<p>Just checking in before I head out to my step class. It will be my 2nd time so far and i think I’m going to like it. Most of the women are my age which makes me feel more comfortable! I almost decided not to go because I’m still sore from Tuesday’s class but my husband told me, “There’s a difference between being sore and being injured…and you’re not injured!” Ok, so there goes that excuse…
See you later!</p>
<p>Great work, lilmom! I look forward to hearing more about your progress. :)</p>
<p>Not good for the soul for being donut retentive.</p>
<p>I think your dream of city living is lovely, worknprogress.</p>
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<p>Is there a way to incorporate physical activity into your day, missypie? Skipping elevators, walking to the grocery store, parking further from work?</p>
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<p>LOL, I do take the stairs when I go between the floors of our firm…but I don’t think anyone would want to be around me if I walked the 45 floors up to my office every morning.</p>
<p>On Monday, I had an appointment with my doctor. She’s around 50 and very very out of shape – really big in the belly. She looks like she’s never exercised a day in her life.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, I saw her at the gym, working with a personal trainer. She said hello, and I told her I was glad to see her there. She was doing some real baby stuff – but hey, even a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step!</p>
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<p>Many of the students in my Zumba classes (which can be, in a way, compared with Jazzercize) are NOT coordinated! Some let me know right away, some don’t. I make sure they know - it is definitely not a pre-requisite! Totally a judgement free zone. As long as you are moving (and smiling) that’s all that counts! Something about music - you can’t help but move!</p>
<p>One comment I have, is that not all excercise has to be “exercise”. Some things that are enjoyable also happen to also be considered a form of physical activity (“exercise”). Hiking. Biking. Dancing. Walking your dog. Playing ball with your kids (well, given that this is CC…maybe someone ELSE’s kids). Gardening. There are all sorts of things that give your body the same benefits as traditional exercise, that aren’t done JUST for the sake of working out. The challenge is to find something that you enjoy doing, that can be done for a long enough duration for it to be beneficial.</p>
<p>While I love walking in my neighborhood for pleasure, I do know people who have said one reason they got a dog is to have the routine of having to walk it daily. Anyone get their exercise with their dog?</p>
<p>How about local parks? We had a great park system here. Walk, enjoy nature, quiet and relief stress.</p>
<p>I’ve never understood how gardening can be considered exercise. When I garden, all I ever do is sit down and pull weeds.</p>
<p>8th grade D is taking Athletics. The coaches love her and she’s received a 100 in the class every grading period. At this time of year, the girls are either doing cross country or basketball. Do you know what their semester exam was? Timed running of the mile!!! One guess which girls got As and which girls didn’t. If they’d added a free throw component to the “exam” I guess it would have been fair. Still no love lost for school coaches!!!</p>
<p>Well, Very Happy, when you have to move 200 cubic yards of dirt to make your yard “gardenable”, that’s exercise! I agree, pulling weeds is not a calorie-burning activity; I treat is a mind-calming activity, sort of like knitting.</p>
<p>missypie, your D’s PE class sounds like the one I had in middle school. To get an A in our PE class, in addition to timed running, we had to be able to climb all the way up the rope. Being a tomboy was a big plus for me.</p>
<p>That must be when “gardening” = “grass cutting”. :)</p>
<p>VeryHappy…pull weeds standing up! Bend from the waist, contract your abs (so as to not stress out your back), and use your BUTT to make yourself stand up. You can also do some squats to get down to ground level. Should have some nice glute/hamstring awareness the following day!</p>
<p>We have a tendency to do everything the easy way…like sitting next to the weeds…</p>
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<p>P.S. I hate running. I’m not good at it. BUT, my dog (a lab) likes to run. So (only when it’s nice out), I’ll get up early in the morning and take her out for a run. I do it for her, since I have to leave her when I go to work. If I tell myself that, I’m more likely to get up and go.</p>
<p>missypie,
"does an intelligent person swim laps for 30+ minutes? " - Not 30 min, more than an hour at least. I am slow recreational swimmer, it takes me longer than hour to do my routine. I do not like reading / listenning to anything while I exercise. I do not like reading at all, it is boring to me. I listen enough while in a kitchen. Some people have things they listen to, while swimming. It is not boring to me to think, we all have brains, we can use them instead of books/radio/Ipods/TV/computers…</p>
<p>Exercising with my dog? That would be weightlifting, I guess, because I would have to carry him back to the house after 5 minutes or running. Even before his surgery he was not a runner. GSDs are not good running companions.</p>
<p>^ At least you can run, good for you! I cannot, I could not even when I was 12 years old. My body refuses to run.</p>
<p>I thought gardening was jumping up on and down on the shovel to no avail and then calling dh to dig out the bed.</p>
<p>We take our old yellow lab out for walks on most days…usually 2 or 3 miles. I prefer to be near water and we have some beautiful trails near the river here…only a 10 minute drive. I’m addicted to this habit…and our dear mutt is quite svelte, especially for a lab. Our dog is addicted too, lol. He has panic attacks every day about his walk. He looks for cues and tries to anticipate when it will happen. Whines, cries, stands in front of the door, pleading. When we start getting ready he goes absolutely NUTS. He would trade a 16 oz t-bone steak for a walk!</p>
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<p>Lots of exercise in gardening. My compost bin weights a ton. Try to push that down and get my compost out needs real muscle. My husband rarely helps with the garden anymore. He becomes more Americanized, watching all kind of sports with our new TV.</p>