Namitha's Notions

Fastest fingers first!

We are very excited to start the countdown for the discounted registrations for HAPPY FEET HEALTHY HEART 5K partnering with Dheean Pukardian!

Proceeds will go to Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Department!

General registrations are already open at full price, but you can mark your calendars to wait for the discounted tickets to be launched at 10 AM CT on Sunday April 14th.

What to do:

1.Bookmark this link:
https://raceroster.com/events/2019/22996/happy-feet-healthy-heart-5k-runwalk

2. Add a reminder on your calendar : 9:55 AM Sunday April 14th

3. Gather all info for you and family including T Shirt Sizes

4. Pick your team name

Login and grab the discounted registrations when you alarm goes off !! Look out for more reminders on HFWC facebook page and different whatsapp groups!

Namitha's Notions

Are you Ready??

Its 2019 and Happy Feet Walkers Club has begun the planning for the annual 5k!

Opportunities to join us include sponsorship, volunteering , registering to walk/run or promoting the event to raise funds for the cause.

You can do one or you can do all, everything is appreciated!

Namitha's Notions

First Annual Happy Feet Walkers Club 5K Family Walk-Run

Happy Feet leads to Healthy Hearts!

Join us for the first annual Happy Feet Healthy Hearts 5k Walk on Aug 18th 2018 at the Phillips Park in Aurora IL. This walk is targeted for all age groups and fitness levels. We encourage entire families to create teams and join us in our goal to raise awareness of heart health and specifically heart health for Women. Walking is a simple form of exercise that does not require any special gear or skill level but has immense benefits from physical wellness to emotional well being.

Save the date and watch this space for more information. Start lacing up your walking shoes and step out and enjoy the soon to be welcome warm weather in Chicagoland area!

Walk Managed by : Race Time Inc.

Supporting Cause is Women Heart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease!

Check out their website WomenHeart

 

 

Ushasri's Wit

In a walking slump? Don’t give up!

6 Comments

walking-shoes-clipart-1

Sometimes despite our best intentions, we find that we have lost our motivation to walk.  It honestly happens to everyone.  We have to stop for a week when we go on vacation or someone has fallen sick. We have visitors who have come from out of town  or there is too much work to do. The list is endless as to why we suddenly don’t have the time to walk. Once we stop walking,  it like our engine has been turned off.  No matter how many times we turn the key, and start a walk, it just doesn’t seem to ignite our walking engine.  We might do one walk here or there, but we can’t seem to get ourselves moving on a regular basis.  Then the guilt starts and every single day that we see others walking we think about why we aren’t walking.

If you are like me and feeling the guilt pile up day after day, take a deep breath.  The first thought might be to just give up.  After all it is easy for all of us to just drop out of the club, since we don’t pay any monthly membership dues.  But would that stop the guilt?  Would that actually help your health? The obvious answer is no.  So the next question to ask yourself is how to pull yourself out of the walking slump.

The answer is the Happy Feet game of tag! One of the unique things that has started in our club recently is our tagging system.  By tagging people to just walk only 200 steps or 10 minutes, the time and dedication needed for a longer walk is alleviated.  Everyone can participate.  If someone tags you, don’t ignore it.  Don’t put it off until “later”, because if you are in a slump then “later” never happens! 200 steps takes as little as 5 minutes depending on how fast you walk.  Even if you are on a conference call or making dinner, you can walk 200 steps easily.

The second step to becoming motivated is going to the Saturday walks.  These walks are an essential part of our club.  They give us all a chance to not just walk but to become re-energized by our friends. Let your fellow club members give you the motivation to start walking again.  Make a Happy Feet Friend close to your neighborhood and set a specific time that you will meet for a weekly walk.  Start with just one walk a week and build up from there.

The next steps is collages.  You might feel that the collages are a waste of time, but think of it as record of your effort, your time, and meeting your own goals.  There are of course weekly challenges to help make the collages even more interesting, but the core of the collage is saying that YOU are important enough to set aside time for YOURSELF.   We often hesitate to take a selfie – but why should we? It doesn’t matter how you look or what you wear, YOU are beautiful !

So the next time you find yourself in a walking slump, follow these steps and I promise that you will be back to walking everyday and feeling great. Remember your Happy Feet Friends will be happy to help you every “step” of the way!

Sree Lakshmi's Sentiments

Become active; Lose weight. What does it take?

19 Comments

How many miles a day do I need to walk to lose weight and how do I become active are the question many ask.

Walking is a great form of exercise, the longer the walk the more calories you burn. The harder you walk, the more calories you burn.
But just like with any workout program you want to start where you can and progressively work toward taking on more.

Once you have gained stamina, I would suggest walking 3-4 miles a day to stay fit. You will walk for about an hour and can burn up to 400 calories just walking.

When it comes to walking for fitness it is not just about the distance you cover, it is also important that you keep a good pace and keep your heart rate up to gain maximum results.

Walk for a minimum of thirty minutes each day.

If you have been inactive, walk as far as you can without feeling fatigued or stressed, even if you can only last for a few minutes.

(Thirty minutes can be broken up into shorter periods, like three ten-minute walks)

Then, gradually increase your walking time until you can walk briskly for at least thirty minutes without discomfort.

If you have been active, you can move directly to the thirty minute or longer brisk walk.

Here are some numbers I noticed while walking.

1 Mile = 2100 or so steps (depending on your feet it’s from 2100 to 2500 steps)

1 Mile walked = 100 calories burned.

Happy Feet Walkers Family motivates in many ways.

It motivates with new and interesting challenges.

Don’t want to walk alone no worries ask in the group and a member is always ready to support.

Feeling down just notify the group and all your friends are always ready to cheer you up.

With Happy feet you become active and creative.

The health benefits are bountiful

With Happy Feet we have FUN, FITNESS and FRIENDSHIP.

Namitha's Notions

To make it happen

The women who made the saying  true” where there is a will, there is way” You are the powerful maker of this world , show your art work, never hold ur thoughts back. We all can do it, just a little different paint u might need to use it to work it well.May be you ladies share, how you implemented this in your world, so the rest can do their world.Walkers who counted each step they progressed towards success, walker who taught it is time to move on towards miles and leave the step counting behind to show the path of success by measuring in miles.Walker forgot about the outer beauty and truly found the inner beauty which will live with you for ever and make others cheerful.Walker who hold hands to gather , in every step and motivate each other to keep moving towards success.  Walker who spread the contiguous habit of walking and happiness.— Neelam Jai

Namitha's Notions

Skip a step; feel the magic!

5 Comments

After a long break; I headed downtown today. It’s summer time in Chicago which means lots of families and tourists.

I turned on mapmywalk and started walking with a purpose. Got a train to catch on 12 mins ; tasks to finish ; calls to make; meetings to attend  etc. I did not even stop for my walk selfie and took one as I walked.

One thing I do without fail as a happy feeter is capture the required stuff to keep me motivated by creating my daily collage. Second nature ; like brushing my teeth when I wake up!
Anyway; back to my story … As I was in the mode I mentioned above ; I observed a family walking in front of me heading to the train station. The mom was holding the hands of her kids as they walked. A little girl in pink and a slightly older boy in khaki.

That is when I saw the magic. The girl skipped every few steps and waved her hair in the wind in a happy and carefree way. A beautiful sight.

Hence my post; as we go about our daily lives, let’s remember to let go of our worries and skip a step and let the wind catch the hair!

Wishing you the magic in your lives too!

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