Exercising in the Margins.

I found many interesting observations about exercising that applies to my fitness beliefs from this article:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/find_exercise_in_lifes_margins.html

Here’s some of my thought on this:

☑️ First, reset your expectations.

I like this summary: The goal in all cases should be progress, not perfection.

☑️ 2. Have a short memory.

Forget the past & move forward.

☑️ 3. Forget sedentary days and weeks immediately.

Great new belief: Your exercise past is not your exercise future.

☑️ 4. Plan to lose one week every month.

I somehow underestimate interruptions that could happen in my life: It’s not about how you exercise in a good week, it’s about how quickly you recover from a bad one.

☑️ 5. Don’t tie exercise to weight goals.

I’ve come to understand this balance: See exercise as a constant, not an intervention to solve a problem.

☑️ 6. Set seven-day goals.

This is a new resolution & revelation for me: After seven days, set new goals for the following week. That way, you don’t overwhelm yourself with change.

☑️ 7. Orient to social and playful.

I mostly agree with this: Our minds seek play and social connection naturally.

☑️ 8. Exercise in the margins.

This is multi tasking or multi combining activities for exercising that makes sense to me.

I’ve learned some new strategies and reaffirmed other beliefs from this article.

I wonder if anyone else thought this useful and could apply some of this?

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@quick

“I have tried to get you interested in “exercising in the margins” before. Only I called it NEAT or Perpetual Motion Exercise.
Equating weight loss to exercise seems to me to make no sense. ”

Agreed. Weight loss via exercising, I’ve realized, doesn’t work unless it’s long distance running. My days of marathons have passed andhave only occasional long runs. My running friends still adhere to it, but mostly because they have not discovered alternate activities. The pounding on the legs eventually take a toll.

Speed sprints is totally different with almost the same cardio benefits, in a fraction of the time.

“I can think of nothing more stultifying than going to a gym. The first thing that happens when you walk into a gym is that your sense of smell is over whelmed with the odor of unwashed, sweaty bodies. UGH!!! Then your hearing is assaulted with weights clanging, exercise machines making their perpetual noises, other people talking loudly in order to be heard above all of the other noises.”

Your description is funny and in past days, I would look forward to that exact scenario. Maybe it’s a younger man’s memories. That’s how I connected with others through my collegiate years. I had many emotions vested in those locker rooms of wins and losses. Many friendships were made there, even with opponents.

” So I am now trying to get back in the groove of riding my bike 20 mins. daily.”

Yay. I did my solitary workout today and missed the group workouts with others that I would have that would be competitive and encouraging. Workouts give me a sense of being alive. Especially when I can exceed my own expectations.

“The social and playful aspects of exercise are certainly appealing to me…so I have been thinking about what sport I can take up that will combine mild exercise with some socialization. ”

For anyone over 40 or so, there seem to be limitations on activities that have a social component. ‘Fast for life’ goes dancing and my wife and I may start that once again. That’s it. I can’t think of another social physical activity fitting in our environment that we could do.

Oh wait.

This may fit the social activity mentioned above.

My wife wants me to pick her up at a night club as if we don’t know each other prior to that.

Now I have to search the web & learn trendy pickup lines…well, enough on that..

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On the topic of what NOT to do on a fast day:

Scientist Says New Drug Gets You Drunk Without Hangovers

http://www.statesman.com/videos/news/scientist-says-new-drug-gets-you-drunk-without/vCH4FR/

This one puzzles me.

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For years, I’ve had a fascination with robots and more recently with drones. Finally, the price of drones are coming down to an affordable diversion. They apparently get lost and damaged easily.

Recently, Amazon announced an initiative for a drone package delivery system of the future:

http://techland.time.com/2013/12/01/amazon-bezos-drones/

I’m open to the drone experience and want to explore aerial photographic possibilities.

I may have to come up with a better reason to give to my wife soon. I couldn’t come up with one yet.

It’s our future in the present.

So I practiced flying the drone in my living room and it takes some getting used to the controls.

The video recording works and I can fly it for as long as the 20 minute battery lasts.

Next, flying outdoors from the roof of my building and figuring out how to prevent it from flying off on its own.

Sure beats trying to fill in blank spaces of time on a fasting day.

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Most of us enjoy listening to music.

We all have favorite music themes for certain activities.

There are some of us that enjoy horror movies to get the blood pumping. Not me, unless there is something special about them. Certainly, not as much as I used to.

There is something about the Horror theme music that gets our pulse pumping. That’s why the best part of a horror movie is the music. Have you ever watched a thrilling movie scene without the sound? It lessens the effect dramatically.

Here’s what I’ve discovered: listening to Horror movie themed music while fasting, enhances the fasting experience.

Consider that we have fight, flight and feeding tendencies. We do not combine these activities, we can only do one at a time. So by listening to sounds that reminds us of fight or flight, then we are not concerned with eating.

I have boring periods in my days, and food brings excitement to those moments.

What if I could listen to Horror movie themes when I’m fasting? Will I eat more, less or none at all.

For me, it’s none at all. Not until my perceived, fabricated danger passes.

I can then choose the activities for my moments better.

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@mathewjohn
“You can count heartbeats for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 or count for a full minute to get your heart rate. ”

Sometimes I’ve wondered if counting a heartbeat for one second and multiply it by 60 would just be faster pulse taking.

Probably not as accurate?

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@neverendingstory

“You should see the fast days as a possibility to get some extra hours and being able to do all the stuff you usually find you have no time for, instead of seeing it as a boring time that somehow needs to be filled.”

This is a great reminder to me to use the extra time for being resourceful and creative.

It occurred to me that I can connect with others on the phone rather than in person, so that I can maintain my own fasting regimen.

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I forgot to mention that I rode the bike to our Chicago lakefront.

On the way there, I stopped to get my favorite pizza for dinner.

It’s an experience worth doing once, as I combined two favorite things that I like to do.

Now, I have it out of system.

For now.

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There are few things that are more intimidating, for many of us, than a trip to the dentist.

Having just returned from such a trip, on a day that I’m fasting, encourages me to continue my fast.

To keep that just professionally cleaned feeling, for a bit longer.

No pain, no mess, just a clean feeling in the mouth.

This experience helps to keep the resolve of better dental hygiene.

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