Some days it’s a balancing act

Six-Word Saturday 5.14.22

WQW#14…step by step to fitness

This week Marcia’s talking about fitness, something that I’m a bit familiar with, having a Masters Degree in teaching physical education as well as having had my own small personal training business for 16 years “back in the day.” For WQW (Writer’s Quotes Wednesday) the challenge is to marry quotes with the topic.

As much as I hate like fury to use this quote, because I have less than zero respect for the company and its production practices, the most cogent quote for fitness might be “Just do it.” But what is the “it” part of that? Hint: it’s not using slave labor to help you get into shape. In case you were were thinking of third-party fitness. It’s not like carbon credits. You have to actually do the work yourself. 🙂

Just lying around won’t get you in shape.

That being said, getting fit is a process, one that starts where you are now and doesn’t require working our for hours a day or buying special bars and powders from online stores. It really is simple to get start and see some success which then encourages you to keep going to the next level.

“When you get stronger everything in the world gets easier. Change yourself and you’ve changed everything.”
― Hunter Post

I’m not asking you to get this intense, but you do have to move!

My introductory post on fitness back in 2012 is “Move it to Lose It”. The “lose it” part doesn’t apply only to losing weight. Even if your weight is just fine, you might need to tighten up, change your shape, get stronger, etc. Here’s a quote from the post: “I want you to take away one simple idea from this post.  To paraphrase…just do something…anything more than what you’re already doing and if you want to gild the lily, eat less (if you’re overweight), and better (no matter what your shape.)” You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to start getting into better shape.

“Weight loss doesn’t begin in the gym with a dumb bell; it starts in your head with a decision.”
― Toni Sorenson, The Great Brain Cleanse

Many people, women in particular, often lack upper body strength, which is essential for everyday living. Fitness Friday: weight-less fitness–the pushup walks you through the pushup as a way to help improve that. While it won’t improve every part of your upper body, it’s a good, all-round exercise. From the post, again quoting myself: “OK, I admit the “weight-less fitness” is a teaser.  You can’t improve your strength without using  weight/s.  But you can improve it without buying weights, at least to some extent.  Let me tell you how.”

As we all age, balance can become a critical issue. Although being mentally unbalanced is dangerous, this post shares easy ways to work on improving your physical balance: Fitness Friday–balancing act. Quote? You bet: “When you talk or hear about fitness, aerobic fitness or strength is usually the topic.  Flexibility is the poor relative nobody talks much about.  But balance is a part of fitness both very important and simple to improve.  As you age, balance becomes more and more important, as a fall can cause all sorts of long-lasting damage.  Good balance is also vital in sports or any physical fitness activity you engage in, whether it’s rollerblading, dancing, going up and down stairs, cleaning or just walking.”

Exercising with friends or family makes it all much better.

I’m pretty sure we all know that too much sitting is bad for you. But at the end of a long day, most of us feel like sitting down and watching something, whether rugby or cycling like my husband and I or something else. Friday Fitness-get in shape while watching TV will hopefully motivate you to redeem that time by getting in better shape. “I can see the skepticism on your face from here, so don’t think you’re getting away with it just because you’re hiding behind your computer, laptop, tablet or phone! Some of you are wondering if you’ll also get a set of Ginsu knives free when you send for my $19.95 program (free shipping and handling, today only). And some of you, who shall remain nameless, are simply scoffing. Get in shape while watching TV? If it were that easy, everyone would be fit. But…“ Yes, there is a “but” (or maybe a “butt”). However, you’ll have to go there to find out what comes next. Since I wrote this post, I’ve gotten a mini-trampoline that will work well instead of the suggestion in the post. 🙂

Shape up identifies the three types of physical fitness in case you want to refresh your memory or find out what they are. It’s short, to-the-point and has a bit of humor as well. One thing I want to add for you women is something I shared with my personal training clients, about 3/4 of whom were women. Although women tend to say they want to lose weight, what they really want is to have a better shape and look better. When you start working out, especially if you use weights, your shape will change and maybe your weight as well, but even if your weight doesn’t change dramatically, you’ll look and feel much better and be healthier. What’s not to like?

Finally, Losing my balance talks about balance in life, not just physical balance. “

Balance in life is a very different matter. When I grew up, balance consisted of getting chores and homework done while leaving enough time to run around outside playing with friends until Mom called us home to eat. It seems to me that we spent most of the summer outdoors and when we were lucky, we visited my grandparents on the farm or went on our annual vacation to some part of the US. Since we didn’t get a television until I was away at high school, TV wasn’t a distraction for us, but a rare treat in the evenings at the farm or at a friend’s. Books were the main indoor contestant for my attention.

Now life is quite different. The tentacles of the online world stretch everywhere, invading every aspect of our lives.”

That’s it for today. I hope one or more of these posts helps motivate you to start getting fit or getting more fit. Questions? Feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. The important things are that you 1) get started, 2) realize you don’t have to do or buy anything special or expensive to get into shape although perhaps later you’ll want to get some weights, a mini-trampoline, or whatever, and 3) getting fit will improve your quality of life immeasurably, even if all you do is amaze people with the ability to carry a heavy box or open one of those lids made to frustrate even the strongest adult. You can do this!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unlikely in Sedona

The red rocks of Sedona, Arizona are justifiably famous as one of the most beautiful places in the Southwest.  In addition to the beauty, many people go to Sedona to search for inner balance.  It’s unlikely, though, that you’ll see many coming out as balanced as our younger daughter in this shot.  I don’t know about you, but it’s also unlikely, no, let’s make that impossible, that I would ever be doing this!

Wordless Wednesday…balancing act in Sedona

Shape up!

At the start of a new year and after several holidays in a row, a young man’s (or most likely, woman’s) fancy turns not toward love, but towards losing weight and getting in shape.  New Year’s resolutions often include one or both of these goals, goals that often fall by the wayside after either never starting or never finishing.

I want to encourage you to make this the year you DO get in shape.  You don’t need to become a triathlete or power lifter.  Start simply and build on your success.  One building block of getting into shape is, of course, eating healthily and in moderation.  People make many different choices about what sort of eating plan to use.  But getting into shape is less daunting than trying to decide how you want to eat.

Before I started participating in the Weekly Photo Challenge, I did a few Fitness Friday posts.  I’m going to share the links with you and guarantee that if you follow the advice, your health and fitness will improve without any huge financial investment and without any special programs.  Just so you know, my background is in PE and I ran my own personal training business for 16 years.  Feel better?  🙂

Losing my balance

I’ve been thinking about balance a lot lately. Two years ago to the day as I write this post, I wrote a Friday Fitness post about improving your physical balance, something that, although important throughout life, becomes more important as you grow older. The good news is that it isn’t difficult to improve your physical balance at all and can very easily be done while doing something else, such as watching TV or brushing your teeth.

Balance in life is a very different matter. When I grew up, balance consisted of getting chores and homework done while leaving enough time to run around outside playing with friends until Mom called us home to eat. It seems to me that we spent most of the summer outdoors and when we were lucky, we visited my grandparents on the farm or went on our annual vacation to some part of the US. Since we didn’t get a television until I was away at high school, TV wasn’t a distraction for us, but a rare treat in the evenings at the farm or at a friend’s. Books were the main indoor contestant for my attention.

Now life is quite different. The tentacles of the online world stretch everywhere, invading every aspect of our lives. Although my parents don’t have a computer, they’re in a tiny minority and life is quickly becoming almost impossible to navigate without at least going to the library to use the computer occasionally. Banks and financial institutions want to send everything via email, ordering is much easier (and sometime must be done) online, the instant communication that we desire takes place in the ether via our phones or laptops.

But the most insidious thing is that…it’s so easy.  And we allow ourselves to feel that it’s also necessary.

Most of us, (yes, even my husband and I) have smartphones, so we can be and are tempted to be online at all times. The meme of a family “watching” TV together while all on their devices isn’t funny; it’s all too real. People meet for lunch, supposedly to talk, while next to their water glasses are their phones, receiving as much attention or more than their lunch companions. There are more things that “need” updating than I even use or know about: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and ?? Your life—lived online, live, as it happens, if you choose.  And you can keep up with other people just as easily

And then there are blogs…and with blogs there are daily writing challenges, photo challenges, and all sorts of other interesting and useful (or not) things to read and participate in.

Where does real life fit in?

I’ve been asking myself that lately. I love blogging. I love reading other people’s blogs. I love the photo challenges, the writing challenges, the relationships, being able to talk with people all over the world. But I’m beginning to feel as though I’m drowning in email, posts, reading and commenting on stories, viewing photos, and online time in general, even though I love doing all those things.   I have to ask the questions.

 

• How is my time best spent?
• Am I ignoring the real for the online?
• As a writer, is my time better spent reading…or writing? Where’s the balance?
• If I had another hour or two each day to use, what could I be accomplishing?
• And there are the more mundane things such as does the yard need work, the house need  cleaning, the boxes in the basement need organizing (and that I included that means that it does, doesn’t it), and so forth.

What are the answers? I have to decide where to cut back, what’s important, what I want to do and how often I want to do it.   Last week, after dropping my husband off at work, I went for a long walk in a nearby park, away from people and the trappings of the suburbs. It was incredible how relaxed I felt, even though I had my phone for the photos that constantly beg to be taken. I felt free and balanced. That’s a pretty big hint.

I feel the need to wrest back control of my life from Online and give it back to me. That’s going to involve making decisions. But for me, it’s time

Fitness Friday–balancing act

It’s always important to be well-balanced but never more than as you grow older.