This Mother's Day, the 74-year-old Navajo grandmother is ready to do it all again.
“I only wore out one pair of tennis shoes,” Carol said last week from her home in Naschitti, N.M. “I'm trying to get one broken in now.”
As a team, Sister Girls chose from a handful of “virtual walking tours,” which led them to chart 5.8 million steps along the Rocky Mountain route.
“We walked that first week,” said Brenda Manuelito, Carol's daughter, who lives in Tucson, Ariz. “I was home on Mother's Day. I said, ‘OK, Mom, it's time to walk. It's Mother's Day. We should clean up Mother Earth.' ”
The women walked around the Navajo Reservation near Naschitti and picked up aluminum cans.
The 2007 WOMAN - Women and Girls Out Moving Across the Nation - Health Challenge kicks off again this Mother's Day.
“We're warming up now for the women's challenge,” Brenda said. “We're going to do it. We've been talking about it all year long.”
Brenda serves as co-captain of the team, which last year had members in five states, ages 18 to 74. She keeps the team connected via e-mail, phone calls and the Internet. In 2006, Sister Girls placed first in the Rocky Mountain virtual walking route. They finished the walk three days ahead of schedule.
Team member “Veronica” was the nation's 2006 overall walking champion, having logged in 1.6 million steps alone.
“Our individual goal was to walk 10,000 steps per day, which we barely did during Week One, but toward the end of the challenge we were each walking five to 10 times that amount daily,” said Brenda. “Not only did we record all kinds of weight loss, but we reduced blood pressure, increased cardio fitness and diminished insomnia.”
This year, the Manuelitos are skipping the Rocky Mountain tour and opting for the Pacific course, which will take them from Alaska, down the entire West Coast and to Hawaii.
“How are we going to get here from Hawaii?” Carol said. “Are we going to walk across the water?”
Carol said she'll walk again this year, but she doesn't think she'll log as many steps. She had the second-highest number of steps recorded by Sister Girls, at 1 million, about 600,000 steps behind “Veronica,” also known by the team as Ronneye Manuelito.
“We got my brother involved,” said Roberta Manuelito of Minneapolis. “We wanted him to be involved, he's our only brother. We were going to get my uncle involved too, he's 80. We were going to call him Henrietta Lee.”
Ronneye remembers the days that followed his awakening from a coma, about a month before the walking challenge registration deadline. Physically, he was not in good shape when his sisters asked him to join their walking group.
They told him: “We're going to make you an honorary sister. We'll call you Veronica.”
“Are you serious?” asked Ronneye.
Still, he agreed. Besides, the walk's organizers encourage boys and men to participate in the challenge.
“I wanted to get my weight down, and I had high blood pressure. I wanted to get that down without taking any medication. With all that walking, I got rid of all my other clothes. I lost some of my waist over there. I went from a 38 to a 31. I used to get double extra-large shirts. Now I'm down to a medium. I don't have anything around my gut anymore. I really watch my diet and what I eat now.”
People tell him: “You're just nice and trim.”
“I couldn't believe I was that big,” he said. His weight dropped from 190 pounds down to 145. And his doctor told him his blood pressure is right where it should be.
“It was a chance for our family to bond,” said Roberta. “And it was doing something to improve our health.”
Most of the Sister Girls' miles were logged around Naschitti, N.M., on the Navajo Reservation, by Ronneye and his mother. They walked everywhere, morning, noon and night. And they picked up cans before Carol turned her attention to pretty rocks, which she loaded into a flour sack and carried home.
As they walked, local reservation residents would stop and ask if they needed a ride. “Did your car break down? Do you need more cans? I have six bags at my house.”
“No, we're exercising,” said Carol. “Everybody should just do it at my age. It really helps to keep your weight down. A lot of people have diabetes. If they would only walk.”
When last year's challenge ended, the Sister Girls weren't ready to stop. They organized another team in July, this time calling themselves the Manuelitos. But many of their walking routes were beginning to look the same. So they moved to higher elevations. They even walked the rim of the Grand Canyon.
Brenda remembers walking on a mountain trail in Tucson with her mother. It took them about four and a half hours to walk the route, which climbed about 2,000 feet in elevation.
“My mom was walking up these big mountains,” said Brenda. “She was right there with me. ‘Mom, this is so cool. When I'm 74, I hope I'm like you.' ”
Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 800-366-7186 or at jodi.rave@lee.net
Learn more online
Fitness for moms:
http://www.womenshealth.gov/woman
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)