HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY!

Well everyone – here we are almost to a new year and time to get really serious.  Are you going to make it through the holidays and still feel proud of yourself for all your accomplishments this year?  Of course you are!  Every day is a new day and all we can do each day is the best we can do, right?  So whether you are at your goal or working on getting to your goal (whatever that goal should be) be proud!  Do your best each day!  Make good choices!  Go to bed at night and, if you did go off track a little, tell yourself tomorrow is a new day.  

My New Year is going to be great.  I am going to start my diet classes in association with 123Fit.  It will be great doing what I know I do best and that’s helping people reach their goals.  We’ll be having classes two or three times a week at the club (to start) and I’m spending the rest of this year getting everything in order to be ready to go.  I’ll also be helping train the walking group for the Arizona Distance Classic half marathon in March.  

That said I won’t be writing in my blog for a couple of weeks but will start again shortly.  Have a great holiday!!!  I know I will

EXERCISE: NO TIME – NO PROBLEM!

I hear this ALL the time, “I just don’t have any time to exercise”.  I’m going to tell you right now that you can get exercise in your day without taking ANY time to do it – just work it right in.  As far as you not having the time, I don’t believe you.  I think you just aren’t prioritizing exercise into your day but, that said, let’s work it in!

1. When you wake up in the morning give a good all over body stretch before getting out of bed.  What a great way to wake up your body. 
2.  Now get in there and brush your teeth and while doing that do some toe lifts – up, down, up, down – now point your toes out and continue – now point your toes in and continue.  They say we should brush our teeth for about two minutes so you should be able to do 30 lifts each way!
3. Making a phone call this morning?  Walk and talk!  That’s your rule from now on – never talk on the phone without walking around.  If you’re at work or have a phone with a cord (do they still make those?) walk in place (or do more toe lifts for those beautiful, strong calves and thighs).
4. When you get to work (or shopping) park AT THE FURTHEST PARKING SPOT and walk to the store/office. 
5.  Make it a rule to walk the aisles of a store BEFORE you start shopping, just up and down the entire store.  Everyone will think you’re looking for something.  Do this at the grocery store, mall store, everywhere!
6. Take the stairs!  If you work in a building of over one floor always use the bathroom on another floor but do the stairs to get there.  In a mall with an escalator – forget it!  There are stairs to take to you another floor – use them.
7. You have time to watch any T.V.?  Sure you do!  Walk in place again or do hand weights or, if you have a stepper, go up and down on it for 15 or 20 minutes.  Jump rope is another good exercise while watching t.v.
8. Wear a pedometer and find excuses during the day to take extra steps – 10,000 steps a day is the recommended amount!
9. At the grocery store, gas station, any place  - tighten those buns and stomach.  Those isometric exercise do work to help firm!
10. Taking the kids to the park?  Run with them!  Play ball with them!  Have fun!

The trouble we have as adults is we think of exercise as WORK, it’s hard, we have to sweat, it hurts!  What do you think changed for us from the time we were kids and couldn’t wait to ride our bike, jump rope, run around and play tag, skip, swing, play ball and all those other FUN things!!!!????  Nothing except our mind set.  Let’s go back to being kids – it may even actually make us younger!!

EXERCISE – Love it or Hate it – Just DO IT!

Thanksgiving 2008 is finally over!  So, how did you do?  It was the “official” start of the holiday season but, let’s face it, when don’t we have an excuse for over-eating?  In January we have NEW YEAR’S DAY and football!  In February we have Valentine’s Day.  In March we have St. Patrick’s Day with all that good corn beef and beer, in April is Easter and tax day (have to eat yourself out of the gloom). In May is Mother’s Day (you either are or have one), in June is Father’s Day, July, of course, is the 4th of July cook outs.  August is a pass since I couldn’t come up with any excuses but September is Labor Day, October Halloween and back to November/December excuses!!  Throw in your birthday and other celebrations and YOU’LL ALWAYS HAVE EXCUSES so we better have solutions to go along with it – and the only solution to eating too much is to exercise those extra calories off!

See, I’m not even going to presume that on ALL those holidays and celebrations you’re going to watch what you eat because I’ve learned over the many, many (okay, and even MORE many) years that I can compensate for eating too much by exercising off those extra calories.  Add to that all the health benefits of exercising such as longevity, new brain cell development, cognitive and mental function enhancement, prevention of cardiovascular disease, cholesterol lowering effect, prevention and control of type 2 diabetes, lowering of blood pressure, improved function of the immune system, lowers resting heart rate, etc., etc., etc. and you should stop reading this and go exercise!!

Are you still here?  You know that I’m a marathon walker, actually half marathons now, so a lot of my exercise is walking.  Mal and I try to walk every day (I know I preach don’t TRY, DO!) but sometimes I, like you, use excuses.  Now when the weather is so perfect in Arizona we’re walking between 2 and 7 miles a day.  The 2 miles is on the days we go to 123Fit (for those of you who don’t know, it’s new here in Arizona and is a 30 minute work-out similar to Curves but for men and women) which is one mile from our house – walk there, exercise, walk home.  We also have a park a block from our house and we usually walk around that in the evening.  Sometimes we walk to the drug store (1 mile from our house) or Starbucks (about 2 1/2 miles away).  Do you get where I’m going with this – WALK WHEN YOU CAN!!

It used to be that 30 minutes a day was the recommended exercise but they’ve increased that to one hour for the best benefit.  So use 30 minutes as your minimum!  You say you don’t have time?  Come on – if I told you I’d give you $50 each time you did 30 minutes of exercise, would you accept?  I mean it – would you accept?  If you’re being honest with yourself you just said YES which means you could find the time if it was worth it to you.  Is it?  Go back and read the second paragraph if you have any doubts and then answer honestly again.  By the way, the 30 – 60 minutes doesn’t have to be all at one time.  Fifteen minutes four times a day would be your sixty minutes (or 10 minutes 3 times a day for the minimum 30 minutes).

We’re now determined you have the time and it’s worth it to you – where do you go from here.  Find something to do that’s FUN!!  I LOVE walking as long as I have my Ipod on with my favorite music.  I get bored without it so, guess what, for every long walk I take I have my Ipod on.  FUN!  Do you like swimming, biking, dancing, jumping up and down?  All we’re talking about is getting your body moving.  Find a friend to exercise with.  It’s amazing that when we’re too tired to exercise if we know a friend is waiting for us we’ll find the energy.  It’s always better, if possible, to find someone a little more energetic than you, someone you have to keep up with and who will encourage you.  

Be consistent!  Set yourself a goal to exercise every day for 21 days – the amount of time experts say it takes to develop a habit.  Write down each day what you did and for how long.  Make yourself a graph in minutes (or miles if you’re walking) and a goal and chart it!  I’m very visual and I love to do that.

  My first fitness goal 10 or so years ago was completing a marathon.  I was sort of challenged to do it and I figured “why not?”  Of course I could have thought, “I’m 55 years old, that’s why not” but I chose to say “I can do it!”.  I’m not a runner, I’m a walker so decided to do it like that.  My first was in Washington D.C., the Marine Corps Marathon.  There were only about 15 walkers and they gave us an early start.  It was just the people I trained with in St. Louis and a couple more walkers. I figured I’d do it in around 7 hours – that’s 26.2 miles of walking remember.  Everyone I trained with said I’d do it in 6 1/2 hours – I finished in 6 hours 8 minutes!!  Can you imagine the pride and self-confidence I received for that?  Well, you could imagine it if you’d do it!!  A lot of you reading this already have – with me!  (ADD A COMMENT AFTER THIS ARTICLE TO TELL OTHERS WHAT IT WAS LIKE!).  For those of you here in Tucson I’m challenging you to do the Arizona Distance Classic half marathon on March 29th!  It is, by far, the most beautiful marathon I’ve ever done and I’ve done them all over the country from Virginia to California and many places in between. Check out www.arizonadistanceclassic.com.  A commitment will give you the incentive to keep up your exercise!

I’ll end this by saying – START SOME FORM OF EXERCISE – walk, run, bike, skip, hop, swim, dance!!  Do it to live healthier, live longer, live with more vitality!!!  LIVE!!