Walking Workout and Reflecting on the Things My Mother Taught Me

Good morning! This morning for a little change of pace, I decided to do an indoor walking workout. I enjoy those because they're a little bit lower impact. I like the more intense workouts like Plyometrics, they can be hard on the knees. Indoor walking workouts provide a good workout and they're not as hard on the knees and other joints. Not that I have joint problems (yet) but I don't want to end up with them.

Also, since today is Mother's Day, I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on the things that my mother taught me, either directly or indirectly.  Probably the biggest thing my mother taught me, both directly and indirectly, is how important it is to take care of your body. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes at a young age (in her 30's) - I watched her take different oral medications to control it, and then later she had to start monitoring her blood sugar and take insulin to control it. I don't want to end up in that same boat, and so far I've been able to avoid it. I did watch her make attempts to get her weight down - I even joined Weight Watchers with her when I was a teenager because I needed to lose a few pounds too - I did well at it, but she never could stick with it. In addition, for those of you who don't know, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 46, when I was a senior in high school. She ended up dying less than two years later - about six weeks before my 20th birthday.  Because of that, I also try to be proactive about getting my yearly mammograms and doing BSE's (breast self exams). I even had a diagnostic mammogram done one time when the gynecologist I was seeing at that time thought she felt something - turned out to be just a benign cyst. I think it's because of her that I'm in as good of health as I'm in. Sure, I still have to deal with my epilepsy on a daily basis, and make sure I take my medication to control that, but I've been able to avoid diabetes and breast cancer, as well as some of the other health problems that people I talk to every day have, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, so far. And I hope to be able to avoid them for the rest of my life.

To the mothers that are reading this, I hope you have a great Mother's day, and to the children that are reading this, I hope you treat your mothers today, because after all, they are the reason you're here.