I like the way your Grandpa thinks - bring on the bacon!
An encounter with a mouse would have me SPRINTING in the other direction for miles!!!
Lol, abasket. I learned from my grandfather that most Polish and Ukrainian dishes had 2 major ingredients: onions and bacon. 
As mentioned a few posts back, variety in exercise can be so important, otherwise you get stale both mentally and physically. When I was out in California back in October, our first few days were in Venice Beach, home to the current incarnation of Muscle Beach, which is really now just a traditional old school weight lifting gym run by Gold’s Gym. Surprisingly, it was pretty empty. Instead, as we walked up the Venice Beach “Boardwalk”, every other block there was a fitness playground on the beach replete with climbing ropes, flying rings, still rings, Cirque du Soleill style climbing ribbons, chinning bars, parallel bars etc and artificial turf exercise areas. Every one of these playgrounds was jammed full of lean muscular bodies, not so lean bodies, young and old engaging in a broad variety of activities from playing on the “playground” equipment to practicing yoga or tai chi.
It really got me thinking about concepts of strength and fitness. Pushing steel in single plane movements to build big muscles one muscle group at a time vs whole body functional movement body weight based exercise involving multiple muscle groups in multiple planes of movement. Working out in a gym vs getting exercise from play! Getting bored and stale one exercise at a time vs creative movement unconstrained by exercise machines.
It also got me thinking about how we got exercise as kids by going out and moving our bodies playing outdoors but how as adults we sometimes limit ourselves so much by regimen, specialized fancy equipment and myopic concepts of fitness. So I propose, let’s make June the Rediscover the Inner Kid in You month for finding fun ways to combine exercise with outdoor play. Anyone who is interested, post something you’re going to do to break the monotony and rediscover your Inner Kid as part of your fitness program :).
For me, well I posted about this before and it’s becoming a reality. Time for my own new outdoor playground. Cargo net and climbing rope have been ordered, monkey bars and chinning bars are being built and tractor tires are on the way. Gonna all be done by Father’s Day. At our annual Father’s Day BBQ, the price for admission will be a circuit for for each cheeseburger lol.
^^^This is awesome!
My big goal is to build up upper body strength, specifically to be able to do full, proper-form push-ups and pull-ups (I am there/almost there with the push-ups, but now I need to be able to do multiple). Upper-body strength is my weak area. As part of that, I do monkey bars at the local playground every weekend
I also run and skip when walking, don’t always just walk.
MNK, I love it! I will have to think of something fun because I am more active now as an adult than I was as a kid.
Nrdsb4, great job. Making those changes undoubtedly did wonders for your health!
I haven’t run since Tuesday - I rolled my ankle on Monday and today it’s pretty swollen. My right one was already in need of extra support and now my left one too. I am going to run a few times on my own - I need a few runs that I’m just enjoying at a relaxed pace instead of pounding down the same routes over and over. I like running with the group but can’t just keep doing the same runs over and over. Every run I’m doing has been a tempo run according to Strava - it just hasn’t been fun.
Ouch Sabaray. 
New routes are always a plus IMO.
sabaray- I hope your ankle heals up fast! Good to slow down and vary it some. It is SO easy for runners (especially newer runners) to get into the habit of pounding out a tempo run every time out the door. It’s hard to slow down. Make yourself slow down. Check out the McMillan tables and force yourself into those paces.
Had a good 5 mile run with the running club last night. It was lightly raining, but not bad. We started from a new location and hence a different route. I liked the new route, H did not. No formal exercise today but I’ll end up with around 16K steps. We’re going out to dinner for our 32nd anniversary today - I’ve already entered everything I’m eating today and I’m -582 calories for the day. I had 600 calories left over yesterday, so I’m just going to assume it all evens out in the end!
Nrbs4-you have made amazing progress in just 6 weeks! Losing 12 pounds is terrific but the improvement in all your stats and BP is fantastic! I would not like being as restrictive in your diet as you are, so I applaud you for your discipline!
BB-I’ll bet the mouse was cute! I can totally see that happening with my H getting wrapped up in taking pictures. I like hiking with a photographer, though, because it means plenty of breaks when the hiking gets tough!
MNK-I agree that the way adults exercise versus how kids play is quite different. It also helps explain how even with going to the gym regularly and working with a trainer, doing something different like spreading mulch can result in sore muscles I didn’t even know I had. Your outdoor playground sounds very fun. I’m sure your Father’s Day guests will have a blast!
Sabaray-sorry to hear about the ankle. I agree with you - I am enjoying the running club but also run on my own a couple days a week. I need the balance of running with the group and running on my own - at my own pace and on my own routes.
I do a LOT of walking, but I haven’t mastered the brisk walk. I humor the dog who likes to stop and sniff lots of things along the way so we never have a record pace. I’m definitely not doing the calorie burn but I enjoy our walks. I average over 20K steps/day so I get the mileage in but it’s definitely not a brisk walk.
Hi everyone - I am enjoying my standing desk so far! I find myself doing lots of swaying & shifting weight & just generally moving constantly. I’m trying to sit / stand about 50% each, but so far I’ve been doing more standing, just because it’s new. Apparently, standing all day isn’t much better for you than sitting all day (varicose veins, back pain, etc.) so a good mix of the two is the recommendation. My hip / pulled groin muscle are feeling better & I am going back out there (running) tomorrow morning. Congrats to all those with successes this week, and hugs to those with injuries / annoyances!
@C3Baker, I don’t like being this restrictive either! Lol. Hopefully once I get blood sugar and insulin stable and “normal” for a few months, I can start adding some things back and see if I handle them okay. But I think my days of fast food and heavy carbs are over for good, at least if I want to maintain my weight and general health. With the family history of diabetes, it was the hand I was dealt, I guess. But as a nurse, I know that there are many worse things in life.
Oh Bunsen, I’m afraid I’m like your husband. I love taking the camera out on our walks/hikes, but there’s always SO much to see that my stops are many. My poor husband is a really good sport about my hobby, but I know he is frustrated with the many “photo ops”. From my point of view, however, having the camera makes our hiking feel like play Often I think that the reason I work out so regularly is so I am able to do these hikes with the camera.
I’ll have to think of a way to meet MnK’s challenge. Great idea! Our paddle-boarding and kayaking of a couple weeks ago come to mind. Maybe some swimming.
Today I’m having a rest, although we’ll do a brisk walk tonight. Very warm–92–and humid right now. Not so inspiring.
Big yes to paddle boarding! Lots of fun, challenges core, arms, shoulders, back, glutes and legs particularly if you steer by edging the board.
It was a run for me this morning. Warm day. I don’t bring along an ipod or headphones or something of the like to listen to music when I run, but I do find it can make exercising at home more fun!
Feel better, Sabaray. You’ve been going gangbusters, very much an inspiration.
Following everyone’s posts, just not writing much myself lately. Needing to finish getting packed up here.
Ouch Sabaray.
New routes are always a plus IMO.
Hope the ankle heals quickly, sabaray! Give it a good rest. Your runs are not going to run away from you.
Healing thoughts, sabaray!
Ouch Sabaray! Hope the ankles feel better soon.
acollegestudent, thank you for bringing up the arm strength topic. I have a question about pull ups! All answers are welcome! I can do mean, perfect form pushups just fine, but for the life of me, I can still squeak out only one pull up. What upper arm strength exercise should I be doing to be able to do at least 3 good form, unassisted ones?
RE: upper body strength
Do you ladies remember that God awful President’s Physical Fitness Test where you had to hang off a bar (as opposed to doing a pull up) for like 60 seconds or something? Blech!
@BunsenBurner, this is the program I am doing to do a pull up: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/04/25/do-a-pull-up/
I am also supplementing with doing monkey bars on weekends.
Pull ups do indeed work a different group of of muscles.