Making Exercise Routine

Hmmmm... an odd couple of days. I find myself flummoxing about with exercise. I am adding steps by doing the little things... parking at the back of the lot, stairs not elevators, etc. I even carried my groceries in to the house one bag at a time, instead of performing the usual Sherpa act of carrying all at once and almost permanently cutting of the circulation to my fingers. I have now set up a little mini home gym with a core ball, inflatable punching bag and a skipping rope (for good knee days). I also found (at Winners) 3 lb hand weights to use during my videos. I have researched aquasize classes and found a few to hit each week, perfect for after dropping the kids at school.

I now have all my ducks... I just need to get them in a row...


I could list out the many excuses/reasons I have had over the years for my delays in jumping in. However, I don't think I need to reinvent the wheel on this one... this blogger summed it up perfectly for me...

http://iamthatgirlnow.blogspot.com/2005/04/exercise-motive-impulse-and-goad.html

I will say that I have a persistent fear that I will hurt myself. Truly. I have a tricky lower back at the best of times, and in the past year my knees have occasionally protested loudly when going up and down stairs. The kicker is that I know that both problems are as a result of my weight and poor muscle tone. I know that I need to strengthen my body in order to give my body the relief it is asking for.

Time to be compassionate, but firm, with myself! Last night I had a good think, allowed my mind to wander and play out all the possible scenarios (even the nasty ones... you know, the I will hurt myself and end up incapacitated in bed until I grow to the size that requires a team of ugly firefighters (yup, I don't even get the cute ones) to come and rescue me). Low and behold, it helped. When I allowed myself to move through every thought, from the the ridiculous to the inspirational, I felt better. I reassured myself that I can apply my compassionate firmness to my exercise, listen to my body's needs, hit the forgiving water when I need to care for my knees, skip when I feel great (I loved it as a kid!), beat the snot out of my punching bag when I let the world pile up on me, and get from the library a book or video of seated core ball exercises for icky back days.

I also took a moment to appreciate the fact that I am an educated, literate woman who can get a book and learn about proper form, that I am in the incredibly fortunate position of being able to afford tools and an occasional personal training session, that I live in Canada and have access to excellent health care, etc. Having just returned from living in a developing country for the past 3 years, I am constantly struck by how much I used to take for granted.

So, having finished checking in with myself... I am left with the getting down to the nitty gritty... routines, routines, routines. My M/W/F morning routine now looks like this:

• Wake/make bed
• Shower/teeth
• Get kids up
• Make healthy breakfast
• Kids to School
• Tidy Up
• Aquasize
• Shower/Hair

Once my list is complete, I move on to the rest of my day. It's like the bottle says, "wash, rinse, repeat." It's just the way it's done. In addition to my aquasize, Tuesday night I have drumming class (GREAT upper body work out and soul affirming!), Thursday is my restin' the bones day, and Saturday and Sunday are my movin' it with the kids days... which are great because they are spontaneous fun (one day I am a 300+lb woman hurtling down the toboggan hill like a freight train out of control, the next I am tramping 5km into the woods to look for a geocache). If you need to put the fun back into exercise and you don't have kids, do some good for you and for your community... become a big brother or sister!!!

2...4...6...8...Let's Go!