Walking with a Bad, Bad Cold

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As I'm doing this segment, I have a bad, bad cold. Nose is heavily clogged, headache, runny nose and a funny feeling that you might have a fever. Thank God the fever is arrested by something. God is good.

Even if you are a health buff careful about your condition, the cold virus just penetrates through at times. Even if you keep eating oranges and other fruits and drinking water. Even if you supplement with Vitamin C.

It sucks. And then you see people smoking cigarettes early in the morning and drinking liquor all their lives not bothered by colds at all. I just shake my head in wonder.

So, what do I do? I walk.

Anyway, walking is a natural activity. You really have to walk around even if you're sick. So just yesterday and the other day, I walked a lot. Today, I took a rest the whole day and drank lots of water.

Walking helps you analyze things and figure out problems, especially mysteries in life, and find some meaning. Then strangely, you feel light and happy and a bit care free about any problem. You feel at ease. The problem is still there looking at you with its funny, silly face, but at least you feel hopeful something good is going to happen. Something or someone will kick out the problem.

Getting sick is one way nature toughens our immune system more. Did you know that? The virus is allowed entry into our system so our antibodies can identify them and know exactly what to do the next time they encounter the virus, especially a new virus. So your body resistance improves. But before that can happen, you have to get sick first.

Everything happens for a good purpose. See? I stick to that in times I don't understand what's happening to me. And of course, walking helps a lot here.

So, never stop walking. Stop complaining and just walk.

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Morning, Afternoon or Evening Walk?

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Any of the above. You can brisk walk any time you want. Sometimes I do it at noon. I get tired writing stuffs for online clients and feel the stress. So sometimes I get up and leave home for a while and brisk walk around the block. Just to get my blood circulation going good. Sometimes I just walk leisurely to the village park.

But I think there are more advantages when brisk walking early in the morning. After a long sleep (6 to 8 hours at night) your body needs some perk-up exercise to "wake it up." No doubt, you need good rest but staying rested a long time is also disadvantageous. Your body also needs to move around a lot.

Here's an article on effective ways I move about and that keep me healthy and fit. Click here!

Early morning is when you've rested well enough and ready for a good brisk walk. Afternoon is sometimes too hot, even at 5 pm (except perhaps in December to February). And besides, you've been battered by stress long enough in the day.

Evening is when your body needs to relax. But on second thought, exercises like brisk walk can effectively fight off stress from work, Thus, some folks in Singapore run at night, even if they go home late and tired from an overtime. I read somewhere how some of them jog even at midnight. Ask your medical doctor about this first.

I've jogged in the morning, afternoon and evening. It all worked okay for me. My tip is to choose a time when there's less pollution, and that would often be early morning or dawn.

Just remember, regardless of the time you brisk walk or jog, what matters is that you're really having a good time doing it.

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5 Ways to Never Get Tired of Brisk Walking or Jogging

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It can be exciting to start a brisk walk workout program. You have lots of anticipations and expectations. At last, you're going to be healthy and fit! No more bulging pot belly!

But believe me, excitement like that doesn't last. Time will come when burnout happens. There will be times of laziness, and if you don't know how to handle them, you'd stop for good. Many times I've seen how folks young and old start out a jogging routine early in the morning during summer only to stop it after summer's over.

Those are useless workouts. In order for workouts to work, you should do them for life.

So here are 5 ways to never get tired of brisk walking (or jogging), especially when burnout starts to kick in.

1. Always read books (or e-books) or watch videos about brisk walking or jogging, especially by people who do them regularly and have obviously benefited from them. You see it in how they look. You need constant inspiration. This blog, Walk with Choy, can be one.

Here are my actual secrets on how I keep fit and how I keep up. Click here.

2. Look for walking or jogging buddies. Do your workouts with them. Better yet, do it with your spouse. It's more encouraging to do something in groups than being alone, although we need time to do things alone as well. I befriend joggers I see around and look forward to meeting them each morning and chat a bit with them. A sense of camaraderie always helps.

3. Change walking shoes every 6 months or every year. If you can afford it, reward yourself with gifts and a new pair of running shoes is one of them. I love new running shoes and they inspire me a lot to hit the road regularly. The same with jogging outfits and accessories. It's more exciting to jog or brisk walk with a new outfit or gear.

4. Change routes. It greatly helps to change routes regularly. Try this jogging path for three days. Then try another route. Try brisk walking in new and safe territory where you see new landscapes, neighborhoods and other scenery. Jogging or walking becomes an adventure then.

5. Walk with God. Make it a date with him. I often jog leisurely and talk with God along the way. It's a kind of quiet time I enjoy so much.

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Living a Good Life is Also Like a Good Brisk Walk

Quick Good Fortune

The first thing I tell newbies in walking is to make sure they have enough cash in their pockets before they start hiking, walking or jogging.

Even if you'd just walk around the block near where you live.

You never know what road emergency you will meet on the way. For instance, you're brisk walking and then suddenly a cyclist or another jogger injures himself and needs to be taken to a hospital. You need to take him in a cab and rush him to a hospital.

Here's my ebook on how to keep fit effectively. Click here.

When a situation requires it, we need to be ready to act as good Samaritans.

It's pretty much like real life. It's hard to "walk" through life without enough cash in hand and in the bank. Emergencies can suddenly happen. So it's important, too, to have an additional source of extra income.

Extra income source is for sudden emergencies and for investment. These are two things you should always prepare for. I never get satisfied with my regular income stream. I always look for ways to get extra income---for helping others and for investing.

I trust God as my Provider and I have faith in him. But that faith also teaches me to help others when I can and to do my best to be able to. It's like when I'm brisk walking. I take time to stop and help people I see along the way who need help. And to be able to do that, I should do my best to keep healthy and fit so I can help others more. Invest in health.

Get it?

We're not here for ourselves alone. Neither are we here just to work hard for our families. We need to have a life principle to reach out to those in need---even folks we don't know. That's why I make it a habit to befriend other brisk walkers or joggers I see around. A good walk through life means looking out for people who want to walk but are hindered from doing so.

It will be a lonely life to be keeping fit just for yourself---just so you'd not get sick. It will be more fulfilling if you keep fit also for others.

Learn to always share what you have with others. Life will become happier.

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Walking in a Rice Field

October 30 to November 2, 2016, I and my family spent some time in Agbanawag, Nueva Ecija for my wife's family business and to take care of some stuff left behind by her late dad. After a four-hour bus travel we finally got there at 11 am.

We were in the middle of the rice field. Her dad built a 2-level concrete house there, though we all preferred calling it "kubo" which means a small native house made of bamboo and nipa.

So from every direction, you'd see nothing but rice fields with some occasional small makeshift huts here and there in the distance. Oh yes. there's the Sierra Madre mountain range in view.

At 11 am, it was cool and windy. As a full-fledged brisk walker, my first instinct was to walk and survey the surroundings. But I remembered that I haven't had lunch yet. So we sat down in front of the house, under the huge shadow cast by the house, and ate some egg sandwiches. Before us was an immense expanse of rice fields with the steady wind blowing from the mountain ranges before us.

After a few minutes, a tricycle came and took us to the town center (bayan) where we had our lunch. Then we bought fresh meat and vegetables and rode back to the kubo. After some rest, I started brisk walking around.

What was really exciting was when my boys and I brisked walk around the rice field at night after dinner while my wife was chatting with the house caretaker, Janet. We took along a strong flashlight and roamed around the black darkness. It was cold and quiet except for some insect chirps and the noises from barking dogs and passing vehicles along the highway in the far, far distance.

It was a good brisk walk, and the darkness behind you (that seemed to go after you to swallow you) helped a lot to make our strides faster and wider. That was superb aero workout. Soon, we were sound asleep at 8 pm.

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