Let’s get moving!

LIVE, laugh, learn and love

Health and fitness

Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.  ~ Edward Stanley

When I first started exercising and trying to eat right (that’s still a struggle for me—how I love my sweets…and my bread…and my cheese…and my—); anyway, back when I first became interested in fitness, my motivation was looking good. Let’s be honest, I wanted to look like the models in the magazines. I’d try really hard for a day or two and then decide that I was never going to be that thin anyway, so what did it matter? Then I’d eat a box of cookies dunked in milk or a giant bag of chips with salsa; feel guilty; and start the cycle over.

Now that I’m much more mature (no giggling), I’m less interested in striving for the ideal body shape and more interested in the long-term shape of my body. I want to be strong and flexible with good balance for as long as possible. Plus eating right and being active feels good. Okay—not necessarily in that moment when you’re running the last mile of a long run or declining that decadent chocolate cake because you had french fries at lunch, but certainly afterward.

Many so-called spiritual people, they overeat, drink too much, they smoke and don’t exercise. But they do go to church every week and pray ‘Please help my arthritis. Please help me bring up my strength, make me young again.’ ~ Jack LaLanne

Right now my fitness efforts are centered on training for the Bear Lake Half-Marathon in June. I’m following Hal Higdon’s training schedule and doing my best to fuel my body with healthy foods (which hasn’t been easy with all of our family birthday celebrations recently). If we’re friends on Facebook, you see the results of my long weekend runs and probably hear more than you want to know about my thoughts on running, what shoes I wear, the songs on my running playlist, the beautiful trail I frequent.

Looking ahead to my future retirement, I wonder what my health and fitness efforts will look like. I hope I’m still running. I’d like to do some destination halves or 10k’s. I found some fun ideas on this website.

I’d also like to hike more. Here in Utah, we are blessed to be surrounded by beautiful mountains and trails, which I need to take better advantage of (or should that be “of which I need to take better advantage”?).

On the simplest level, it will just be nice to be more flexible about when I exercise. I much prefer doing it first thing in the morning. Then you get to enjoy that “I worked out” pride all day long. But the reality of my life right now is that I have to be at work at 7:30 a.m., and it’s much more likely I’ll give my workouts the time they deserve after work.

Those are my thoughts on fitness now and in the foreseeable future. I’d love to hear yours.

What is your favorite time of day to work out?

What is your activity of choice?

Lord Percival said, “The physically fit can enjoy their vices.” What’s your favorite vice?