My mother and father weren’t athletic in the usual sense, although my dad liked to be outdoors. He was also a musician on the side, so he spent a lot of his time indoors, practicing and listening to music. My mom has had occasional dedication to walking, but she does not like to get hot and sweaty. My father’s day job business was a small but unique custom boat building company with a pretty eclectic clientele. As a result, we sailed, skied, rode our bikes everywhere, swam in the bay of Lake Michigan, and in pools during lessons; I rode horses. Oh, and we walked in the woods a lot, all seasons. The only team sport I had any appreciation of as a kid was football because of our proximity to the home area team (go Packers ) In high school, I also participated in the concert band that also served as the football and basketball support and entertainment. I tried swim team, but the chlorine did a real number on my eyes so it wasn’t my favorite activity. I always loved watching the synchronized team and the diving team! It wasn’t until after college, really, that I developed an interest in general fitness with more structured activity–assorted aerobic exercise classes, weight lifting, even a very short attempt at grappling (pain…). I also took a way more organized series of riding lessons for years, leasing horses for long periods of time. Now, as you all know, I do plenty of walking, especially in the woods. I run, however slowly I lift weights. I ride my comfort bike. Yikes, my activities are regressing back to those of childhood…
It was a restful, warm Easter weekend here. We hit the gym Saturday so I could run. The H and I walked on Sunday. Today I’m feeling a little off, so probably I’ll do some easy walking to get the steps in.
My goodness, I was out of town for the long weekend and finally had a chance to check in this morning to find that I had 115 posts to catch up on! Lots of great discussion and I really enjoy each and every one of you!
The good news is that before heading out of town on Friday, I got my 20 mile long run in and it went fairly well. We did some hiking on Saturday that was fun but not too strenuous. Yesterday was mostly a lot of food, but fortunately managed to get 15K steps in to have at least a little activity. We had a great weekend visiting our son and son-in-law for Easter. Had to drive back through some terrible thunderstorms last night, I was glad when we finally got home. We drove through some hail and it was too dark last night when we got home to really be able to tell if there was much damage to the car (and it was too dark this morning to check before leaving for work). Hopefully not!
I admire all of you who have given up and/or cut back significantly on the Diet Coke. Maybe someday I will join you…
I’m ok with diet soda - maybe have one or two a month, but can take or leave them. I wonder - would LaCroix sparkling water work for those of you trying to break a diet soda habit?
I used to be a Diet Coke addict (or diet root beer, or ginger ale, or DP), but gave it up for a bunch of reasons–dental, H kidney issues, etc. Recently I’ve added back a related but seemingly better choice in La Croix carbonated water. Anybody else like this? I think the light hints of flavor are really good. No sweeteners, no sodium, no caffeine or coloring, but it gives that carbonated bubble crispness I find a treat.
I don’t love sparkling water. I don’t feel like I have a “habit”. I really do like the taste, though. With bone density issues, I’m not supposed to have much diet cola. If you look online, you are led to believe that if a sip touches your lips you have destroyed your bones. My highly respected endocrinologist laughs at that and believes “anything in moderation”. Even one a day doesn’t bother her, but I want to do less than that just because it is nasty chemicals anyway! I like iced tea and drink more of that than diet colas at this point, but I’m not a coffee drinker, so sometimes it is just inconvenient to find something I want to drink!
I sat on my butt all day long yesterday trying to get a solid head start on my homework so I could attend an event next Saturday. Just peeked at my email… I have a 50-page assignment due next Monday, LOL. That one I can wing!
To redeem my weekend sloth, I am walking to and from the commuter bus stop.
I hate that for you, Romani, but I’m sure there will be many more opportunities to present in your future. Taking care of your physical health is the priority right now (Mom talking here).
I have been drinking a lot of Evian, don’t ask me why - I like Pellegrino as well, but am not a huge fan of LaCroix. We had lunch on Friday at a Mediterranean type place where you could design your own bowls and they had the best drinks - local sodas (which I didn’t touch) but other juice based drinks that I didn’t kid myself were healthy, but were delicious! Cranberry/orange with cinnamon and jalapeno, kale-apple-beet, lemon-lime mint (which I had and wasn’t too sweet) and then a cucumber mint. They all advertised “with cane sugar” - not sure why they thought that was a selling point!
Drinks/drinking is a place easy for me to excel. Water is truly most all I ever need. I do enjoy one cup of coffee several times a week. No juice, pop/soda, alcohol or other beverages except on rare occasion. I will drink a little milk with a snack at night. Maybe 4 ounces. That’s it.
Luckily I’m not first author on this paper and it’s much more in my co-presenter’s field (she is in Epid and this is a Population Studies conference… I do more qual work and this is a more quanty paper).
I already presented something similar back in October at another conference and I’ll be presenting my first first-authored paper at the American Studies conference this fall so that’s something to look forward to
It would’ve been my first time in DC though so I was looking forward to that. But it’s ok
Been on vacation in Central America. Happy to report I met my step goal every day–mostly from walking on the beach. Coming back to the cold in New England wasn’t fun. Taking a rest day today. Signed up for spin class tomorrow.
The time on my Fitbit Charge HR got messed up–but I figured out what was wrong. Only problem was that I lost all my steps for today!!
Ok, Fitbit q. I synch with Mindbody which is how I book classes. So let’s say I take a yoga class - after the class, next time I open Mindbody it synchs w Fitbit and says “you burned 200 calories in your yoga class today from 10-11 am” (or whatever). And maybe it says I had 20 active minutes (because it doesn’t “read” activity if I’m in, say, bridge pose. Or savasana ).
However, I also could track exercise manually so if I went into Fitbit and just said I did yoga for an hour it automatically assigns me (let’s say) 250 calories (not based on Fitbit readings, but based on my weight) and gives me 60 active minutes.
I think the former is more accurate but I like having tracking of all my exercise. Does anyone else face this and how do you handle? I do manually track my strength training as I can’t book those through Mindbody like I can everything else.
Can CC provide this thread with a personal Fitbit expert on call 24/7???
I think it’s personally preference PG. For awhile I was entering in additional exercise on my Fitbit - like strength training or something that wouldn’t be step movements but exercise. I decided to just track that on Runkeeper - which has remained a favorite program for me - I can log in my running, walking, rowing, strength training, spinning, etc. on there. So I still have a “journal” of sorts of physical activity and then I also have my Fitbit - which keeps track of basically miles on my feet, active time each day, etc. For me, as long as it’s one of those two places I"m satisfied.
Gym time - track and a rowing today. I’m tired!!!
Speaking of rowing, our machines at our fitness center are pretty sucky. OLD. Besides time, I’m not really sure what else it’s tracking - I should take a pic of the little LED screen so I can share more specifics. What I would love to know is the distance I’m going. If I row for 15 minutes straight at a decent pace (for a 56 year old woman…) how far am I going? Or what is an average rower time for rowing a mile?
Does it track meters (or yards) and you can convert into miles? The rowers at OrangeTheory track meters, but you’re only doing a short amount at a time (“row 200 meters and then go do squats”) so you’re really not going for distance per se. But 15 minutes straight is a lot of rowing – kudos to you!
abasket - I like that personal Fitbit expert idea.
There have been some interesting posts about our experiences growing up. I find it very interesting that many of us were not athletic at all and are now working to take care of ourselves. MNK I found your perspective on being a male in sports very enlightening. S never found a sport he liked/was good at and was done with all that by middle school. He does run now and lift weights and keeps himself in shape. The only one in my family who does not keep fit is H who was a 2 varsity sport athlete in HS (I married the football captain ) . So I do not think that what you do/don’t do when you are young really matters.
I hit 6,000 steps today yahoo! My little buzzer thing went off (I have it at 5k steps) without me even trying. I don’t remember the last time that happened
) In high school, I also participated in the concert band that also served as the football and basketball support and entertainment. I tried swim team, but the chlorine did a real number on my eyes so it wasn’t my favorite activity. I always loved watching the synchronized team and the diving team! It wasn’t until after college, really, that I developed an interest in general fitness with more structured activity–assorted aerobic exercise classes, weight lifting, even a very short attempt at grappling (pain…). I also took a way more organized series of riding lessons for years, leasing horses for long periods of time. Now, as you all know, I do plenty of walking, especially in the woods. I run, however slowly 
yahoo! My little buzzer thing went off (I have it at 5k steps) without me even trying. I don’t remember the last time that happened