Zen Walker
BK taught me the concept of combining money walking with power walking.  B has moved but we visit a couple of times a year and always take a 5 miler.  While my blog gets the attention of our mutual friends, he never lets me forget that he is the original Zen Master of money walking.  As my luck would have it, he spotted a $20 on our walk this morning.  Worse, he found it just as I was explaining my money walking techniques to other friends on the walk.  I guess BK will always be the Zen Master.

John's Humanity

Weight = 177.6 lbs

Coinage = $2.43

Best Find = a lonely dime in an muddy ditch.

Panhandler Profile:

As a frequent walker, I am often approached by panhandlers, men and women.  Yesterday while enjoying a senior coffee at Mickey Ds, a man ask me for a couple of quarters to “get something.”  I always say yes.  But I don’t just hand it to them without a human connection.  As I slowly handed the change, I introduced myself and ask for his name.  “John!” he said.  I said, “John, do you work.”  I unintentionally put him on the defensive as he thought I was scolding him.  Said John with some level of exasperation, “I’m 65!”  Then backing off, perhaps aware that I still possessed more change, “And I’m disabled.”  Handing John a couple more quarters I asked what he did before he became disabled.  “Carpenter,” he said.  “Trim or framing?” I replied.  “Mostly just general construction,” said John.  By now he trusted my questions as being friendly and after I gave him my last bit of change, off he went.  But he had earned his dollar burger—the change was not forthcoming until eye contact was made and the  transaction instilled with humanity.  I sensed a return of a bit of dignity as he exited looking for his next mark.

Weight = 177.6 lbs

Money Found = $2.53

Best Finds = 1) 2 nickels and six pennies found in a “curb scatter.” 2) A “super find” of two quarters and a dime in a Times Picayune Newspaper stand.  Many found quarters made this amount possible.

Previews of coming comments:  Now that I’m back, in the future look for

·         profiles of people that I meet on the street that engage me with their panhandling;

·         a new motivation technique based on adding and subtracting;

·         change cleaned and deposited in Capital One Bank’s coin machine;

·         amount of money sent to two different charities;

·         and much more.

The MoneyWalker

January is Motivation Month

January is motivation month as many of us resolve to do better, especially to lose weight.  Two behavior change resolutions come to mind, eat less and exercise more.  Dieting aside, how do we sustain an exercise habit “after the thrill is gone?”  Cognitive neuroscience provides one answer.  We will wade out into the weeds for a moment and then come back to reality.  The exercise mode of choice is the daily walk.

Sustaining the exercise response involves rewards.  Given that most exercise including walking is perceived by the body as hard work, right away walking is negatively reinforced.  Unfortunately for many of us, techniques that produce positive reinforcement have a short shelf life, i.e. walking with friends, nature walks, novelty, varied walking routes.  Friends are unreliable; nature walks lose their novelty; and there are only so many ways to vary walking routes.  Worse, early success in weight loss too quickly plateaus.

What does neuroscience say?  Purposeful responses (such as a long walk) are tied to reward mechanisms by neurotransmitters called dopamine.  The most prominent target for the dopamine stimulation is the ventral striatum (VS), one of the evolutionarily primitive regions of the brain.  Some have called it the reward center of the brain.  Using fMRI scanners, neuroscientists can measure how stimulation effects the ventral striatum, and since the  VS wants to be stimulated, higher brain centers feel a sense of pleasure when the VS is positively stimulated.  Not surprisingly, novelty is one very powerful VS stimulator.  So is acquiring money.

The reason that most motivation programs fail is related to the goal of expectation and that is the problem in using novelty as the basis of a motivation system to sustain the habit of walking.   Scientific studies using fMRI scanners have shown that when reward is entirely expected on the basis of the preceding cue, the neurons do not respond to the reward.  In terms of novelty and walking, once we have seen the interesting sights a few times, the neurons stop exciting the ventral striatum; same with friends, same with varying the route.  The brain says, “I don’t give a darn, I’ve seen that already.”

First, applaud the ones with a strong sense of intrinsic motivation.  They can continue their walking program because it’s the right thing to do.  But those folks are not the ones that are making New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.  For the rest of us we need to develop a motivation system that keeps the ventral striatum happy.  For me, it is the endless thrill of finding money left behind.  In different amounts and in different places, it is always waiting to be found by the vigilant walker.

The MoneyWalker

Back posting.  Will start small. This morning's walk netted $1.94, one "super find" consisting of two quarters left in telephone coin return.  Over the holidays, stopped daily weighing, will commence the habit when courage gained by more sensible eating kicks in.  Medallion is a salute to one of the best walkers of all times--Mark Twain.

MoneyWalker

Walk to Exercise Your Memory Muscle

Feature Entry: Walk to Exercise Your Memory Muscle

Memory is a muscle? Yep, it’s true; moreover, like all muscles it can be improved by walking. According to neuroscientists at the University of California we can reduce Alzheimer’s risk by 25 percent by increasing physical activity from “low” to “moderate.” Oh, a another name for the memory muscle is .... your brain.

Other scientists agree. According to Art Kramer, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Illinois, "If you do only one thing to keep your brain young, exercise." His findings support the theory that “Higher exercise levels can reduce dementia risk by 30 to 40 percent compared with low activity levels, and physically active people tend to maintain better cognition and memory than inactive people. They also have substantially lower rates of different forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.”

Here is how it seems to work. Walking helps your hippocampus, the region of the brain involved in memory formation. As you age, your hippocampus shrinks, leading to memory loss. Walking has been shown to reverse this process.

How much walking is needed for the prescription to work? Eric Larson, M.D., executive director of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle recommends 150 minutes a week of moderate activity. States Larson, "In our research as little as 15 minutes of regular exercise three times per week helped maintain the brain."

To see more tips for maintaining a healthy ageless brain check Beth Howard’s excellent article in the Feb/March 2012 issue of AARP The Magazine.

Money Walker

Today's Weight = 177.0 lbs.

Today's Money Find = $.81

Free Range Walking

Free Range Walking

Today’s walk involved honoring a promise to one of my friends from the “brotherhood of the street.” I had promised to take him a “ground score.” We want say what, only that it had a $6.00 value, it was legal, and he needed it. Some information in the brotherhood is proprietary.

He sometimes stays with family in an address about two miles from the MoneyWalker’s house. The walk to his house sounded like a good diversion, so off I went without concern for my usual monetary hot spots; finding loose change was not a priority.

After depositing my gift, left subtly on his front porch, I found myself in an urban conclave. Streets were in disrepair and hardly used. Several houses have been vacant since Katrina and untouched. The curbs were littered with trash. In short,there was an apparent disregard for typical city norms.

And then, there they were, a full flock of chickens coming from a large grassy yard and then spread far up curbs along the street. There must have been 30 birds including two or three baby chickens. They were forging along the deserted street looking for bugs and grasshoppers without regard for anything but their next score. What was striking was their obvious level of contentment, and their beauty. Someone had decided to allow the chickens to freely follow their bliss, to go where nature leads. And there was a rooster or two that seemed to be standing guard. You could see them periodically glancing upward, perhaps looking for hawks or owls, or maybe an unleashed dog.

The urban chickens provided a brief epiphany. It reminded me that my highly purposeful walking episodes need not be so scripted; that a specific narrative need not be followed. On this walk, much like the free range chickens, I had been free to go where nature lead, to follow my bliss. It felt good. I could see now that my walks had become too predicable, that my walking narrative had become too narrow; that I was becoming bored.

So, I am adding "free range walking" to my motivation portfolio. Join me.

MoneyWalker

Current weight = 175.2 lbs

Money found on current walk = $.82 grubs