Healthy Footnotes

Ambassador Introduction: Patti Miller

Patti has been struggling with plantar fasciitis for over 15 years.  She’s had numerous injections, numerous custom orthotics, specialist visits, physical therapy visits and nothing really helped for long.

After hours upon hours of researching, she found Orthaheel and for the FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS she hasn’t suffered with foot pain and claims her plantar fasciitis is “gone”.

As quite the traveler and outdoorswoman, Patti bicycles regularly in the summer and enjoys kayaking and hiking with her husband. To maximize her fitness, she even walks to her job!

In anticipation of winter – and with humor to delight – Patti ponders:

This is a tough time of year in Wisconsin.  Baseball has ended, fly fishing is over, kayaking has ended for me (there are some brave souls that will continue to kayak the river, but it gets too cold for me). Golfing is over for the summer and we don’t enjoy riding our bikes once it gets cold.  The trees were beautiful this fall, but the leaves have now fallen and have been raked up.  My tomatoes are canned and the green beans are frozen.  The garden is covered until next spring.  It’s time to curl up by the fireplace and hibernate for the winter with a good book and a cup of tea….but wait – at age 58, it is important to stay in shape and keep moving.   I enjoy quilting and browsing on my computer and staying in touch with family and friends via Facebook, but as much as I enjoy these pursuits, they do nothing to get my heart rate going and to keep me moving.

Every year I have the same dilemma.  What can I do that I will enjoy in the wintertime to keep my physical fitness up?   The long dark days have already moved in and will continue to worsen. When the sunlight lessens, along with it goes a lot of my energy and ambition.

Let’s examine a few options that I may try to keep in shape.  I work full time as a social worker in a nursing home, so I walk daily, but that isn’t enough. How about bowling.. it’s inside and you do move and stretch.  This may be a viable option for me.  I have an exercise bicycle and perhaps it would be a good idea to use it!  I have had other in home gym equipment in the past, but it ended up in a garage sale.  My exercise bike is a good one – could burn a few calories on it and get my heart rate up.  The older I get the less I like the cold.  I used to love winter sports, but things such as cross country skiing and skating are really out of the question for me.  I do love to hike along the river trails in the snow – that will be another good option.  I have joined gyms in the past and didn’t go, so that is out.  My little shih tzu doesn’t like to be outside in the cold weather either, and in the winter it seems as if she just loses all ambition herself, so long walks with her are out.

Last winter was very mild and as much as I hope for a repeat this year, I am not optimistic that this will happen.  With Hurricane Sandy affecting the eastern seaboard, moving in a far as my home state of Michigan, I can’t help but wonder if this is just a precursor to what is going to happen this winter.  Perhaps my biggest opportunity for exercising this year will be shoveling snow!

Are you in the same boat? I’ll see what I can come up with to maximize my activity through the winter months. I hope you’ll take the journey with me!

Sincerely,

-Patti

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