Friends,
I love the spirit in our gym
Many people have mentioned it and I feel it everytime I walk in the door. There’s a spirit amongst us that really stands out. I’m not sure if it’s the love that’s shared, the smiles, support, listening and moving or if it’s simply God’s presence amongst us as He works with us and through us. Whatever it is, I’m thankful to be able to experience it and be part of it.
Last week was a powerful week as we had 16 people in our prayer group sharing, laughing and praying. Amazing! We also had 13 men at our No Regrets livestream party on Saturday. We enjoyed each others company as well as the program, food and drinks.
A huge thank you goes out to all who are engaging in our spiritual opportunities. Our gym wouldn’t be the same without people walking the walk and living God’s plan for us the way He wants us to. We do this together and with such grace. Thank you for being you and sharing your faith and love!
Let’s share our journey!
February 5th was the end of the second recordable two week period on our journey leading up to our “Day of Endurance on August 26th. Please share your journey and fill in your longest of each event in the past two week period. I filled mine in today…check it out. I’m feeling better already, except for walking. My MS is still flaring up when I walk any distance. That will come.
Please fill your longest distance or time you did the past two weeks and then work on beating that by a little for the next two weeks. Let’s gradually build up so we don’t get injured or over fatigued. Jerry made up some cards you can use to record your daily workouts. I would encourage you to use these. We’re trying to make it easy for you to see and experience your own progress…and share it with the rest of us.
We have another white board all ready to be filled in. If you’re not on the first board, please put your name and goals on the other board. Let’s get this one filled up too. If we need another one, we’ll get another one prepared and make it available.
Fairy Food (Sponge Candy)
We have a really good friend, Shennan Helbig who has been making homemade Ghiradelli Chocolate fairy food for years. In the past, her husband Mike would take them to his work just before Valentines Day and sell them as fundraiser for MS related initiatives. Mike retired this past year so this year, Shennan is offering her homemade candies (which are really good by the way) to us. She would like them to be used to benefit us at MS-Just Keep Moving.
We have (35+) 8 ounce bags to sell for $10.00 per bag. If you signed up for some Fairy Food last week, please bring your money this week. We will have the candy here both Wednesday and Friday. I hope you enjoy it yourself as well as gifting it for Valentines Day. It’s made with love and all proceeds go to our MS-Just Keep Moving initiatives.
Thanks for your support!
Shennan does this out of the kindness of her heart and supplies all the ingredients as well as time and love to make the candy. Thank you Shennan!
Indoor Triathlon at Westwood Health and Fitness (Our founding event) – Dates changed
Our friends at Westwood Health and Fitness are offering the indoor triathlon for us again this year. This is an excellent opportunity for us to experience Westwood’s beautiful facilty and people. It’s also an excellent opportunity to make some positive progress with our MS along with friends.
Note: Dates have changed. The indoor triathlon will be Sunday morning, April 16th. We’ll have six weeks of training on Thursday mornings leading up to the event starting on Thursday March 9th from 10:00 – 11:30am. We have a sign up sheet at the gym.
Please sign up for it or let me know you’d like to partcipate so I can let our friends at Westwood know how many people to plan for. I hope you’ll engage in this opportunity and make some progress. It’s fun!
Rest, Recovery and Safety
We will be starting programs for rest, recovery and safety on the opposite Fridays as the caregivers group each month. This will be for people with MS and volunteers.
Rest, Recovery and Safety
A biweekly workshop that focuses on achieving our fitness goals and preventing injuries.
When:
The 2nd and 4th Fridays from 11am – 12pm join us for hands on activities and learn how to rest, recover and stay safe.
Upcoming Topics:
Feb 24th – Stretching and the stretch zone
March 10th – Assisting one another with stretching
March 24th – Using the gym’s recovery tools to improve your fitness goals.
Future topics could include: nutrition, yoga, tai chi, wellness topics, emotional health, safe use of gym equipment for your body and more. What topics would you like to see? Let Joan, Traci, Ricky or Dan know
COVID
We had one person test positive for COVID this past week. Bummer! He’s doing fine, it feels like he has a head cold. As much as he’d love to be with us, he will not be at the gym this week.
To all who have reported their positive testing to me…thank you for letting me know and for being socially responsible and staying away until your symptoms are all cleared up. If you do come down with it, it’s important we let people know that you have been in close contact with so they can watch for symptoms and help stop the spread.
We’ve all been dealing with COVID long enough and are very well educated on it by now. I’m not telling you what to do but I’d highly encourage you to wear a mask again if you haven’t had it recently. Let’s make good choices and be safe.
Please stay home if you have any symptoms or know you’ve been exposed to someone with the virus. Please don’t come until your symptoms go away. Let’s also give each other some space when talking to one another and continue wiping the machines down before and after you use them with disinfectant. Again…let’s be socially responsible and stay safe!
Let’s get together!
We’ll be getting together again from 9:00am – noon on Wednesday and Friday mornings at the gym. I hope you’ll join us! If we don’t have enough volunteers, please help each other.
Wisconsin Metal Parts – Westmound Building
MS-Just Keep Moving, Inc.
W228N791 Westmound Drive
Waukesha, WI 53186
Prayer Group We’ll be having our prayer group Wednesday @ 11:00am.
I just love the way we share, pray and laugh together while we witness prayers being answered weekly. It’s truly amazing!
Thanks goes to God and to everyone that joins us. Let’s get together to share, listen, talk, give thanks, and pray however God leads us.
MS Just Keep Caring – Our Caregivers support group will be the first and third Friday of each month from 10:00 – 10:30am. The next one will be this Friday, February 17th . If you’re a caregiver of someone you love with MS, please join us and share your experience of caring for your loved one. This has been very helpful for many. Thanks to all who participate!
Friday Morning Bike Rides
Let’s ride indoors all winter so we can pick up where we left off next spring. The bikes are all set up at the gym.
Our Facebook page is private. That means you’ll need to join if you want access to all our fun and progress. We’re now up to 341 members…awesome! https://www.facebook.com/groups/2639832389489709
Our Facebook page is very active and fun. Lots of people are doing more and sharing some of their journey on Facebook. Feel free to join, post and share your experience and comments. Thank you to all who are sharing!
There were some awesome pictures, videos and comments shared again this past week.
Thai Massage with Ricky Heldt
Ricky will be here Wednesday and Friday again this week doing Thai Massage. Ricky says he is comfortable to work with you even if you’re not wearing a mask. Ricky will continue to wear one to protect you.
Many continue making great progress with chronic pain relief, range of motion, walking better and a new sense of hope when Ricky works with them. Please keep in mind that consistency is key. Not only with Ricky…with exercise too. We need consistencyto realize the benefits long term. We want you to have long term relief.
Ricky has a sign up sheet based on first come first serve. You can pick the time slot that works for you. I highly encourage you to take advantage of Ricky’s Thai Massages each day and sign up for your time slot as soon as you get there.
Reiki with Linda Linda will be here on Fridays doing Reiki. Many people say Linda’s Reiki work is “magical”. We’re thankful for Linda offering her gifts and talents to us. Feel free to let Linda know you’d like to do Reiki with her. She also has a sign up sheet.
Inspirational Humor with Adam Wollert
We’ll be having our inspirational humor zoom call with Adam again next Tuesday. Adam is a gift to all of us.
Please join us if you can.
Tuesdays @ 1:30PM
Here’s the link to join us…I hope you do!
Join Zoom Meeting with this link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9431389152?pwd=bWlYbFNaazVnM1M1cWxWMitlODdXUT09
Meeting ID: 943 138 9152
Passcode: 3qP2hu
Phone: 1-312-626-6799
Let’s reach out
I encourage you to share a smile and encouragement with someone. Perhaps you could call someone that you have not talked with for a while just to say hi and see how they are doing. We all could use a little extra love and encouragement.
MS is tough. Let us have faith, remain calm, be flexible, help each other and learn as much as we can about the challenges of each day as we make good choices.
Let’s keep moving and smiling 😊
In God We Trust…we are in good hands
Dan
P.S. Sometimes it’s fun to take a simple picture of some dirt. This dirt was covered with snow which made it a little more interesting.
I was out taking pictures of ducks again this week. This one wanted to show me how he prays.
Speaking of praying, I took my little wooden cross with me again this week and found a nice sunset to enjoy.
And I ran across a few deer right before dark one evening.
For those of you who can’t get out and enjoy nature due your challenges with MS…my heart is with you. You are with me every time I’m out there. I enjoy being out there and I also enjoy sharing with you. I know how hard it is not to be able to get out and enjoy nature.