THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2022 Page 19 OBITUARIES Michele Hamel March 5, 1931 ~ May 12, 2022 How to Start a Walking Program and Stay Motivated Dear Savvy Senior, My doctor recently suggested I start a walking program to help get my weight and blood pressure under control, but I’ve never exercised much and am 66. Can you recommend some tips? Hate to Exercise Dear Hate, You should follow your doctor’s orders. Years of research have shown that walking may be the single best exercise you can do to improve your health as you age. It burns calories, which will help you lose weight, builds endurance, enhances muscle tone and it doesn’t pound your joints. It also helps improve or prevent many age-related health problems including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, dementia and even depression. But walking is not only good for what ails you. It’s also one of the easiest and most convenient exercises you can do and is completely free. All you need is a good pair of walking shoes that fit well and a little desire. Here are some things you should know to help get you started and stay motivated. Getting Started Start out slow if you need to. For many people this means head out the door, walk for 10 minutes, and walk back. Do it every day for a week. If that seems easy, add fi ve minutes to your walks the next week and keep adding fi ve minutes until you are walking as long as you desire. It’s also a smart idea to start and fi nish your walk with a few simple warm up and cool down stretches. Stretching will make you feel better and help prevent injury. Most fitness professionals recommend walking about 30 minutes, fi ve or more days a week. For optimal health benefi ts aim for 10,000 steps per day, which is the equivalent of about fi ve miles. Your walking pace is also important. While strolling around the park or neighborhood at an easy pace is good for you, a brisker pace that has you breathing heavily, but you are still able to carry on a conversation, provides better health, fi tness and weight loss benefi ts. Staying Motivated While starting a walking program takes initiative, sticking with it takes commitment. Here are some tips to help you stay motivated: Find a walking buddy: Having a friend to walk with can provide motivation and support along with companionship. Wear a fitness tracker or pedometer: These devices measure how far you’ve walked in steps and miles, providing motivation by spurring you to meet a particular goal and showing you if you’ve met it. Or, if you use a smartphone there are free pedometer apps you can download like MyPacer.com, Google.com/fit or Accupedo.com. Join a walking club: To fi nd one in your community, call your nearby medical center, mall, health club, senior center, running shoe stores or Area Agency on Aging to see if they sponsor or know of any clubs or groups. Or try MeetUp.com or the American Volkssport Association (AVA.org), to search for non-competitive walking clubs in your area, or start one. Keep a journal: Use it to keep track of your walking minutes, steps, or mileage and total it up at the end of each week to see how you’re progressing. There are also free apps like MapMyWalk.com and Walkmeter.com that use GPS to map your walk and measure your distance and time, which is fun and motivating. Have a backup plan: If bad weather, allergies or other factors limit your outdoor walking, have a backup plan like walking at your local mall, buying a home treadmill or joining a health club. Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior. org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. BEACON | FROM Page 18 2021, is a bill that would amend current law that imposes up to a 7-year prison sentence and/or $5,000 fi ne for a fi rst off ense of animal cruelty and a 10-year prison sentence and/or $10,000 fi ne for a second off ense. The bill leaves the prison sentences as they are but raises the fi nes to $5,500 for a fi rst off ense and $11,000 for subsequent off enses. It also creates a special account where up to $500 for a fi rst off ense and up to $1,000 for subsequent off enses would go to fund improvements to animal shelters in the city or town in which the violations occurred. “Animal cruelty laws in Massachusetts are strong, but not strong enough,” said sponsor Rep. Bruce Ayers (D-Quincy). “ We need to set a stronger precedent that animal cruelty will not be tolerated. The additional funds generated through this bill will help subsidize much-needed improvements to animal shelters across Massachusetts, putting the fi nancial burden on the backs of those who violate the law. Addressing the inaction on the bill for the past fi ve months, Ayers said he’s confi dent on the merits of this bill and feels that it will continue through the legislative process.” $500 PAYMENTS TO 330,000 ELIGIBLE LOW-INCOME WORKERS – The Baker Administration announced that 300,000 low-income workers will each receive $500 under the second round of the COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium Pay Program that was part of the American Rescue Plan Act approved by the Legislature in December 2021. The administration was given the power and fl exibility to implement the program and announced last week that these round two checks will be mailed out soon. Massachusetts residents will be eligible for the $500 if their 2021 income from employment was at least $13,500—and their total income put them below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Individuals who received a round one payment through this program or received unemployment compensation in 2021 will not be eligible for this second round of payments, nor will commonwealth executive M ichele Hamel, 91, of Revere passed away on May 12, 2022. Beloved husband of the late Vincenza (LoIacono) Hamel. Loving father of Paolo and his wife Nicole Hamel. Grandfather of Juliana, Olivia, & Nicholas. Brother of Giuseppina and her late husband Alfoso Marchica, Maria and her late husband Carmelo Mannara, Vincent and his wife Lella Hamel, Antonella and her husband Calogero Verruso & Rosalba and her late husband Joseph Chiarenza. Michele is the son of the late Vita (Guadagnano) and Paolo Hamel. He is also branch employees who received or will receive a one-time COVID-related payment from the state as their employer. For more information about eligibility and other details, go to https:// www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-essential-employee-premium-pay-program#eligibility-parameters - or call (866) 750-9803 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. QUOTABLE QUOTES “As Massachusetts motorists are on the verge of paying six dollars a gallon for gasoline, Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka should reconsider their thoughts that suspending the state gas tax is a gimmick. Instead, they should address suspending the gas tax and cutting other taxes to help middle class Massachusetts taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money.” --- Paul Craney, spokesman for the Mass Fiscal Alliance “While this shooting happened in New York, we need to talk about it here in Massachusetts—because that could have been Nubian Square, Grove Hall, downtown Brockton or Forest Park in Springfi eld. It could have been, and historically has been, a synagogue, a mosque or a center serving immigrant communities.” --- Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence statement on mass shootings in Buff alo and across the nation. “Achieving an accurate count for all 50 states and DC is always a diffi cult endeavor, and these results suggest it was diffi cult again in 2020, particularly given the unprecedented challenges we faced.” ---Census Bureau Director Robert Santos on its nationwide corrected census data which includes adjusting the total number of people living in the Bay State from 7,029,917 to 6,784,000—a reduction of 245,917. “When you include additional time for construction and the start of construction and the rate of infl ation that we have to project, as we are seeing infl ation on a lot of our work and a lot of our bids and in the overall economy, there is going to be a signifi cant increase in what we collectively thought the cost essurvived by many nieces, nephews, and good friends. Funeral from the Salvatore Rocco & Sons Funeral Home, 331 Main Street, Everett on Thursday, May 19th. Visitation was held at the funeral home, followed by a Funeral Mass in Immaculate Conception Church 600 Pleasant St., Malden. Interment was in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett. In lieu of fl owers donations may be made to Luna Foundation https://www.luna-aruba. com/donate or Play it forward. For more information, please visit www.roccofuneralhomes.com. timates would be for this project.” --- Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler predicting that the estimated cost to demolish and replace the Bourne and Sagamore bridges has risen from the 2019 estimate of up to $1.65 billion to a new estimate of up to $4 billion. HOW LONG WAS LAST WEEK’S SESSION? Beacon Hill Roll Call tracks the length of time that the House and Senate were in session each week. Many legislators say that legislative sessions are only one aspect of the Legislature’s job and that a lot of important work is done outside of the House and Senate chambers. They note that their jobs also involve committee work, research, constituent work and other matters that are important to their districts. Critics say that the Legislature does not meet regularly or long enough to debate and vote in public view on the thousands of pieces of legislation that have been fi led. They note that the infrequency and brief length of sessions are misguided and lead to irresponsible late-night sessions and a mad rush to act on dozens of bills in the days immediately preceding the end of an annual session. During the week of May 16-29, the House met for a total of eleven hours and 17 minutes and the Senate met for a total of one hour and 25 minutes Mon. May 16 House 11:03 a.m. to 11:42 a.m. Senate 11:07 a.m. to 11:24 a.m. Tues. May 17 House 11:00 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. No Senate session Wed. May 18 House 11:04 a.m. to 4:42 p.m. No Senate session Thurs. May 19 House 1:45 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. Senate 11:06 a.m. to 12:14 p.m. Fri. May 20 No House session No Senate session Bob Katzen welcomes feedback at bob@beaconhillrollcall.com Bob founded Beacon Hill Roll Call in 1975 and was inducted into the New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) Hall of Fame in 2019.
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