prices, sort your email inbox and track important deadlines, but savvy users start small.

iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel each hide a built-in tool that turns a video frame into a separate photo without any screenshot needed.

Operation KillSwitch dismantled KillSec's ransomware infrastructure, but investigators say a 16-year-old allegedly ran the entire cybercrime operation.

The Fox News Artificial Intelligence newsletter covers where voters will decide on AI data center ballot measures and Jeff Bezos' tech vision.

Apple's Impersonation Risk Detection in iOS 27 can flag suspicious activity inside apps, but the setting is off by default and must be enabled.

Federal Election Commission records can expose your name, address, employer and donation history once contributions exceed the $200 threshold.

Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright says human skepticism remains the strongest defense against AI-driven phishing scams and voice cloning fraud schemes.

iPhone, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy each handle security updates differently, and one screen saying "up to date" may not tell the whole story.

Deborah Del Mastro heard what sounded like her daughter's terrified voice on the phone, launching a five-hour virtual kidnapping scam ordeal.

Hotel TV privacy risks go beyond forgotten passwords when you sign into Netflix or other streaming apps on shared devices you don't control.

Apple's iOS 27 Visual Intelligence now lets your iPhone search objects directly on screen, but Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel have a head start.

x47.c Windows malware uses xAI's Grok to maintain persistence on infected PCs while stealing passwords, browser cookies and API keys from victims.

Frankie LaPenna fought three robots in a cage, including two modified EngineAI T800 humanoids that can kick with up to 850 pounds of force..

Walking: Its Never Too Late to Lose Weight!

Weight Loss