UNMC walking club takes steps to better health

Esther Collins and Barb Piper lead a group of walkers on the Field Club Trail.

With each step, Amy Lamer is that much closer to her goal: 10,000 steps per day.

For the past three years, Lamer and her business and finance colleague Esther Collins have regularly walked the scenic Field Club Trail, just south the UNMC campus at 40th and Leavenworth streets.

On Thursday, members of UNMC’s newly formed Walking Club joined them. By day’s end, nearly 50 tennis shoe-clad employees had walked the wide, flat concrete trail – many for the first, but not last, time.

“It’s a beautiful trail,” said Diane Ruskamp of pediatrics, who often spends her lunch hour walking through the neighborhood.

The 3.8-mile course (roundtrip) is lined with towering shade trees and runs adjacent to the Field Club golf course. Along the way, walkers pass by birds, squirrels and mulberry trees, then beneath Center Street and the aroma of the Greek Islands restaurant. The trail ends at Vinton Street.

UNMC walkers stop brielfly at the Field Club Trail sign.

“Walking is a wonderful way to get active,” said Jayme Nekuda of the UNMC Center for Healthy Living. “We can fit it into our work day simply by taking the stairs instead of the elevator or walking during our lunch break. It’s easy to incorporate it into our everyday living activities.”

That’s exactly what Elaine Ryan of oncology/hematology, and Barb Piper of the College of Nursing, did Thursday, despite the overcast, muggy weather.

“We need to challenge ourselves to be more active,” said Jeri Engen, project director for ACT!vateOmaha, a five-year initiative to encourage residents to be more active, as well as enhance and promote environments that make it safe and convenient for people to be physically active.

ALBE (Active Living By Example), the ACT!vateOmaha mascot, was on hand Thursday to greet UNMC walkers.

Engen joined Nekuda Thursday to tout the benefits of being active and introduce the ACT!vate Omaha campaign, which was launched this spring with goals that are compatible with Active Living by Design, a national effort funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. More than 900 communities applied for the grant, Engen said; Omaha was one of 25 cities to land one.

Nekuda has helped organize a walking buddy registry to help pair walkers on campus. In addition, employees soon will have an opportunity to purchase pedometers from the Center for Healthy Living and track their progress – step by step.

Walk this way
Regular brisk walking for 30 minutes on most days of the week will reduce your risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and some cancers. Get in the habit and you’ll have higher energy levels, more stamina, better sleep and lower stress. Source: ACT!vateOmaha. Overall, the Surgeon General recommends 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity on at least five days of each week. Too busy? It still counts if you do 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes at noon and 10 minutes at night.

Learn more

• To learn more about ACT!vateOmaha visit their Web site at: www.ACTivateOmaha.org/.
  
• To learn the distances from point A to point B on the UNMC and The Nebraska Medical Center campus, visit the Center for Healthy Living Web site.

Future walking club activities

• July – What About My Neighborhood? — An historic neighborhood walking tour will be done around the UNMC neighborhood.
  
• August – If You Can’t Take the Heat – Keep cool by walking inside the Student Life Center around the fitness track.
  
• September and October – Read feature stories on UNMC walkers and how it has changed their lives.
  
• November and December – Promotion of the n-Lightennebraska walking incentive program.
  
• January 2005 – Kick off of the six-month n-Lightennebraska Program, which runs through June 30, 2005.

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