Friends,

Thank you for the Birthday wishes!
Thank you for such nice birthday wishes and for singing to me.  You all made me feel loved…thank you!  The cookies were good too! 😊

We have lots of activities and opportunities coming up
March and April are going to be really busy and active for us if we engage in the opportunities available.  First of all, I hope you can engage in them and then I hope you do.  I’ll try to keep my writing short on these opportunities, if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.  For me personally, these have historically been the toughest two months of the year with my MS challenges.  Spring is almost here…I’m encouraging you to engage in our activities these next two months and spring will be here before we know it.

Indoor triathlon training at Westwood starts this Thursday @ 10:00
If you’re already signed up…we’ll have fun and I’m confident you’ll make some personal progress over the next six weeks.  It happens each time we do this.  We’ll be communicating through a separate e-mail chain with the people who are engaging in this.  If you’re not signed up and you’d like to do it, please let me know right away.

If you are signed up, please arrive at Westwood early and go to the spin room so we can get started right at 10:00.  Our time together there will go fast.

Day of Endurance Journey – Progress
Can you believe that two weeks have already gone by since our last recording of our progress?  Please record your longest distance or time of each of your events on the board and a little note about how you felt when you did it.

Let’s keep in mind, this is a gradual build up journey from now until August 26th.  Be sure to listen to your body and do what you can.  We don’t want you to over do it and set you back.  We are all at such different levels, we need to listen to our bodies individually and gradually build up but not get injured.

Hopefully you will start partnering up with someone with similar goals and share your journey daily with each other as well as sharing your bi-weekly progress with us.

Our Nutrition Program is starting back up
I’m excited to say that Alison will be back this month.  We will be having our nutrition program on Wednesday, March 22nd @ 11:00.  I hope you will engage and benefit from this.  Nutrition is so critical to us living with MS.  We want to help our bodies heal from the inside, feel good and have more energy.

Here’s our schedule with Alison for the rest of this year.  Please join us!

Rest, Recovery and Safety
A biweekly workshop that focuses on achieving our fitness goals and preventing injuries.  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:
March 10th – Assisting one another with stretching.  This is a great way to learn simple stretches to help one another.  Let Ricky know if you want to be a stretch model or learn to stretch and get some hands-on practice.  We will do our best to match everyone up and plenty of room to observe.  Ricky will leading this session and will not be doing massages during this time.  Please plan accordingly.

March 24th – Dr Alex Ng from Marquette University will be here to report his findings on the dance study he did a while back.  Many of you engaged in this study.  It’ll be interesting to learn from Dr Ng the results of this study and how dance can help us living with MS.

Future topics could include: emotional health, nutrition, yoga, tai chi, wellness topics, safe use of gym equipment for your body and more.  What topics would you like to see?  Please let Joan, Traci, Ricky or Dan know

Here’s a link from the Mayo Clinic information Ricky presented two weeks ago.  https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/stretching/art-20047931

I believe there’s also a video on our Facebook page that Traci shared with everyone.  Feel free to check it out.

Dance opportunities are starting
Dr Ng is organizing some opportunities for dance.  One of them will be right here at our gym.  These will be for people with MS of all abilities; so even if you’re in a wheelchair, I would encourage you to engage in this and have some fun.  Here’s a message from Dr Ng.

Hello Dancers, Volunteers, and Friends:

 Attached is a finalized schedule of dance workshops for our MS Dance “event” at the Pabst Best Place on April 30, 2023. The hour-long workshops will be held at Marquette University, with a session 4/22 to be held in Waukesha, at Wisconsin Metal Parts, aka MS – Just Keep Moving.  Please feel free to spread the word to our Milwaukee area MS community. There is contact information on the flyer or for more information you can email me directly or call me at 414-288-6209.  Jessica from Danceworks will be leading the workshops with help from friends!  I hope to see you all soon.

 Take care,
Alex

COVID
We didn’t have anyone test positive for COVID again this past week.  Yeah!!  It’s still around so let’s not let our guard down too far.

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!

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 Friday, March 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
Spring is getting closer.  Be sure your bike is tuned up, fitted to you and ready to ride.  As soon as we get to 45 degrees at 7:00am, we’ll be back out there.  Think spring! 😊

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 347 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 sharing 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

http://msjustkeepmoving.org/

P.S Our cranes are back.  They came back last Thursday to wish me a Happy Birthday on Friday.  It’s good to have them back!

I had a little fun with Clifford, the big red dog last weekend (our son Jacob’s dog).  He found a little bit of the last snow to play in.  He’s a happy dog!  Nice smile Clifford!

Bonnie and I had a chance to go by the Mississippi River this past weekend looking for some wildlife.  We had a nice flock of pelicans fly over us.

Pretty cool!

We also had an eagle flying toward us with a fish in his feet

He took the fish in a tree and had it for lunch.  It’s fun to get close to these birds.  Somehow, the fish was all muddy.  I’m thinking he might have found it along the bank.

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.