The Health Benefits of an 11-Minute Brisk Walk

Aging Gracefully one step at a time.

If you can walk despite achy and stiff joints, the recommended length of time is 20-30 minutes daily, for a minimum of 150 minutes per week. These are your Baby Steps. Literally. Of course, if you've been sedentary for awhile, work up to it gradually. Even one more step or an additional ten seconds each session will get you to your goal eventually.

I have several Teen Steps to add and I will post at least one every day. Today's is walking at a brisk pace for 11 minutes straight. "Brisk" simply means slightly winded. Recent research published in the "British Journal of Sports Medicine" reveals that "11 minutes a day (75 minutes a week) of moderate-intensity physical activity - such as a brisk walk - would be sufficient to lower the risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and a number of cancers… Doing SOME physical activity is BETTER THAN DOING NONE." (Emphases mine)

— Soren Brage

I now walk meditatively for the first 5-10 minutes to warm up, get my brisk on for 11, then cool down for the remainder of the walk. More on Walking Meditation tomorrow.

Keep moving. Death is Very Very Still.

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My Long COVID Story, Part 1

My Long COVID Story, Part 1. Pun intended 

Before I begin, let me explain something. "Long COVID" doesn't mean you have the acute disease,  but rather that you have negative physical and mental sequelae that can appear a year or two or three afterwards. I first caught the damned virus in March of 2020, but looking back in hindsight, I believe my Long Story started 15 months later. Because of this timeframe, I will break this down into several posts.  I will also call my first acute episode "COVID1" and the second "COVID2." 

The symptoms of COVID1 were annoying but not severe: fever and chills; muscle and joint aches ("myalgias" and "arthralgias" respectively); some nasal congestion and clear discharge ("rhinorrhea"); a minor sore throat ("pharyngitis"); a loss of sense of taste; and a strange change in olfaction. Everything smelled like smoke, eerily reminiscent of the time I went into the charred shell of a neighbor's house destroyed by fire. I would often awaken in a panic, thinking that something was burning up in my room at Motel Hell in Milwaukee. Needless to say, I lost my sense of smell for everything else, and it hasn't fully recovered over three years later.

I just recently realized how this ties acute and long COVID together.