Fitness Walk

Technorati Tags: walking,stretchy bands,walking poles

Fitness walks. 

I live in an RV park in Arizona and have developed my own fitness walk using whatever is handy.  While I am making laps around the perimeter of the park.  One lap is just under 1/2 mile.  While I am walking, I do arm strength training using a blue stretchy band.  I also stop at a picnic table and do squats, arm dips, ab crunches, and 45 degree angle push ups using the table edge for support.  There is no way that I can do a regular push up on the floor.  I have a fear of falling flat  and smashing my face in.  Not rational, I know, but  that is what I see happening.  I also do a sideways “grapevine” move for a section of my walk, one row in each direction.  Then I do a row walking backwards.  I belong to a gym and  occasionally  use it, but I really prefer to be active outside AND I am basically a loner so I sort of do my own thing most of the time. 

I also do laps using walking poles.  That makes my arms move like they do on the elliptical and I walk faster when I use them.  

When I do a fitness walk I try to walk for at least an hour.  Just walking is nice but I get too bored, doing these other activities at the same time keeps my head occupied. 

Posture

Did your Mother or Grandmother ever have you walk around with a book on your head?  Mine did.
Sounds stupid and it felt stupid but it got you to stand up straight.  And that is a good thing.  When I watch people I am amazed at what poor posture is out there!  Have you ever seen an older person that walks with their head?  Which means that their head is about 6 or 8 inches ahead of their butt…it looks so uncomfortable and just not natural.
Whenever I see anyone walking like that I want to ask if they are capable of standing up straight.  Or if they realize they aren’t standing up straight.  Would asking someone  be rude??  I’m  really torn about that -rude-not rude.  Can't decide.
I also see people that hunch their back.  Too me, that  looks lazy. 
I would like to encourage people to try balancing a book on your head when you walk around your house once in a while.  It’s good to know what standing up straight feels like.  Or you could imagine being pulled up by a string.  That helps too…….just try it!

Monday, Monday

Arizona had a cold, windy (very, very windy) day today.  I had a list of errands to run because it is Monday and that is errand day.

The weather is important because I could not comfortably go on a fitness walk.  So I got to thinking about what I committed to this week. 

The wind would not interfere with my yoga poses so I decided to do them.  Then I decided to do an exercise video.  Since I felt that would be the item hardest to accomplish.  Might as well get it out of the way since going outside would not be fun.  Looking though my selection of videos was like looking in a photo album of old friends.  I decided to do the “Slim in 6” one.  I have had that program for 8 to 10 years and it has been several years since I have done it.  So I opted for the 25 minute routine and it was a lot of fun, and as I said like hooking up with an old friend.  In fact I enjoyed it so much I did it twice!!

Cool……….this week is off to a good start!

Pass or Fail

Last week I made a commitment to do 5 yoga poses using the Wii at least 3 days this week.  I did that and in addition did basic step on two of the days for a total of 6 basic step routines.  So passed that one.

I also committed to doing 1 hour of cardio at the gym three days.  Here is a gray area.  I only went to the gym once, but I did do fitness walks lasting 1 to 1.5 hours 3 days and 1/2 hour 2 days.  So technically this is a fail because I only went to the gym once, but I did exceed the cardio commitment.  I did cardio for a total of 5.5 hours, which is 2.5 hours more than I committed to.  So I am not unhappy with my performance, especially when I lost 3.6#.  I am OK with what I did.

So what are my plans for this week. 

1.  6 Wii yoga poses at least 3 days.

2.  At least 1 hour of cardio 4 days.

3.  One exercise video.

By far number 3 will be the hardest.  I used to do them a lot but haven’t for probably a couple of years.  (Times goes so fast).  I put that as a goal this week because I would like to get back to them.  I always enjoyed them so want to again.

Wish me self discipline and a good attitude!!

Balance

Balance---holy shit….has anyone looked this word up in the dictionary lately???  I have a large dictionary and the definitions of this word takes up 3/4 of a column with another 1/2 column taken up with words ranging from balance beam to balancing act.  What a word—it was actually very interesting to read each definition because you tend to think of only the definition that applies to how you mean it.

Anyway this is the definition I am blogging about today:

Balance: physical equilibrium and the ability to retain one’s balance.

Because I am a senior citizen, (oh MY GOD-I am amazed and appalled at how quickly you go from 20 to 60), I tend to notice traits of older people, and what aging takes away in terms of ability to physically move.   It is in everyone’s best interest to protect their balance.  I don’t care if you are a teenager.  You can get in the habit of protecting your balance NOW.   As my very smart Mother would say “you can’t learn any younger.  And as I have observed—what you learn as a child, when it is pretty easy to learn, stays with you a lifetime. 

So how in the hell do you protect your balance.  Yoga poses such as the tree pose, dancers pose, and many others are wonderful for your balance.  I have probably been doing the dancers pose for 30 years.  It is one of the reasons that I have good balance.  Anyone wishing to learn these poses can check them out on Wii Fit Plus.  If you are a beginner this is a great place to start.

Technorati Tags: Wii,balance,senior citizen

Just Thinking About It

I have not really blogged since October.  Why not?

1.  What I was doing was not working for me.

I felt I was just spinning my wheels—down 2 pounds, up 3, down 4, up 1, up-down, up-down.  Just an endless cycle of ups and downs that had a net result of staying about the same.  But, but I want to LOSE!

2.  Sweets!!

In all honesty I eat a really healthy diet---lots of fruits of vegetables, lean meats, soups, salads, grains like rice and quinoa.  So why don’t I lose weight.  One word: SWEETS

I have come to the belief that there is not enough pastry, candy, cookies, cakes, pies, etc, etc in the world to satisfy me.  I can’t have A cookie, I want at least a dozen.  This is so frustrating to me.  I quit smoking 8 years ago and this sweet thing is so much more difficult.  

The only thing that keeps me from being morbidly obese is the fact that I have always exercised and I do mostly eat healthy foods that I cook myself.  But I do binge, not only on sweets but also carbs.  The other night I ate 1/4 bag of tortilla chips, 4 slices of bread with peanut butter, and some pretzels.  Why oh why can’t I control my wolfing down of those foods??  I know in my head that I am sabotaging myself but don’t seem to be able to stop.  I felt so miserable after eating all that in about 15 minutes that I was what?  I don’t even know the words to describe what I felt.  And let me tell ya, that is unusual because I have a large vocabulary.

3.  Comfort

I lost 20 pounds last year about this time.  I kept it off until Thanksgiving.  Since Thanksgiving I have gained 9 pounds mostly because of holiday sweets, lots, and lots of holiday sweets.  But why did I stop at 20 pounds to begin with when I wanted to lose 50??  Because I felt comfortable down 20.

So anyway, I took some time  to think about this journey. Have I figured it out?  Hell NO, but I am making some changes.  This journey is very individual and I need to get it together.

Frail

Being frail is being physically weak.

I am sure you have heard  the phrase: “she fell and broke her hip”.  If I heard Dr. Oz correctly, what really happened is “she broke her hip and fell”.  Makes one think about brittle bones and becoming frail.

I am in a position to observe people ranging in age from early twenties to 80’s and 90’s.  What I have seen has been really eye opening and motivating.  At least it gives me motivation to move more.   I do have to say I have exercised most of my adult life, although I was in high school the first time I followed a magazine article exercise routine.  So I have exercised more than not exercised.  And it is true – exercise makes you strong not thin!!

Oh back to frail…..watch people of all ages, decide how you want to move through life and do what it takes to move the way you want.

So how did the plan go today.  I did the 5 yoga poses with Wii!!  I did not make it to the gym but did do a fitness walk around the RV park for 1.25 hours.  And I got to be outside in shorts and a t-shirt.  Gotta love Arizona.

Technorati Tags: Wii,Dr. Oz,yoga,walking

My Plan

This is my plan…..
Tomorrow I am going to start taking a product I saw on a local Phoenix TV show.  Not an “infommercial” in the true sense but something that sounded interesting to me. 
This week I am making the commitment to do 5 yoga poses this week on the Wii at least 3 days.  I also intend to do 3 hour long cardio sessions at the gym this week.  The first session was today.  This is the minimum I am committing to.
2011 needs to end on a healthy, lighter note.