Lots of fun adventures over the last week. On PEI we did a city walking tour, visited the Anne of Green Gables sites and learned about mussel farning
We are now in Nova Scotia and because of fire risk all hiking trails are closed, so have be limited to seeing overlooks and visiting beaches.
We also did one of the best distillery tours i have ever done.
I’ve tried freezing them and cutting them into small pieces, like a little treat. I suspect it may work much better with some bars, but I’m limited to gluten and dairy free, and that didn’t work out so well. I’m about to try it with homemade chickpea based protein bars, and I’m sure those will be great as it’s just like frozen cookie dough. Macros aren’t the same as commercial protein bars, but I believe your body processes real, whole foods differently than those bars anyway.
I also grew up where everyone could swim. We all took swimming lessons, but that was just to refine our strokes, as everyone I know was thrown into a body of water with the belief that “they’ll figure it out” before they entered kindergarten. For me, it was at 2. When I met my husband, I was shocked that he couldn’t swim. I initially thought it was because he was more of a “city kid” and didn’t grow up where everyone had a pool or joined the swim club. Then I learned that his sisters were great swimmers and his father actually taught swimming at the Naval Academy. There is just something about his body composition that makes him sink.
None of this is common – most people do not take swimming lessons and most persons are certainly not thrown in a body of water before kindergarten with hope that they’ll figure it out (I hope this was an exaggeration. I know a toddler that died in a couple feet of depth.). The specific number not being able to swim depends on how you measure being able to swim (able to tread water briefly, able to swim lap of pool, …), but no mater how you measure, a notable portion cannot do it. The portion lacking swimming skills increases as income goes down and moving further from natural bodies of water, as you’d expect.
I believe I can swim well enough to get by in an emergency situation, but I haven’t swam in decades. Contributing factors include lack of interest, limited access, wearing hearing aids, and sinking like a rock in water when not moving legs/arms. I don’t have any special desire to swim around, and I prefer other types of cardiovascular exercise.
To clarify “thrown in” was done with people nearby. It’s just that you had no choice about going in or going under. None of this holding onto the side and blowing bubbles for months on end until you worked up the courage to dunk under for a second. You were literally thrown into the water to experience what going under is like and then given as little help as possible to swim to the side. Much like kids are taught “survival swimming” as infants now. Growing up near the beach, where many families had pools, and where most of the summer (as short as it was) involved some kind of water activity, I think our parents were trying to waterproof us early. (And it was also the 70s and they wanted to sit around drinking Tab rather than have to be in the pool supervising us).
I do have to say, after 3 years of swimming lessons and my son refusing to go under, I finally sent him down a slide as my form of “throwing him in”. That was the day he finally learned to swim after countless $$$ spent on swimming lessons. As DH can’t swim, I was pretty adamant that my kids learned how to. Lizardkid2 has 4% body fat, so is naturally more of a sinker than a floater, and while he may not have good form when swimming, he can be comfortable with his ability in the water.
I am a big supporter of no cost swimming and water safety lessons for low income kids. Not a summer goes by without a drowning in our area. Usually ,the report is of a child or adult that drowned “because they didn’t know how to swim”. I find that many of those cases(such as entering a river with a strong current, a murky bottom, a boat with no life jackets, or a camp with poor safety measures) are tragedies that could have been prevented not by being a strong swimmer, but by awareness of dangerous water conditions. I often wondered if kids who are good swimmers are more prone to do dangerous things around water, but my observation is that they aren’t. I think because they tend to spend more time around water (and people with more experience with water dangers), they can recognize when “something isn’t quite right” and have had those things pointed out to them more.
I remember taking my kids to the beach I grew up on and warning them, “Don’t ever turn your back on the water,” as they were used to gentle knee high waves and not a pounding surf. What was the first thing Lizardkid2 did? Turned his back to the water and was flattened. He was left sputtering and being dragged under as it took him by surprise. Luckily, I was right there. Most of the people pulled out by lifeguards at that beach are not locals. We all had this drilled into us since we were young.
Even if he has very low body fat so that passive floating is not possible, wouldn’t he be able to (learn how to) swim, although swimming would require more effort than it would require for someone with somewhat higher body fat?
I have no idea. His sisters told me they threw him in and he sunk to the bottom. They tried to teach him, I’ve tried to teach him. It just ends up with him sinking. I think park of it is that he has a birth injury to one of his legs, so there is almost nothing but bone and skin,no muscle or fat, which probably makes that part of him more likely to “sink” and part of it is that he immediately tenses up after all of the “sinking” he’s done. He has no desire to learn at this point.
In other news…
I was able to get a Tempo Studio off of FB Marketplace. I figured even if it broke in a week, I’d still have all the weights and accessories and I could just buy the Move adapter for $100, unlike some of the other AI coaching systems that become bricks that you aren’t able to use at all if they break .
I don’t like their programming and haven’t found an instructor that I love yet. Finding the “right” program isn’t intuitive and there is very little for hypertrophy. The AI is almost worthless except for rep counting and weight suggestions, but I’m not really there yet anyway and it is getting me up and working out on a consistant basis.
While it’s not all that I thought it would be, I am using it 4-5 times a week. I like not having to think about anything. I did end up liking some of the HIIT workouts, which shocked me. I think having my heartrate on the screen is motivating and I really like being able to stream my own music and control the mix of music/instructor voice.
I have been doing 40lb kettleball farmer carries. 40 yards down and 40 back. One in each hand. Part of a circuit I came up with. I want to increase by the next size is 53lb. Waiting a little.
Those and the weighted sled push and carrying a 45lb plate over my head for 40 yards down and 40 back have really been helping I think.
I have a 6 exercise circuit that I run through 3-4 times after cardio.
Either a Western or California Valley Coyote.
Lack of hiking trails has been a bummer. Even wooded trails in cities are closed. At the historic site we visited they closed the trails to some parts of the site..
We are walking everywhere and blowing through our step goals.
Photo is of house we stayed at Fortress of Louisbourg (captured by New Englanders in 1745, given back to French in 1749, taken by the Englisg in 1758 and then destroyed). It was partially rebuilt starting in 1960s
Cool. Definitely a coyote! They are not aggressive. Unless you are a rabbit or a mouse! 
@gpo613 - that’s a lot of weight on the Farmer carry! I’m doing mine with 20 lbs on each hand more frequently around my house now. I wish my gym had that sled thing. It looks fun!
Got home from Yosemite Wednesday evening. We mostly hiked/ sometimes walked every day for 10 days. I think my husband said we averaged over 8 miles a day. Longest day was close to 12 miles. Shortest was 4 miles of walking through tunnels on rocks, etc., plus just normal walking around. We spent a week in Tahoe, and then 3 nights in Yosemite.
I did something I haven’t done in over 30 years. I ran. Yes, it was only for a couple of rounds of 1 minute running, 3 walking, but I did it because I wanted to. I was walking and all of a sudden an urge to run came over me. I’ve never wanted to run in my life. The running joke among my friends (excuse the pun) is that I was only going to run if being chased by a bear. And even then, I might just curl into a ball and give up.
Not sure what came over me. I’ve recently lost about 9 lbs and have consistently been lifting with my Tempo since starting Wegovy 6 weeks ago. The biggest shocker is that I didn’t pee my pants at all (IYKYK).
Very nice! Whether you walk or run, tis excellent exercise. It’s all about finding something you like.
I did a walk/run class in spring 2017, with the only goal to participate in a local 5k race with classmates. I am still running (sloooowly), though not as often now that I’ve started playing a lot of pickleball.
I know I’ll never be a runner. Nor do I want to be. But, I can see adding some sprint or interval training into my daily walking every once in awhile.
Just be sure you have good shoes on! When I first started doing couch to 5k - which especially at the start was lots of run-walk intervals - I was (duh!) wearing flatter athletic shoes. I was so excited to be running! I was not excited for the shin splits I got before too long cause those shoes were ok for walking but NOT for even short running!
I decided to give those 53lb KB a run at the farmer’s walk. I made it. Felt like I was going to drop one on my foot.
