Favorite Places to Walk in New York

Here you are in one of the greatest cities in the world only to find yourself staring at a sea of black umbrellas.  Yes, it is raining in New York City and your plan of being able to eat what you want because you are going to walk it off is unraveling. Not to worry, there is a rainbow in sight since there are plenty of walks you can take on a rainy day in New York. 

As any resident of the city will tell you, catching a taxi in the rain in New York is just about impossible. You may have to battle the umbrellas and walk to your destination or study your subway map and hop a train.

I like to walk around museums, on the inside that is, when it is raining.  There I can get a lot of steps in while staying dry. 

In NYC my favorite walking museums are the following:

NY Favorite # 1: The Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art  is 2 million square feet and .25 miles long so you can cover some miles walking through the museum. You can walk and look and walk and look.  I have worn my pedometer to the Met where and find that I generally walk about 1 to 2 miles with some of that being on stairs.  When I go to the Met I go for the day.  (Located at 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street).

NY Favorite # 2:  The Guggenheim

The Guggenheim, designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is known as much for its structure as its exhibitions.  Built in a spiral you walk up and up and up with the occasional foray into an exhibit in one of the side rooms.  (Located at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street)

Other Favorite New York Places to Walk

NY Favorite #3: Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station:  Grand Central Station is huge! It covers 48 acres, of course a lot of that is tracks and platforms for the trains but even so there is a lot of area to walk.  While you are walking stop and look up at the ceiling with its depiction of astrological signs.  There are too many restaurants, stores, specialty food shops to name here.  But one place I always stop on my walk through Grand Central Station is the central newsstand where you can browse magazines and newspapers in multiple languages. (Located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue)

NY Favorite #4:  Chelsea Market

Chelsea Market  is on the old site of the National Biscuit Company where everything from Saltines to Oreos were made.  Now the building houses restaurants, stores, bakeries and all sorts of interesting retail establishments.  It is an interesting old building with a lot of things to look at while you walk.  (Located from 9th to 10th Avenue and 15th to 16th Street).  

NY Favorite #5: Limelight Marketplace

Limelight Marketplace  (Located at 47 W. 20th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues).  While you are in the area of Chelsea Market walk over to the Limelight Marketplace.  The Limelight was a church, then a disco/nightclub and now houses shops and specialty food stores.  You can’t get a lot of steps in there but it is a fun way to spend an hour or so on a rainy day.

You could just put on a raincoat and boots or buy a cheap umbrella at one of the mysterious sidewalk sellers that pop up as the first drops start to fall and start a rainy day walk in the city.  If you do that you will have to accept that you will be splashed by cars as they pass by you because they do not slow down rain or shine.  And be wary of New Yorkers rushing along the sidewalks taking no notice of dripping wet tourists blocking their way.

Flickr Photo Courtesy of Perfecto Insecto

Calories Burned Wearing A Weighted Vest

Remember when Oprah lost weight?

She went from 237 pounds to 160 pounds.  Oprah looked like a new woman in her skinny jeans hauling pounds of lard representing her weight loss in a red wheelbarrow.  The audience was properly appalled at the white globs of fat. 

With 77 pounds lost,  Oprah’s had more energy, reduced her cardio vascular disease risk and she looked great.  

For those of us into walking it was great news to hear that she had lost all the weight by eating healthy combined with a 10,000 step program.  How could there be any negatives to her dramatic change?

Unfortunately there was one huge downside to her 77 pound weight loss . . .  Oprah would now burn significantly fewer calories doing any task throughout her day now that her fat load was gone. 

Her weight loss would work against her.  Losing all this weight was more then a pregnant woman’s weight loss after having a baby.  Oprah was used to eating calories to maintain her body weight at 77 pounds heavier.

When Oprah regained her weight, her magazine published her before and after picture with a feature article on her setback

“How Did I Let This Happen Again?”   Oprah  says that her hypothyroid condition led to her weight gain.  Since I am hypothyroid, I can relate to her problem.  Your metabolism is slower and if you have bad eating and sleeping habits you will be tired.  However, if you look at starving children in other parts of the world, they could be hypothyroid but the simple reality is that the bottomline for their condition is lack of calories consumed for their calories burned. 

About the same time that Oprah lost weight, another celebrity, Valerie Bertinelli, lost a huge amount of weight.  However, she realized that as she took off her pounds it was harder for her to continue losing.  

Valerie Bertinelli compensated for her lost pounds by adding some weight back using a Debbie Rocker weight vest. 

You can see Valerie Bertinelli’s video on Rachel Ray’s show about the weight vest here.  Thought it would be interesting for our visitors to see the additional calories burned adding a weight vest to your workout program

According to the CDC, the average American man weighs 194.7 lbs and the average American woman weighs 164.7 lbs so taking the average of the average  is 180 lbs.    Wow . . . Americans are pretty hefty.

Debbie Rocker’s Weighted Walk Vest comes with 4 lbs standard and you can add up to 16 lbs of weights.

Taking this average weight of an American and using MyFitness Pal’s fitness calorie calculator, these are the results of additional calories burned adding various weights to the vest. 

Calories Burned in 60 Minutes of Activity With and Without A Weighted Debbie Rocker Vest

As you can see, a 180 lb person adding 16 lbs to a weighted vest will burn 58 more calories per hour walking upstairs.  Personally, I would stop at 8 lbs but that is still 29 more calories per hour. 

You will, also, build muscle quicker which in turn will increase your metabolism which in turn will burn more calories. 

You can wear your weighted vest for hours so anything you do . . . working, gardening, cooking, cleaning or walking will burn more calories.  Normal activities get an immediate boost in calorie expenditure.  Which is a really cool trick whether you are losing weight or trying to maintain your achieved weight loss goal.

Employees Take Stairs to Burn Calories

When it comes to calories burned walking and climbing stairs, there is an advantage to weighing more

According to MyFitness Pal, a person who weighs 200 lbs burns almost twice the calories walking or climbing stairs as a person who weighs 100 lbs.   Combine added weight with speed and you get even more of a calorie boost.

The faster you walk the more calories you burn in the same period of time.   A person who walks at a pace of 3 mph will burn more then double the calories if they speed up to 5 mph.  

In fact, walking 5 mph burns the same calories as stair climbing

Walking at a brisk pace and adding some stair climbing along your route is a good way to maximize your workout.  If you look around you, opportunities to climb stairs can be found in homes, offices,  tracks and shopping malls.  You won’t spend a dime for the added boost to your calories burned.

As you lose weight, you can compensate for your weight lost and increase your calories burned by wearing a weight vest.  It will pack some pounds back on while you walk or even when you do simple daily activities.

Think you will never lose weight?

Be encouraged by Duke University’s inspirational Take the Stairs employee wellness program.  In 18 months, Gregory Minor lost 80 lbs by climbing stairs twice a day.

He started slow at 4 floors of stairs then graduated to doing more stairs.  If you look at the calories burned chart, his extra weight in the beginning worked to his advantage.

Gregory went from 52 inch waist pants to 42 inch waist pants.  He testifies to having more energy and sleeping better after losing the weight. Plus he reduced his risk for cardio vascular disease.

Duke’s wellness program helps their employees see opportunities to incorporate climbing stairs and walking in their daily activities.  It is an ingenious wellness program that will help their workers with lessons they can apply throughout life.

Duke University’s results will inspire others to start their own stair climbing and walking programs.

Walking Relieved Neck Pain

About 10 years ago, I suffered from fairly severe neck pain. 

I had two bulging discs in my neck which limited my mobility and caused pain that ran down from my neck through my shoulder and sometimes down my arm.  My doctor suggested I get a cortisone shot and told me that if that did not work that I would need surgery.

Now, I hate all things having to do with doctors and hospitals. 

Ffamily, friends and doctors were tired of hearing me complain.  After some cajoling, I relented and had the cortisone shot.  I have had cortisone shots before both for tennis elbow and knee pain but this was a whole different experience.  Because they shoot the cortisone into your spine it is a much more involved process. 

First it took 4 hours, second I was not allowed to drive to or back from the hospital and third they completely immobilized me so I could not move or twitch while getting the shot.  The shot helped reduce the pain but did not totally alleviate it. The experience was traumatic enough that I vowed afterwards that I was not going to go through that ever again.

I stopped doing the things that had aggravated my neck in the first place. 

No more lifting weights over my head, no more carrying heavy purses or bags on my shoulder and no more sitting at the computer for hours on end not moving.

It was the last that showed me how much walking could help heal my neck.  I was working in an office at the time and started making sure that I got up and moved every hour or so. 

At lunch I would go outside and walk for 30 minutes or so.  After work I would walk another 30 minutes.  I began to notice that the pain in my neck was gradually going away. 

I don’t know if it is the motion of swinging my arms when I walk that helped my neck or just the fact that I was moving and not sitting that helped.  But here I am 10 years later without having had another shot or surgery. 

I now take frequent walks through the day which has not only helped my neck but has improved my overall physical fitness.  As always, you should check with your health care provider before beginning any exercise regimen, but if you are having neck pain . . . try walking.

Dog Stair Walking Lessons

Walking up and down stairs is great exercise.  It gets your heart rate up and burns calories. 

For most of us who try to walk the stairs it is a matter of walking stairs rather than taking an elevator. 

But, I do have friends who walk up and down their stairs at home or work in order to fit more steps in their day or to get their heart rate up and burn more calories.  Before you start a stair walking program make sure you are wearing safe and comfortable shoes.  No stair walking in heels ladies!

Jaycee Relaxing

• Go as fast as you can, safely:

  Jaycee has four feet and is closer to the ground so she can run up and down the stairs.  The rest of us need to hold on to the railing and go only as fast as we can safely

•  Keep your eye on your goal:

   Jaycee likes to always win the race by getting down the stairs first, for the rest of us it is getting more steps in our day or burning more calories

• Reward yourself when you reach your goal: 

  Jaycee loves her tennis ball so retrieving her tennis ball is a reward for the rest of us it may be something as simple as visiting with a co-worker on another floor

• Stop when your knees hurt or you can’t catch your breath:

  Even Jaycee stops and takes a break when she needs one

• Make sure the stairs are well lit and safe:

  Jaycee runs up and down the stairs at the beach in the sunlight, at night she goes very slow

• Relax when you are finished:

  This is the same whether you are human or dog!

Star Walk iPhone & iPad App Review

Acheiving your 10,000 step goal for the day gets a jump start when you walk a few thousand steps at midnight. 

Midnight is your bonus time when your pedometer resets and you start anew.  For those who are night owls, midnight walks with your Star Walk  iPad or iPhone app can be magical.  For newbie astronomers, this app is better then reading an astronomy book or looking through a telescope. 

We love to walk to an open area without trees and point our iPad at the sky.  Star Walk  iPad app geolocates you in time and space so what you see on the screen is what you are seeing in the sky. 

As you walk, the app adjusts the sky on your iPad for your location.  It is like having an astronomer be your personal guide to learn about the stars, constellations, solar system and planets. 

For those of you with children, I have never seen a child not enjoy the app.  It is the perfect learning tool to get your kids star gazing.

Like a Jules Verne time traveler, you can reverse time with this app so you can discover what the sky looked like in even Bible times.  If you missed a solar event, relive it via your iPad or iPhone.

You can see what the skies look like in other cities throughout the world while sharing the scene with friends and family in distant areas of the world. 

You will always have clear skies on your iPhone or iPad to watch meteor showers.

My niece and nephew turned us onto the app.  It won the 2010 Apple Design Award for  good reason.    Star Walk app was my first paid app.  The app was worth every penny and the program only gets better as they continue to improve the experience.

On Twitter, other star gazers often give you helpful pointers.  Use hashtag #starwalk

If you have a composite or component cable for your TV, you can be a couch potato and sit at home while exploring the sky on your iPad with the Star Walk app

However, it is much more fun to take a moonlit winter walk and explore the heavens.  Plus the midnight step bonus gets you well on the way to achieving your 10,000 step goal for the day. 

Paula Deen - Food Network Star Has Diabetes

Unfortunately it came as no surprised to most Americans that Paula Deen has diabetes. 

As a southerner, Paula Deen’s cooking brings us back to our roots of Sunday pot lucks, cakes, cornbread, fried chicken, barbeque, sweet tea and fatback in overcooked greens.  Growing up in a southern beach retirement area, I know this cooking well. 

My first day in elementary school was a total freakout because all my friends were Paula Deen’s age or older.  Little people at school were a new experience.  

At 5 years of age,  I only knew how to sit in rocking chairs on wraparound porches and talk about the “good old days” while being pampered by southern cooking.  

Paula Deen is like many sweet southern women who pile extra helpings on your plate to show their hospitality.  It is really hard to resist because the food is prepared with love and served with a smile.  These southern grandma’s will literally love you to death.

On her cooking shows, Paula Deen always laughed at the calories, sugar and fat but we all knew that one day her cooking would come back to haunt her. 

In many ways, she will do us all a favor if she learns to cook healthy southern foods.  With a Food Network poster child for diabetes, many news stations are running “how to prevent diabetes” stories.  This is where walking comes in.

Prevention Magazine on ABC News website reports a Finnish study where people who exercised up to 4 hours a week or 35 minutes a day reduced their risk of diabetes by 80%.  

Prevention Magazine encourages people to walk every day as much as possible.  According to Prevention, walking will help your body more efficiently utilize the hormone insulin.

Regular walking will increase the number of insulin receptors in your cells thus allowing blood sugar to convert to energy and nutrition.  Without these insulin receptors, your blood sugar will stay in your bloodstream and cause health problems.

In the south, we are experiencing an unseasonably warm winter.  You can experience southern hospitality without the calories by meeting your neighbors on your walks.  So move away from the fixin’s and start walking to prevent diabetes.

Walking Improves Tennis Game

Atlanta has one of the largest, if not the largest, population of tennis players of any city in the world 

In Atlanta, you can play 12 months out of the year.  Atlanta has more recreational leagues than I can name much less participate in.  If you wanted to, you could play a league tennis match 7 days a week 12 months of the year.

But, one cannot live on tennis alone.  The stress on your arm, neck and back can take its toll so it is important to mix it up with other exercises. 

For years I tried to strengthen my arms and legs by working the same muscles that I used when playing tennis.  Finally a personal trainer told me I was doing it wrong.  I was working those muscles enough with all my tennis, I needed to work my other muscles and give my tennis muscles a break.

When I got Jaycee from the Humane Society, I was already walking a couple of times a day, generally totaling a mile or a mile and a half . 

Now, Jaycee is not a dog for a sedentary person.  Jaycee is like the Energizer Bunny from the old commercials – you cannot wear her out. She just keeps going and going and going.  In a feeble attempt to at least get her to sit, I started walking more.  I started walking from 3 to 6 miles a day spread out over 2 or 3 walks.

An unexpected consequence of all this walking is that my stamina on the tennis court has increased greatly

I have even started playing more singles rather than just doubles.  Surprisingly, I outlast and frequently beat people half my age.  

All of my walking has increased both my leg strength and flexibility.  Not only am I playing harder and longer matches but I am suffering from fewer injuries. 

If you want to give your tennis game a boost, try walking.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr user Cutglassdecanter – Joan Valencia

The Walking Dead TV Show

I was a huge fan of the TV show “Lost”

I loved the mystery, the not knowing, the not completely understanding what was happening experience that was “Lost”.

I loved talking about it with other fans and reading about it on blogs. Yes, I was a total “Lost Nerd”.  And I have missed “Lost” since it went off the air a few years ago.

Now my new obsession is  “The Walking Dead” 

Okay, so this is a stretch to write about walking zombies on a website devoted to walking but it works for me.  The Walking Dead is filmed in Atlanta so I heard a lot about it long before I ever watched it.

We would hear news stories like “the Square in Marietta and all streets leading into the Square and around the Square will be closed while they are filming the Walking Dead” or “don’t go near the CDC today because they will be shooting a scene from the Walking Dead.”  These news stories got me curious about what this show was all about.  Did I mention that when they showed all these street closings on the news they also showed hoards of zombies walking around?

I am not a huge Stephen King fan but “The Stand” was one of my favorite books ever. 

It is, to this day, the longest book by far that I have ever read and it has stayed with me far longer than most books I have read. I was living in New York and reading it while I was riding the subway to and from work every day.

Every time someone coughed, I would start to panic.  The Walking Dead reminds me of The Stand – the bleakness, the weary survivors, empty buildings and homes that were abandoned in a hurry and the world being divided into two groups one clearly good and the other clearly evil.

The Walking Dead can be a little graphic so it is probably not something everyone would like but for me it gives me something to think about when I am taking one of my daily walks.

What would I do if the world suddenly changed so drastically?  What would I do if I were thrown together with a bunch of strangers knowing or not knowing if I would see my family again? What would I take with me if I had to leave suddenly? See I knew I could tie “The Walking Dead” into an article on walking!

Jaycee on Bug Watch Alert

“A vigorous, — 45-minute walk done correctly, with you in front! — every morning is crucial. This represents a primal migration with the pack leader. So it becomes both a physical and psychological exercise.”  Cesar Milan The Dog Whisperer

I picked Jaycee up from the Humane Society in the evening and took her for her first walk early the next morning.  Since our relationship was new I did not really know what to expect.  I got more than I could have imagined.

That first morning she managed to trip me hurting my ankle, pull my arm hurting my triceps and bump into me hurting my knee.  By the time I made it home, I was battered and bruised and she was not the least bit tired – and Jaycee was only 30 pounds into her eventual 78.  Obviously we both had a lot of work to do and neither one of us was going to give in easily.

Two years later Jaycee and I enjoy 2 or 3 walks a day without mishaps 

How did we get to this happy co-existence?  A lot of hard work on both of our parts.

First we went through a number of different leashes, including one that went around her nose that the dog school instructor assured me never failed to work.  The only problem is that Jaycee has a long, thin nose and with one flip of her head she was able to throw off her gentle leader and roam free. 

Then we started with classes.  We went through three obedience classes.  Although we learned a lot of things my primary goal was to get her to listen to me and walk with me. 

Jaycee’s goal was to embarrass me and she exceeded beyond her wildest dreams 

One class was held in a dog store where she managed to clear an entire display of small dog clothing within 30 seconds of arrival.  I thought I was going to have to pay for $500 worth of dog clothes that would not fit her paw.  But I digress, this about getting your dog to walk well on a leash not about the ways your dog can embarrass you.

The classes definitely helped, more because they taught me what to do than teaching Jaycee what to do.  I decided that one thing that would help was not only increasing the distance that we walked but also rewarding her for her good behavior, rare that it was. 

We start off on our daily walks by marching out the front door to the end of the driveway where I make her sit before we cross the street. 

By showing her that I am boss and for being good, she will always get a treat.  I then make her sit every time we cross a street and every time she sits I give her a treat. 

If she pulls, I yank her back and make her sit.  There is no sniffing around, there is no playing with other dogs on her walk – both of us are walking for exercise so there is no stopping. 

After two years of training, I get stopped all the time by both neighbors and strangers driving by who comment on what a well behaved dog I have and what a beautiful dog I have and what a smart dog I have. 

I even had a neighbor call me to compliment me on my well-behaved dog.  If only they knew how hard it was to become a pack leader.  Unlike the Dog Whisperer’s immediate transformations, our more balanced relationship came through literally hundreds of miles of daily walks. 

The last thing we do at the end of our walk is to always have a little review session in the driveway. 

I make Jaycee sit and stay and come, lie down and stay and come, etc. Then I say “Let’s Go” and we both walk toward the front door on a loose leash which Jaycee immediately senses.  She tries to head to the trees and the squirrels while I try to regain control. 

Not a Dog Whisperer Pack Leader yet but we are making progress

The Dog Whisperer is right.  Daily walks with your dog are not only healthy exercise but these walks will reward you with a better dog through your shared miles.