Tag: exercise

Shoulders as Earrings

Recently I wrote that I keep a list of daily activities that I have decided are “must dos” for me to feel right in my world. I take into deep consideration as to what I add, and what I subtract from my list of daily essential activities. Below is something that I recently added to my “daily essentials.” If you are like me, and like so many others, you carry the bulk of your stress in your neck and in your shoulders. The following exercises were recommended to me by a medical professional. This video is short, easy to do, and invigorating. Give it a try.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Grumpy Pants

So, I’m not in my happy place. I’ve got my grumpy pants on today. I’ve been described as very easy going, as long as things are going my way. Then, when things get a little rocky, “easy going”, for me, gets tossed right out the window. I’m grumpy because my blood results showed that my COVID antibody test was negative and my cholesterol is a little high. So, that just means that I am headed back to hyper-vigilance in not only my social distancing practices, but also in my dietary habits.

Speaking of pants, I read that workout clothes/active wear apparel sales are surging during this pandemic. Clothing companies everywhere are giving Lululemon a run for their money. That news just adds another patch of grouchiness, to my grumpy pants. I have a closet full of lovely clothes and fabulous shoes and gorgeous handbags and “eye-candy” accessories, that are not really stay-at-home conducive. I don’t own a whole lot of workout clothes. In fact, I own hardly any clothes that fit into that category. I feel dishonest wearing “active wear.” When you are wearing active wear, the assumption is that you are on the verge of working out. Active wear suggests that you just ran into the grocery store for some quinoa and plain almonds, before heading to your daily spin/tai chi/marathon training/fitness boot camp. I’m rarely on the verge of working out. In fact, I’m never on the verge of working out. I do walk daily. I walk daily for several miles and that’s it. Walking is the only exercise which I have consistently done my entire life, and I don’t require any specific uniform to do it. I have been known to walk in a dress and heels, for miles.

So, my little blood test results were my mid-summer’s wake-up call. No more relaxing for me. In fact, I might need to peruse the internet for some workout clothes. I might need to step into reality, that today’s social protocols and my current age range’s vulnerabilities, call for a different uniform that I’m used to wearing. If I want to stay clear of the coronavirus, I’ll need a healthy body with a pristine immune system, to ward it off. Maybe it would be nice to actually feel comfortable, while walking my dogs for miles in my neighborhood tonight. Who knows? But until I make any purchases, my rhinestone flip-flops will have to suffice as my walking shoes. They are a key part of the stubborn side of my persona, and they match my grumpy pants, perfectly!

I’m A Sloth

There’s a dead sloth lying in my pool area. (Either that or he is sunbathing) My dogs are brutal to their toys. I’m kind of feeling like their sloth toy right now. As you can see, I’m a little late with my blog post today. The taskmaster in me said, “Lady, you are not allowed to open up your blog page until you do those damn planks and sit-ups! And I mean it! Don’t you test me!” So the rebellious child in me, smiled sweetly and then meandered around and did everything else she could think of instead of exercises – tried on a new lipstick, looked for a replacement door latch on Amazon, sent funny, snarky texts to friends and relatives, and then, she even started doing not such fun things, such as bringing in the garbage cans, doing dishes, picking up soggy, germ-y dog toys (hence the picture) and even picking up dog do, to boot.

Why do I find it so hard to get back to my groove, after a trip?? It’s not like I was gone for a three week safari, six time zones away. It was just a long weekend away, in the same time zone. It was a long weekend of eating and drinking whatever I wanted (on a pretty much constant basis) without one mere glimmer of a thought about doing planks and sit-ups. It was just a four day hiatus from healthy living, and yet, trying to get back to my healthy norm has been nothing short of torturous.

My youngest son texted this morning that he has started doing a “prison workout.” I texted him back, asking him “WHY?!?” and meaning the question, at so many different levels. My son explained that one, he is not actually in prison (phew), or even preparing for prison (sigh of relief). He explained that the prison workout just works with your own body weight. Hmmmm. No wonder why I didn’t want to get back to my planks (at so many different levels). I had definitely added a few more pounds of weight to the workout, after the weekend that I just enjoyed and I just don’t feel ready for more weight to work with, in my current exercise regime. It’s the ultimate Catch-22.

Here’s the fortune for the day – “When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage. When a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man. – Zen saying

Day One of 21

So regular readers and subscribers, you probably noticed that my daily blog post came out a little later than usual during the holiday season. That was due to pure gluttony, laziness and indulgence, on my part. I did a lot of sleeping in. I love my sleep! Today, I am late because I am trying to make a new routine, my regular daily habit. They say that you can make a habit out of anything that you do for 21 days straight, so that is my goal. I figure if I write it here, I will feel more accountable to myself and to you. If you get an early morning post from me, call me out on it.

Some of my most favorites things to do are writing, reading, perusing the internet for good articles and good things to buy. So, most of last year, after I dropped my daughter off at school, I ran right to my computer and turned it on and then all of the sudden 1:30 pm rolled around. That is when I got into panic mode, picking my lovely daughter up from school in the same state that I took her to school – bedhead, smeared mascara and yesterday’s clothes. Fashion is, truthfully, a big favorite of mine, but I found myself getting ready for the day, around 2:30 pm, every single day and only getting my fashion fix for a few hours of the day. Now fashion is something that I actually like playing around with – laundry and exercise, not so much. So if my fashion fun got put on to the back burner, I am going to be honest here and say that many times, other things such as laundry and exercise, got put off entirely and indefinitely. That is not a healthy way to live. It causes me a lot of undue stress and anxiety. Therefore, I’ve decided I will reward myself with my fun with writing, and reading, and perusing the on-line shops and horoscopes, only after I exercise, shower, pull something out of the freezer to defrost for dinner, take my vitamins and put a load of laundry into the washer. My writing and sharing with you has become my great reward for being a healthier participant in the orderliness in my life and that of my family’s lives. I am doing great so far. I’m proud of myself. Of course, this is only Day One.

On an aside, I do my exercises to SNL videos. Before allowing me to watch my chosen SNL skit this morning, while I attempted to do some decent planks (“attempt” being the key word here), YouTube asked me to fill out a survey. They wanted to know what age bracket I was in. For the first time in my life, I was in the oldest bracket, the last choice, that choice being “D. Aged 45+”. That, quite honestly, threw me into a mini-spiral of swirling emotion. I felt annoyed and indignant. The survey said that this will help YouTube to pick out the “appropriately interesting” clips for me to watch. Huh?!? I’ll pick out what I want to watch, thank you very much. I am pretty sure that I have a quirkier, more open-minded, kinda “out there” sense of humor than a lot of people in my age bracket, which now includes me and my friend’s 95 year-old grandmother.

Enough ranting – I also told myself that 2020 was going to be out about positivity. Here is today’s fortune (sorry I forgot about yesterday’s fortune. This starting a new habit thing is not as easy as one would think):

“Savor the days.” – Ing