Exercise Is NOT a Dirty Word
Many words in the English language qualify as “dirty,” but exercise shouldn’t be one of them. The health benefits are enormous. People lose fat and gain muscle when they exercise on a regular basis. Their cholesterol lowers, their circulation improves, which decreases their risk of heart attack and stroke, and exercising can even lengthen a person’s life.
So why do many of us hate something that makes our lives better? Some people will tell you that exercise isn’t fun, that it’s hard, and that they don’t have time. Rather than spout excuses, they should find a form of exercise that is fun for them and carve the time out of their busy lives. Besides the previously mentioned health benefits, if they
don’t overdo it, they’ll find that exercise leaves them happier and more well-rested. Yes, happier.
Exercise equals endorphins. Endorphins are those lovely polypeptide compounds that we release during strenuous exercise that make us feel good and are, therefore, fun. Now, I fully admit that when it’s cold outside and the wind chill makes it feel even colder, I have to convince myself that I should exercise rather than sip some hot coffee. What convinces me? If I walk my miles, I will be rewarded with a biological treat—a sense of well-being or happiness. Thank you, endorphins. It’s much like having a couple Lindt truffles without the calories.
Exercise also guarantees a better night’s sleep. Sleep is important to our overall well-being and happiness, too. When I don’t get a good night’s sleep, I am cranky and generally no fun to be around. I tend to see everything around me in a more negative light. The days I exercise, I sleep more soundly and wake up refreshed.
The key to success with making exercise a vital part of your life is to ease into it. A couple of years ago, I started my walking regimen at fifteen to twenty minutes in my neighborhood. It didn’t require equipment other than some good running shoes (better cushioning than athletic shoes made for walking). I won’t lie to you. Those fifteen minutes weren’t easy. I was forty pounds heavier and my knees and ankles hurt. Slowly, I increased my mileage and pace, and now I walk between three and four miles five days a week. It takes an hour out of my day. I view that time as an hour for me—where I know I’m being good to myself. Yup, that’s the WNP theme for this month’s blogs.
So how do you get your endorphin fix? Do you swim, run, rollerblade? Do you dance? Do you wii? It’s all good.
Barring illnesses such as the head cold currently making her miserable (thanks to her husband who will here forth be known as Typhoid Wesley), Maureen Hardegree completes her exercise quota for the day, then writes. Her story “A Tale of Two Kitties” will be included in BelleBooks’ tentatively titled Critters of Mossy Creek, which is due in bookstores in 2009. http://www.maureenhardegree.com/
Labels: being good to yourself, exercise, Maureen Hardegree
EXERCISE FOR THE BRAIN
For me, daily exercise is more about the brain than the dress size. If I go two days without walking, biking, or moving in some form, I begin to feel sluggish and writing becomes a struggle. About two years ago I decided to make exercise a priority and I’ve never been happier.
All month on the Wet Noodle Posse we’ve been talking about staying healthy and positive. FOR ME, exercise is the key to staying happy and healthy. Exercise in ANY form rejuvenates me. I’ve been trying new things like hiking and kayaking (see picture). Exercise doesn’t have to take a lot of time either. Jog to the mailbox and back. Walk the dog. Walk the kid. Take the family kayaking or hiking for a few hours next Sunday. It’s a FUN and inexpensive way to get outdoors and see the world.
According to
Wikipedia, exercise is beneficial to the brain by:
- increasing the blood and oxygen flow to the brain
- increasing growth factors that help create new nerve cells and promote
synaptic plasticity (helps strengthen the connection of two neurons)
- increasing chemicals in the brain that help cognition (the processing
of information)
There are so many conflicting reports on how much exercise is good for you. I’m not a doctor, but I say do what feels right for you. And, of course, if you have health problems, consult a doctor first!
It’s easy to exercise every day because so many daily activities count as exercise. For instance, gardening counts! So does housecleaning or walking up and down the stairs. I spent two hours on Saturday pulling weeds and pruning. That was my exercise for the day!
What do you do to keep yourself moving? What’s your favorite exercise? Labels: exercise, Writers' Health
Rain and bicycles
In this month's Wet Noodle Posse e-zine, Theresa Ragan has an article on riding bicycles for exercise and weight loss. My husband and I often enjoy a bicycle ride through our neighborhood and surrounding areas. I also play tennis at least two times a week, and since the tennis courts are only about a mile from our house, I usually ride my bike. I also ride my bike to my Wednesday morning Bible study. I figure it gives me exercise and helps the environment, because I'm not using gas to drive my car.
The biggest problem in riding my bike to events is the sudden shower that often pops up in Florida. The other day I rode to the tennis courts, and we got in a warm-up and about six games before I big black cloud appeared on the horizon and a few bolts of lightning streaked across the sky. The lightning was definitely a signal to stop playing. I had several offers to give me a ride home, but I was sure I could travel the distance home before the rain started. I peddled faster than I normally do, and in record time, reached the traffic light that was thankfully green when I got there. As I started up the one and only hill between the tennis courts and our house, if you can even call it a hill, I felt a few raindrops, but they were few and far between. I peddled faster and made it home just as it started to pour.
When I parked my bike in the garage, I noticed that my car was gone. Then I remembered that my husband had taken my car to pick up his bike, which was in the shop for repair. I have a convertible, and he intended to put the bike in the backseat to bring it home. My only thought was surely he was smart enough not to start home with that big black cloud hanging overhead. I was home about half an hour when I heard the garage door going up. It was still pouring outside. You can imagine my horror when I opened the door and saw my husband soaked to the skin, and the top of my almost new convertible down and a bicycle sitting in the backseat. I just couldn't believe he wouldn't have pulled over and put the top up. He told me there was no place to pull over, so there was no arguing with him. We grabbed a dozen towels and began wiping the water from every inch of my car--leather seats, carpet, dash, visors, and cup holders that now held a couple of inches of water. We got hair dryers and started to blow-dry the carpet. This was not the way I had intended to spend my evening. We tripped the circuit breaker and had to plug in one of the hair dryers inside the house, rather than the garage, in order to use two at the same time. When we went to bed that night, the car was fairly dry.
The next morning I put my car in the driveway with the top sticking straight up in the air so that the sun could help dry out the car a little more. I'm just hoping down the road I don't have a car that smells like mildew.
From now on I think I'll make my husband check with me before he can use my car as a truck for hauling his stuff. He had mentioned at one time that he had considered riding the bike home from the bicycle shop. I should have let him. That would have been good exercise and saved the environment, not only the gas, but the energy it cost to wash all those towels and use those blow dryers.
Merrillee
Labels: bicycles, environment, exercise, rain
10,000 steps and counting
In this month's Wet Noodle Posse e-zine, we posed the question, "What's your favorite way to exercise?" to the Noodlers. The majority of
the answers (located at the bottom of the linked page) came back as walking, including mine. And it makes sense. Walking is probably the easiest exercise to add to your daily routine. You don't need any equipment other than a pair of good athletic shoes unless you count the purchase of a treadmill for walking indoors during cold and inclement weather. But I have to say my treadmill is one of the best purchases I've ever made. It's a piece of exercise equipment I actually use because 1) I like to walk and 2) I can do other things while walking on it. I typically read while on the treadmill, but you can also watch TV or movies or listen to music. And fellow Noodler Kiki Clark has even rigged up a platform across the front of her treadmill and cruises the Internet on her laptop while walking. Now that's talent. I might possibly make a misstep and go flying off the back of the treadmill into the wall. I can just see the look on my husband's face if he were to come home from work and find my arms and legs sticking out of the drywall.
Writers can lead a very sendetary lifestyle if we're not careful. Hours sitting in front of the computer isn't a recipe for great physical health. That's why I make the effort to go to Curves three times a week and walk every day. Last month, I started wearing a pedometer to count my steps and force myself to get in the recommended 10,000 steps a day. That means that at the end of the day, if I'm still short, I hop on the treadmill and walk and read until I reach 10,000. You might not think 10,000 is all that many steps in the course of a day, but according to
The Walking Site, which has lots of information about the 10,000 steps program and walking in general, the average sedentary person may only take between 1,000 and 3,000 steps a day.
I challenge all of you to clip on a pedometer -- I have an
inexpensive one from Sportline (TM) -- and get in 10,000 steps a day. You may need to take a few days of just normal activity to get your baseline, then work up to 10,000 steps. But every step you add will likely do good things for your body. And once you hit the 10,000 steps a day mark, don't miss a day. Exercise is like writing -- if you miss a day, it becomes easier to miss a second and then a third and so on. I'm up to 22 days and counting.
Some other sites with information about the 10,000 steps program:
http://www.10000steps.org.au/ (for the Australians among us)
http://www.shapeup.org/shape/steps.php
http://www.pbs.org/americaswalking/health/health20percentboost.html
Happy walking!
Labels: exercise, health
Many words in the English language qualify as “dirty,” but exercise shouldn’t be one of them. The health benefits are enormous. People lose fat and gain muscle when they exercise on a regular basis. Their cholesterol lowers, their circulation improves, which decreases their risk of heart attack and stroke, and exercising can even lengthen a person’s life.
don’t overdo it, they’ll find that exercise leaves them happier and more well-rested. Yes, happier.
