Posts Tagged "exercise"

What Happens When Your Ligaments Complain | A Day Off?

My idea of exercise is a good brisk sit. Phyllis Diller. DearKidLoveMom.comDear Kid,

I’m not going to the gym today. My ligaments wanted a day off. You know how it goes. The tendons hear the ligaments have a day off and the next thing you know everyone is whining. In no time at all, only three eyelashes and my left ear were willing to work out, so I’m taking the day off.

Now you know.

It’s easy to decide to take a day off from the gym. As long as I get my little self back there tomorrow there really won’t be any consequences. One could argue that it will actually be good for me to take a day off. (Unfortunately, one would be in for a silly argument because it’s not like I train all that hard.)

There are other activities that are easy to take a break from. Like deciding not to go out to eat every weekend, or choosing not to have coffee every day (yeah, ok, that’s pretty funny), or  opting not to text during dinner. Other things have much bigger consequences. Like skipping work or deciding not to go to class because you don’t feel like it.

Pills or stairs? DearKidLoveMom.comSometimes, taking a day off is a honkin’ big mistake. Like skipping coffee when you are addicted to morning caffeine, skipping obligations can cause a pretty nasty headache.

When you don’t feel like going somewhere/doing something that you know you really have to do or get to, it can be hard to make yourself get moving. Snuggling under the covers for oh, just another 10 or 12 hours can seem like a mighty fine idea. And just once won’t hurt, right?

Except that it will. Maybe it will impact your paycheck. Maybe you’ll miss the key lecture that will make up 80% of the midterm. Maybe not being there will tarnish your reputation. Or something will happen that you could have prevented. Or something won’t happen that you could have started. There are always ripples.

And skipping a planned workout can lead to a second skipped workout. So if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I have to go grab my gym bag. My ligaments need a Strong Talking To about where we’re going after work today.

Love, Mom

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Sun Salutations and Salutations to My Son

This is what I look like in my head when I'm practicing yoga. DearKidLoveMom.comDear Kid,

I’ve started doing Salutations to the Sun (and by “started” I mean I did them Monday morning and then attempted to do them again last evening). Sun Salutations (as they are also known) are a series of yoga poses in a specific order. There are a lot of variations to Sun Salutations but they are all variations on the same theme (kind of like there are lots of variations of chocolate ice cream. Which reminds me….I wonder what’s in the freezer…).

The version I am working on is structured to go something like this.

Mountain pose—stand with your feet on the floor arms by your side. I got this. No problem.

Raised arms pose—hands come up and if you don’t have my back, you might bend backward a bit. But I do have my back (lucky me) so I reach for the sky.

Forward bend—the picture of this shows a person bent in half with her wrists on the floor and her elbows behind her knees. I settle for a gentle nod in the direction of the floor as I bend as far as I can go. Hi there floor. Maybe someday I’ll get closer.

Low Lunge—not walking lunges, just a lunge pose. I teeter. I totter. Booker backs away. In a triumph over gravity, I do not fall.

Plank pose—a push up pose without the pushing.

Locust pose—if you really want to see what this looks like, you’ll have to look it up. As far as I can figure, you put all the parts that bend (knees, toes, elbows) on the floor and everything else in the air.

Cobra pose—legs on the ground, do a sort of push up with the front half of your body. It would probably embarrass most live cobras, but as there are none in the house, I don’t worry.

Downward Facing Dog—I love this pose. Think Booker stretching before a walk. Except he keeps his head up which is Not the Way to Do It. Hands and feet on the floor, butt in the air.

Low lunge—using the other leg. Same teetering. Booker hasn’t come any closer so he seems to feel no immediate threat if I should happen to land sideways on the floor.

Back bend—gracefully return to standing and bend backward. Uh-huh.

Mountain pose—back to where we started.

There are a prescribed number of breaths you are supposed to hold each pose for. Nothing I’ve found says anything about the prescribed number of pants and grunts for each pose so I sort of made it up as I went along. Since I was by myself, no one seemed to mind.

In all honesty, I felt GREAT after I did two salutations Monday morning. I think you’re supposed to do a lot more and hold the poses a lot longer than the 5 seconds I did. But seriously I felt fabulous. I decided I would do them every morning.

Uh-huh.

Tuesday morning Life got in the way, but I don’t remember why. Wednesday morning I brought the yoga mat down to the family room thinking that trying to do the poses on the mat would be better than slipping and sliding around on the rug. Once I’d gotten that far, Life shoved in front of me. I tried yelling “No Cuts” but it didn’t have any effect.

So I thought I would do a set Wednesday after work and before Pi got home.

Let me go on record as saying that you really can’t cook ground turkey and do Sun Salutations at the same time. It is not graceful. It is not invigorating. It is not even safe. It is entertaining if you are a bystander who happens to be standing by and watching. Booker found it all highly enjoyable. Or perhaps he was just hoping some of the turkey would fall on the floor.

Tomorrow I will definitely do Sun Salutations in the morning. I hope.

Love, Mom

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8/4/13 First Things First | Who’s on First?

Laugh out loudDear Kid,

As we expected, orientation was full of firsts. First time to spend the night in the dorm, first time eating with Culinary Services (no longer called the cafeteria), first time registering for classes, meeting first friends at college.

Walking back from the evening activities with fellow Forensic Chemistry major Carley, we somehow got on the subject of Abbot and Costello — except that she had never heard of them. Being the type of people we are (thee and me), we launched into an abbreviated, impromptu, inaccurate, and entirely hilarious rendition of Who’s on First?

Being a Smart Chickie, Carley caught on quickly and the three of us Who, What, and I-Don’t-Know’d our way across campus laughing like…whatever three laughing people laugh like. It was a very fun way to end a LONG day full of information overload.

Here is the video for your viewing pleasure.

Turns out humans laugh 17 times a day on average. Most animals don’t laugh; fish almost never giggle. And while it is rumored that crocodiles smile, no one has ever seen a croc belly laugh. Scientists don’t entirely understand laughter, and much of what has been written about understanding laughter is laughably un-understandable.

What we do know (by which I mean scientists know and I was able to understand from the research) is that laughter is really good for us. Laughter reduces stress hormones. According to at least one source laughter is excellent for weight control (laughing 100 times is equal to 15 minutes on an exercise bike) but if that’s true I should weigh about 3 ounces total. There is no evidence that getting other people to laugh is a weight loss strategy which is highly unfortunate.

The other thing we know about laughter is that something has to be funny for people to laugh. As you know, I am often hilarious. Therefore, it is my considered opinion that reading Dear Kid Love Mom is good for your health, good for reducing stress, and good for remembering that we love you.

Let me be the first one to wish you, Carley, Brandon, and everyone else a great time at college. Until then, enjoy the next 19 or so days. And don’t forget to laugh.

Love, Mom

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