kapachino

Category: exercise

  • Favorite Gratis Activity

    Jenna at That Wife issues a monthly food, photography, and lifestyle challenge. April’s lifestyle challenge is to participate in your favorite free activity and document it. I haven’t done one of these challenges before, but I decided this would be a good one to start with.

    Today I had absolutely nothing planned, the weather was lovely, and I decided it would be a perfect day to do one of my favorite things: ride my bike. My new year’s resolution was to enter a bike race, and in order to do that I’ve got to actually ride my bike. I haven’t been doing much of it lately because I’m busy and stuff and blah blah blah. But I rode today! My shoulders and legs will be sore tomorrow, but no pain no gain, right?

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    My view of the trail

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    Just a picture of my bike because I love it.

    So there you go. I rode my bike! Really exciting, right?

  • Fat Burning Yoga

     

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    I’ve always been an active person, but throughout my life my main form of exercise has been playing soccer. Even after I graduated from college I continued to play on adult leagues, indoor and outdoor. But the games are either late on week nights or on Sunday mornings. I can’t stay up late anymore because of work, and I won’t miss church to play soccer. So this past year has marked the first time in my life that I haven’t played, and I am in significantly worse shape now because of it.

    Even though soccer involves a LOT of running, I’m just not a runner. I tried to be for awhile, and at times I do enjoy it. But I’d rather do other forms of exercise, like bike riding or even weight lifting. But one thing I’ve discovered that I love to do is yoga.

    A friend of mine introduced me to this yoga video (back when it was on VHS) in college, and I immediately liked it. I eventually bought it for myself, years later, on DVD this time. Lately it seems that it’s the only kind of exercise I can get myself to do.

    I like it because it’s only about 40 minutes long, and I can do it no matter what the weather is like. It’s not too strenuous, but afterwards I can tell that I’ve done something. It works my entire body, and includes strength-building with stretching. It’s fun, and you get to hear Sarah Ivanhoe mispronounce the word “forward” and say things like, “the light in me salutes the light in you.” 

    I’m still not in great shape at the moment, but David and I have once again told each other that we’re going to start being healthier AND save money at the same time. Ambitious, right? Do any of you have a favorite exercise video or routine? How do you get yourself to be active?

  • On Starting To Exercise Again

    When I first got Cleo over a year ago, I was running a lot. I would take her to the park and we would run 5 miles together no problem. (Well, no problem after I purchased her a choke collar having learned the hard way that she loves to chase squirrels.) I was in pretty good shape then, and it felt good. 

    Now I look at Cleo, and there is a reason we call her our little sausage. She even has a couple of back fat rolls. And yesterday, my nurse mentor/friend Pat said to me, “I’m not saying this because you look like you’ve put a single pound on your body, but have you gained weight? I’m only asking because most newlyweds gain weight.” And later that day, two OTHER women I work with told me I look like I HAVE gained weight. Maybe it’s because I was wearing my pink scrubs for the first time in awhile, but still. Aren’t women supposed to know that we don’t say that kind of thing to each other?

    Truthfully, I’ve probably only gained 3-4 pounds since I got married. I don’t eat badly, even though I really REALLY love having chocolate after dinner. But ever since my indoor soccer team disbanded a few months ago, I haven’t been exercising. It’s thanks to my physically demanding job that I haven’t gained more, I think.

    I’m really getting the itch to be more active again. My new year’s resolution is to ride my bike and do a race at some point. I’ve decided that I don’t want to ride outside the neighborhood alone, however. My friend Sara said she’d ride with me, but I’m waiting for her to get a new bike. Until then, I’ve got to start doing something. I asked for a Wii Fit for my birthday, so maybe that will help on days I don’t want to get out of the house, but I need more than that.

    So, Methodist is sponsoring the annual Stride4Stroke 5K in March, and I signed up to be a part of our unit’s team. I’m going to run it. I used to be able to run a 5K in my sleep, but not so much anymore; I’m going to have to train.

    Which is really the point of this post, to tell you about a great website that I found to help me: www.djsteveboy.com. On it are free podcasts that you can download to listen to while you run. I chose the one called “First Day to 5K.” The podcasts have upbeat music that you listen to, and then there is a chiming sound that lets you know when you switch from walking to jogging. They are designed by a coach, and you just need to run to them 3 times a week for 9 weeks. I’ve found that running at intervals like this is really the best way to get started. It’s not too overwhelming, you feel good, and it helps you ease into running shape again.

    Cleo and I ran week one today, and although I’m not too winded, my legs are definitely tired. Poor Cleo was huffing and puffing right alongside me. Hopefully we can find time to complete the program together.

  • Thirteen Things

    1. My day in the ICU yesterday was kind of boring. Both of my patients had brain aneurysms. They were awake, alert, mobile, and for the most part independent. That means there wasn’t a whole lot for us to do for them.

    2. One of the patients was a woman from Baton Rouge, a really sweet lady, and I loved her Cajun accent. She hugged me when I said goodbye to her.

    3. The other was a nice man who would have talked to me all day long if I’d let him. Once he found out that I majored in Christian ministry for my first degree, he told me his whole life story. It was very interesting, but for the sake of time I will just say that he was the founder of this ministry.

    4. There was a job fair at my school today, where I talked to four different hospitals. I was then inspired and went ahead and applied for the graduate nursing program at all four places. The application for the one I really want, though, is a little more extensive than the others and thus I am not finished with it.

    5. Luckily I know a woman who worked at that hospital for most of her life who agreed to write me a letter of recommendation.

    6. I have decided that I am mostly interested in working in the areas of critical care and oncology.

    7. I am really proud of my indoor soccer team, because we had an awesome come-from-behind win tonight.

    8. However, I do not appreciate the fact that there were no female subs, meaning I had to play the whole game, and thus I am utterly exhausted. (It is a coed team and three girls are required to play at all times – six players on the field total.)

    9. Tomorrow I have a clinical for my community health class. I make home visits to senior citizens for the Meals on Wheels program. I don’t like it a whole lot, but it’s not too bad.

    10. My birthday is next week. I will be 26 years old. The celebration begins this Saturday and ends a week later.

    11. I am giving up sugar for Lent this year. Lent begins right in the middle of birthday week, so I am going to stuff myself with cookies, cake, ice cream, brownies, and every kind of chocolate I can get my hands on before then.

    12. I need to shower in a bad way. Sometimes showering is such a chore, like when I’m tired and just want to go to sleep. When I was younger I used to skip it if I didn’t feel like it, even if I had played a soccer game that night. I guess sleep has always been my priority.

    13. But I don’t do that anymore!

  • I Heart Weekends

    Whew. I am ex.haus.ted. It has been some week! It has been awhile since I looked forward to the weekend this much. I feel like I’ve been gone all week, driving all over the city from place to place, never home for more than 30 minutes at a time unless it’s to sleep. I have about two hours now before I have to leave again, and I am just loving it. Even though I surely have schoolwork that I need to do, I am instead going to begin working on the anniversary present I’m making for David, spend some quality time with Cleo, and maybe even get a tiny nap in. Ahh.

    I should mention that my friend and I reconciled, which took a lot of stress off me. Although I am still worried about her, at least there isn’t the tension between us that there was before, and since I see her a LOT that makes a huge difference in my life.

    Also, we were able to sell our entry for the Texas Independence Relay to another team. So even though we don’t get to run it, at least we will get our money back. I am disappointed that it didn’t work out like I wanted it to from the beginning, but we had so many team members drop out recently that I just wasn’t going to be able to put a full team together and manage it with only a month to go until the race. So this solution is really the best one given the circumstances. (Thanks, Katy, for pulling this off! I hope that we can do another race together in the future…something not quite so stressful!) I’m going to try to keep running, but for now at my leisure. It does make me feel good, and I hope to run some interesting races in the future, but maybe once I get out of school and have more time to train.

    Anyway, my point is that I’m in a lot better mood now than I was at the beginning of the week. Now it’s time to relax!