Friends,
We had lots of energy last week
Kate had everyone fired up last week with the group cardio and balance programs she led. I liked how she had everyone learning their level of exertion according to the RPE scale.
It was awesome to see how many people engaged in this and had fun doing it.
This was really exciting! The temperature in the room even went up. I had to turn the air conditioner down a bit.
Donna and I even had a chia seed toast after the workout. I loved seeing that Donna had her chia seeds with her for hydration.
Research shows that MS responds well to cardio exercise. I’ve experienced that first had for the last 23 years.
We will be doing the cardio and balance programs again this week along with a group walk in the parking lot on Friday as long as the weather cooperates.
We are adding group fitness classes to our weekly schedule of events! Group fitness classes are taught by Kate and will be 30 minutes long. These classes are aimed to get everyone exercising together. We’ll need help from volunteers before and after the aerobic class on Wednesday to get members on and off equipment. All are welcome to join.
Wednesday 7/26 10-10:30am: aerobic exercise
Location: in the big room using aerobic equipment in front of big TV
Pick your favorite piece of equipment to use, bring a water, and arrive a few minutes early to get the equipment set up to your height.
Friday 7/28: balance training and core strengthening
Location: In the open area by the overhead door
10-10:30 am: seated balance class
10:30 – 11am: standing balance class
11:00am – noon: Group walk in the parking lot (weather permitting)
Pick the class / classes you feel most able and comfortable participating in. We will have chairs set up to sit on and/or use for balance support.
Email Kate at kborn1234@gmail.com with any questions.
Friday Morning Bike Ride
I made a bad call on my part last week for calling the ride too early. It was raining pretty hard at 5:00am but it stopped in time for the ride. I’m sorry about that! Please forgive me.
John didn’t like my call so he called me and said he still wants to ride. I met John at the park and we had a nice ride together. John got some nice hill work in preparing for the MS ride this weekend. We rode up the big hill by the golf course, down the other side and back up again.
Mike joined us as well. We ended up riding out to Nagawaukee Park. I showed them our picnic area for our picnic and Day of Endurance August 26th.
Let’s leave the parking lot a little earlier again this week. Come a little early so you can get your bike out of your car and be ready to ride as close to 7:00 as possible. We’ll ride until about 8:45. Let’s ride and have some fun!
Let’s meet Friday morning at 6:45 and be ready to ride by 7:00am at Nettesheim Park in Pewaukee. It’s on the SE corner of Hwy SS and Oak Street. The GPS address is: N26W27495 Prospect Ave, Pewaukee, WI 53072.
Again, for those who wish you could join us but can’t; please know we have you in our hearts on these rides. We’re riding with you and for you. I hope you too can join us someday. We really need to get this MS thing figured out. Let’s keep working on it together.
Tom Holtackers did an inspiring presentation on emotional health last Friday
I didn’t have Tom’s handout printed out in time. I’m sorry about that! Here’s the handout.
Tom had some great suggestions on how to let go of the past and make the best of the future. Thanks for sharing this wisdom with us Tom!
Educational Sessions
Friday, August 11th – Peixun Zheng from University of Illinois – Chicago will be doing a presentation on a study that was funded by the National MS Society from 11:00am – noon. It will be on Healthy Aging Through Lifestyle with MS. I hope you will join us and I hope some of our local friends from the National MS Society will join us for this presentation as well. It’s good to see our fundraising efforts for the National MS Society being put to good use.
Friday, August 25th – Picnic / Day of Endurance Pepper Alley from 11:00 – noon. I will answer any questions about cheering, volunteering, participating, etc. This is still a work in process from a planning perspective. We should have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen by the day before
Friday, September 8th – To be determined
Future topics could include: emotional health, nutrition, yoga, tai chi, wellness topics, safe use of gym equipment for your body, best exercise for you and more. What topics would you like to see? Please let Joan, Traci, Ricky or Dan know
MS Bike Ride – August 5th and 6th
The MS Bike Ride is this weekend! If you’re not able to ride, we’ve got your back. The National MS Society has nearly 500 riders riding for all of us that live with MS. We will all be riding for the cause that is so near and dear to our hearts. It can’t get much closer to our heart when we have it right in our own bodies. All of us who can ride will certainly be riding for those who can’t.
I’m so thankful for the people at our Wisconsin Chapter of the National MS Society who are working so hard for all of us living with MS. Thank you to all the riders, volunteers and supporters as well! Let’s have an awesome weekend together and raise a bunch of money so we can continue making progress with MS. We’ll help the National MS Society raise money to fund research and we’ll apply the results of the research at the gym and in our own bodies.
Thanks to all who have supported us in the past. I’m proud and thankful to say that our Peppy Pedaler’s team has already raised over $1,000,000.00. Yes, that’s over one million dollars as of last year. Thank you for your support!
If you’d be willing to support me on this ride by making a donation to the National MS Society, you can do this on my personal page. Here’s the link…thank you in advance for your support! https://mssociety.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=232246
This year…THANKS to all who have donated supporting someone on our Peppy Pedaler’s Team, we have raised $44,444.00 so far. That’s a lot of fours That’s excellent…THANK YOU!
It’s critical for all of us living with MS that we continue to support research so that perhaps one day soon, we’ll have more answers for MS. These answers are going to come from research. The National MS Society funds the research we need. Let’s do our part by supporting the National MS Society.
Join us on August 11th at the gym so you can experience first hand some of the research the National MS Society has funded as a result of our fund raising efforts. I’m confident Peixun’s presentation will be beneficial to many of us living with MS.
Picnic / Day of Endurance
Please fill out an index card out at the gym this week and let us know what you will be doing so we can help you do it. There will be instructions and an example on the white table.
Volunteers, please do the same. We need cheerleaders, riders, walkers, etc.
We need to know how many people to prepare for and create a great experience for.
When? August 26, 2023
Where? Naga-Waukee Park, Delafield, WI
What? Let’s do what we can. If you haven’t decided what you’re going to do yet, I encourage you to do something. Hopefully, next year, you’ll be able to do more than this year. We will have people swimming, biking, running, walking, rolling in wheelchairs and anything else we can do. We also need lots of cheerleaders and volunteers. Please engage and help make it a fun and inspirational event.
Why? To build friendships and exercise into our lifestyle year around and stay ahead of our MS the best we can. Personally, I know I need something BIG on my calendar to keep me motivated and to give me daily reasons to be with friends and exercise to help me BEAT MS and the emotional ups and downs that comes along with it.
If there’s an event I would like to see grow year after year, it would be our “Day of Endurance”. It’s a little strange to say that because we haven’t even done it yet and there’s not another event out there anything like it. Let’s create it!
Please share your progress by recording it on the board at the gym. We have some amazing and inspirational progress being made physically along with mentally and emotionally.
Each two-week period, let’s record our longest distance or time of each event we’re working toward for the “Day of Endurance”. Along with that, let’s share a few words about how we felt after our long event for the two-week period leading up to the day of endurance on August 26th. That’s it!
Each two-week period, let’s try to do just a little more than the last two-week period and record (share) it again.
Let’s enjoy our journey…together!
Jason Hit his goal already!
Jason has been working hard and recording his progress consistently since January. He started at one mile on the elliptical and had a goal of increasing 300% to 3 miles. On Wednesday, while Kate had everyone fired up in the cardio program. Jason called me over by him. He was excited to show me he hit his day of endurance goal of 3 miles.
I know how hard Jason worked to reach this goal. He shared with me each week as he was working toward it. He may look a little fatigued on this picture (he was). Trust me, he was very happy as well!
Congratulations Jason! I’m so happy for you! Jason asked me “So, now what do I do?”. I quickly told him to change his goal to 3.5 miles and keep going. He may need to take a few breaks to get there and that’s ok. I’m confident Jason will get there and well beyond that despite his challenges with MS now that his body has started to adapt to what he is putting it through.
A 300% improvement in 8 months is pretty awesome! What does that do for us mentally and emotionally? It’s huge! I wish we could measure that like we can physical progress.
Let’s get together!
We’ll be getting together 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 this Friday, August 4th. 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!
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 408 members. That’s awesome! https://www.facebook.com/groups/2639832389489709
Our Facebook page is very active and fun. Lots of people are doing more and sharing their journey on Facebook. Feel free to join, post and share your experiences and comments.
There were some awesome pictures, videos and comments shared again this past week. Thank you to all who are sharing!
Thai Massage with Ricky Heldt
Ricky will be here Wednesday and Friday doing Thai Massage.
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 consistency to realize the benefits long term. We want you to have long term benefits and relief.
Ricky has a sign up board 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. Thanks to all who joined us today!
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. How can we tell there is love in the air? I looked up in the sky the other day and saw this cloud.
The clouds have been pretty interesting lately. I thought this one was interesting. It looks like the cloud line was following the tree line.
This turkey wanted it’s picture taken pretty badly. I said, sure, I’ll take your picture.
She had some little ones with her. They like our mulberry tree.
For those 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. Let’s enjoy nature and God’s beauty together this way.