Every two years I get pumped up to pump iron. Every two years I get jazzed by watching the best of the best in the stunning display of athletes at the Olympics. And it always winds up with the same old phrase running through my head, “You sit too much. You are a slug”. As the events close, I’m always determined to get stronger in the next year.
The Olympics always inspire fitness, and it isn’t the snow that gets to me, it’s the ice. Not the Curling, but ice dancing. The leaps and spins of the single skaters are feats beyond my imagination, but the precision of two people gliding their way to the gold is mesmerizing. I’m a ballroom dancer, so what did you expect? Flowing together is awesome.
Do you suppose those Curlers are the real party animals?
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and we had a rink near by. Skating together in SF was what my family did together, and I can still remember looking down at my dad as he laced my skates so tight I couldn’t wiggle my toes. I begged him to stop but it was, apparently, necessary. As a teen it’s what my best friend and I did on Friday nights. That, and cruising up and down El Camino Real until the boys noticed us. There was even a skater boyfriend who taught me simple tricks.
The day I got younger!
Snow and me have never been close. Beyond snowmen, angels and toboggan runs, I didn’t spend much time there. What sticks in my head now, though, is the day 10 years ago when I got younger. We lived on Whidbey Island and our occasional snowfall that year was deep and stayed for a week. The house was on a hill so the street was the perfect ski run. Neighborhood kids had been flying down on plastic disks for a while when suddenly, here comes grandma! Even I was surprised by my stamina as I trudged up the hill for the umpteenth time! Adrenaline is an amazing thing.
The Olympics is my incentive every two years to stay as strong as I can… for my dancing and for my health. When I read about getting older and falling and broken hips and such, I just pump a little harder. Pretty sure time only goes one way!
Dedicating a Space for Exercise Keeps You on Track.
This year I’m trying harder and started by making the exercise space in my house more enticing, “Come in my pretty. Join my fitness party!” It was as simple as getting a length of LED party lights and winding them twice around the built-in ironing board. You have to get creative when you live in a small house, so this small room triples as exercise/sewing/guest room.
This works for me because only two us live here. You don’t have to have a whole room to work with, though, the corner of a larger room will do. Designate it as your exercise space if you can by fixing it up to set it apart. It doesn’t have to match or coordinate with the rest of the room. Your home is for you and your family’s health and comfort, not those who visit.
Weeded out this week: The notion that getting older automatically has you fading into the sunset. Phooey with that!. ♣ Getting stronger is now my part-time job. ♣