Day 10: 31 Days of Exercise

• AM: 15 minutes stairs, jumping jacks, lunges, walking in place, whatever. Get the blood moving. Sigh. It's almost 1 in the afternoon. I think I'm going to call this one a Fail. I could've sworn it was 11:30 five minutes ago. Maybe my computer's clock is off? Note to self: Exercise First Thing In The Morning!
• Noon: 30 minutes out in the cold... weeding... Done. Sorta. Switched to 30 minutes doing stairs, jumping jacks, walking in place, lunges, dancing about. I'm going to wait for it to get above freezing before I do the weeding. Call me fussy.
• PM: 30 minutes aerobic housecleaning walking -done

Day 9: 31 Days of Exercise

• AM: 15 minutes stairs, jumping jacks, lunges, walking in place, whatever. Get the blood moving. -Done! It might be a frozen wonderland outside, but I'm toasty indoors, thanks to the exercise.
• Noon: 30 minutes exercise DVD -done
• PM: 30 minutes aerobic walk/jog/dance housecleaning - Finally done!

Day 8: 31 Days of Exercise

• AM: 15 minutes stairs, jumping jacks, lunges, walking in place, whatever. Get the blood moving. -done
• Noon: 30 minutes exercise DVD -done
• PM: 30 minutes aerobic housecleaning -done!

Day 7: 31 Days of Exercise

• AM: 15 minutes stairs, jumping jacks, lunges, walking in place, whatever. Get the blood moving. - done
• Noon: 30 minutes exercise DVD - SEMIdone. Managed 15 before got caught up in work again.
• PM: 30 minutes aerobic housecleaning - Fail. By the end of the day, the allergies were too fierce. I feel like a bum, but sometimes the body speaks louder than the conscience.

Day 6: 31 Days of Exercise

• AM: 15 minutes stepping, jumping jacks, lunges - done
• Noon: 30 minutes exercise DVD - done. Sorta. Dragging today.
• PM: 30 aerobic housecleaning -done. Well, kinda. Not very aerobic. But I kept moving for 30 minutes. A small victory all the same.

Day 5: 31 Days of Exercise

• AM: 15 minutes stepping, jumping jacks, lunges - done
• Noon: 30 minutes exercise DVD -done
• PM: 30 aerobic housecleaning - more than done. Did 60 minutes walking instead.

Day 4: 31 Days of Exercise

I am getting Christmas cards. Some people are far more organized than I am. But do they exercise every day for a month? Well... probably some of them. But not all. I mean, how much exercise can you get writing a card?

• AM: 15 minutes walking - done
• Noon: 30 minutes walking -Fail. Got caught up running errands until I developed a headache.
• PM: 30 minutes walking - Fail. See above. Tomorrow = Another Day

Day 3: 31 days of exercise

It's the weekend. I don't want to do the same old thing I do all week.

• AM: 15 minutes walking -Done. Barely. I find it much harder to be productive on the weekends. This blog is helping me.
• NOON: 30 minutes walking - done. Everything is being done later than a workday.
• PM: 15 minutes walking - done. Finally.

Day 2: 31 days of exercise

Survived the 1st week back. So far, I've survived!

• AM: 15 minutes Jumping jacks, lunges, squats - done
• NOON: 30 minutes exercise DVD. A different one. Mix it up. -done
• PM: 30 minutes aerobic housecleaning -done

Day 1: 31 days of exercise

I've decided to give myself a present. A fitter body. I am going to spend part of each day, for the next 31 days, exercising.

• AM: 15 minutes Jumping jacks, lunges, squats stretches, stepping, very low impact workout -Done
• NOON: 30 minutes exercise DVD. A different one. Mix it up. -done
• PM: 30 minutes aerobic housecleaning.- done

Adios November

In honor of the last day of November, I am going to light a candle against the darkness. Symbolic stuff like that makes a difference somehow. At least, it does for me. What helps you?

• AM: 15 minutes Jumping jacks, lunges, squats - I moved around for 15 minutes. Wasn't feeling the joy, but I suppose it had some positive effect.
• NOON: 30 minutes exercise DVD. A different one. Mix it up. - Done.
• PM: 30 minutes yoga - I think I'm going to stop trying to do yoga until I've re-org'd my space a little more. Did 30 minutes aerobic housecleaning, i.e. I picked things up and put them away while dancing to music. Drew the curtains first, thankfully, but I think the cat has been traumatized for life. Bad human.

Watch this space

I'm going to try to set up a pattern. Get the blood moving in the morning, keep it moving at lunch, then try calming myself down in the afternoon.

• AM: 15 minutes Jumping jacks, lunges, squats. - Done. A bit late. I saw a note from an earlier day, mentioning how I kept putting off the morning's exercise until I ran out of morning. That motivated me to back away from the computer and move. Turns out climbing steps is a great way to get the blood moving!
• NOON: 30 minutes exercise DVD. I'm just going to grab one and try following the moves. It's been a while. -Semi-fail. Spent 15 minutes climbing stairs and doing jumping jacks
• PM: 30 minutes yoga - Semi-fail. Did 30 minutes yard work instead

I've had a lot on my mind lately

Trying to remember what this exercise stuff is all about.
This time of year the days get shorter and the darkness gets longer and my natural inclination is to retreat into my cave and hibernate until the light comes back. Recent political events are reinforcing that instinct. Just hide until there is light and warmth and growing things.
In other words, I haven't done any exercising.

• AM: 15 minutes exercise. Jumping jacks, squats, lunges. -Done. Not very vigorously, but done.
• NOON: 30 minutes likewise -Done. Not very vigorously, but done.
• PM: 15 minutes likewise. - Done. Took a brisk walk during the fifteen minutes of non-rain this afternoon.

There. Not deep or profound or all that exciting, but it's going to get me started again.

Hiatus

Life is interfering with exercise. I will be back. Promise.

A little seasoning

I suspect it's the changing of the seasons... the whole getting darker the morning thing... that makes it harder to keep to exercise-or-else mindset. I don't seem to do very well with transitions. Once things get back on track, I'm fine. So then, logically, the thing to do is just pretend that things are on track. Fake it until the seasons and my circadian rhythm catch up.

• AM:15 minutes dancing Fail
• Noon:30 minutes dancing Fail. Life is interfering with my plans.
• PM:60 minutes dancing Done. I accomplished ONE thing today. That's good enough.

Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down. Rainy Days and Fridays cancel each other out

It is a day of meh. Cold, rainy, want to curl up under a comforter and read comfort books. Don't want wave my arms around and scare the cat with my jumping jacks. Gonna do it anyway.

• AM: 15 minutes calisthenics. I'll incorporate some moves from that video, but I don't want to follow it today. Fail. I kept saying "in a few minutes, I'll get up from the desk." If you do that long enough, you run out of morning.
• Noon: 30 minutes dancing. Done! Got the blood going.
• PM: 60 minutes walking. If it's raining too hard, I'll try more dancing. Be flexible, that's the goal. In more ways than one. Well, I spent an hour heaving the elliptical around, and that thing weighs a ton. I'm inclined to count that as exercise. Ellipticals are work no matter how you look at it.

Not motivated. Exercising anyway.

SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
- John Keats, To Autumn

I like poetry as much as the next English major, but even so... "For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells" is a lousy line. (Yes, I dare to defy Keats.)

I'm not feeling any mellow fruitfulness in the air; it's cold. I want to stay in bed in the mornings and snuggle into the blankets, not be up and doing with a heart for any fate. That includes exercise.

I have not been doing well with that dratted exercise video. In part because I don't have the right cable to connect the laptop to the TV, in part because it's a bit intimidating that I can't go as fast as the instructor. I'm going to stick to trying that for 15 minutes and doing something else (jogging in place, jumping jacks, dancing) for lunch. Then a brisk walk for the afternoon exercise.

In a way, this is good. I like breaking up the exercise into different types. Well, no, that's a lie. I like exercise that I don't have to think about, hence my love affair with the elliptical. But it's better for the body if I break up the exercise into different types, so it doesn't get too used to one type of workout.

• AM: That dratted online video for 15 minutes. Done! I got to the point where she starts doing pushups while sticking one leg up in the air behind her. The woman's good.
• Noon: 30 minutes jumping jacks, jogging in place, dancing. Keep it moving, that's all. Done!
• PM: 60 minutes walking. Maybe I'll start to appreciate autumn if I'm out in it more. 30 minutes. I dallied at work. Must Try Harder!

Can I just do Friday over again?

Okay. I will try this video again. I feel intimidated that I can't keep up to her pace, but I don't know the moves yet. It is encouraging to see this very fit woman out of breath, but that's also intimidating. So long as I get the time in, that counts.

• AM:15 minutes video Done
• Noon:32 minutes video Fail
• PM:60 minutes raking those leaves, since the dang trees seemed to have shed a whole new lot of leaves onto the lawn. Fail. My lawn has disappeared beneath leaves.

Winging it

Okay. No elliptical, not much room to flail my arms around, but still the need to exercise. I am going to try this video. I like the way everything she does is restricted to the area around the mat on the floor.

• AM:15 minutes video Done! I didn't do everything quite as peppily as the instructor, but this does provide a workout.
• Noon:32 minutes video Fail. Put it off, due to work, which is dumb but I did it.
• PM:60 minutes raking those leaves, since the dang trees seemed to have shed a whole new lot of leaves onto the lawn. Semi-fail. Took a long walk instead. The leaves are still there, waiting for me. Lurking.

You had ONE job...

I seem to have broken the elliptical. The wheel is making groaning noises and the pedals are very hard to move.
I am far from gruntled. It had one job...
Now I'm going to have to concentrate on clearing the exercise space so I can work out with some exercise DVDs while I wait for the elliptical to be repaired. As soon as I find where I put the warranty information. I'm sure it is around... somewhere...

• AM: 15 minutes of running in place, jumping jacks, anything to get the blood moving. Done. I haven't done jumping jacks since middle school, but they still do work on the body. Who knew.
• Noon: 30 minutes yardwork. If I do it vigorously enough, surely all that bending over and hauling branches around will count for something. Done!
• PM:60 minutes raking the leaves. Thankfully, my kind trees have all decided to start shedding this week, so it really could take me an hour to get all this done. Done