Tag: Exercise

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Signs & Wonders

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Today was the 3rd day I have been to water aerobics this week. Will wonders never cease? We have been in a celebratory mood all week, as we are so proud that we have joined the group of folks here that really do believe that exercise is good for you. Who knew? So to celebrate our good choices, of course what does it make me want to do but bake. I made chocolate chip cookies and ate 8 of them. We went for Baskin Robbins on Wednesday night to celebrate that I didn’t die from a heat stroke playing 7 holes of golf before collapsing in the golf cart and promising myself I would never get back on a golf course until after the first freeze of the season. We had company over for dinner and what is a girl suppose to do but be sure that your friends don’t go away hungry. So chicken fried steak, gravy, mashed potatoes, hot rolls and key lime pie with whipping cream was the dinner of choice.
We have been so proud of ourselves for actually going to this class in the mornings that we have been calling friends we haven’t talked to in a long time just so we can hear ourselves say, “oh us, oh not much, just got back from water aerobic class and resting up to head over to the bocce ball courts after we cool down a bit.” We sound so cool getting to say that. Our old conversation use to sound like this, “oh us, well, we just finished some eggs, bacon and toast and am trying to figure out what to have for lunch. But right now, I’m in the kitchen baking some brownies and a pie for dessert tonight.” Now at least we can say “well, after exercise class we were both famished and just had to have lots of protein to replenish what was lost exercising this morning, so we made bacon and eggs.” And….”Trudy is hoping to have time to get a pie made before heading up to the clubhouse to sign up for line dancing.” Am saving that for June I think.

Since I have talked Randy into going with me, telling him that this will surely help his balance, and is an activity other than eat, that we can do together,he has decided that it is fun and has joined me. I told him that he can go, but I like to be in the shady part of the pool. He loves the sun so we are on opposite sides which is fine with me. That way, he isn’t able to see me just standing still when the exercises get to hard for me. I tell him that I might look like I’m standing still, but I’m doing cross country skiing under the water. So this morning, I look across the pool at him and smile and he sends me a little hand signal. Some of the ladies around me saw him and ask me what he was trying to tell me. I just smiled and told them that he was trying to make a heart like you see people do on Ellen a lot. They said, “ah…that is just so sweet of him to do that.” After class as we are all getting out of the pool, a couple of the ladies told Randy how neat that was for him to be watching me and sending me a heart sign with his hands. He said, “what? oh no, that wasn’t a heart, I was trying to tell Trudy I wanted to go get a donut after class.” The ride home on the golf cart was pretty quiet. In the first place, I want the ladies to think that we go home and have a fruit shake, NOT donuts. But, anyone who really knows us, knows that we are much more likely to celebrate our “good choices to exercise” with ice cream, donuts and pizza than we are fruit shakes. That is something you will never have to wonder about. Am seriously thinking about signing up Randy for a sign language class.

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Sweets Or Swim

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

Well, after me saying I would never join an old ladies water aerobics swim class, I am now searching for a new swim suit. Over the last few months of driving by the pool in our community on the way to the donut shop in the mornings and me making fun of those sweet old ladies swishing their arms in the water as their hips swung side to side, I could not think of any excuse not to go with a friend of mine to the class. The only excuse I could think of was, “I don’t ever go anywhere without earrings or makeup” when Randy spoke up to remind me that it was just last Friday that I rode with him to the donut shop with no makeup and no earrings. He was quickly rebuked with, “yes, but I didn’t get out of the car, I let you go in for my donuts”. It was then that he also reminded me that some of the ladies he has seen in the pool were younger than me. Things began to get a little tense at this point so I gave in and went with Judy to swim class. It was better than sitting at home and listening to Mr. Smart Mouth.

Well, it has been 8 hours since surviving the first class and I can barely move. Lucky for me, my fingers don’t ache so I can search on-line for a new bathing suit. The positive outcome of this exercise stuff has given me new opportunities for getting new clothes. A few months ago, because I decided to try, after 15 years, to take another stab at golf, Randy finally gave in and took me shopping for some cute little golf outfits. It took me awhile to talk him into the idea of, “if I’m still not good at golf, I have to at least look cute while chasing the ball out of the rough” and another great line: “you wouldn’t want my rear to look big when I bend over to retrieve the ball would you?” That one worked. He agreed to take me shopping for some cute little golf shorts that have enough spandex in them to keep me standing tall and letting my golf partner be the ball retriever. So after this morning, I came home and told him that since I haven’t exercised in a little over 25-30 years, I needed to look like the other ladies in the class and have a cute little bathing suit, with matching hat and cover-up and a new beach towel. It was embarrassing using the hand me down Barbie beach towel that Jodi left here. Apparently she didn’t appreciate that Mother’s day gift from 5 years ago. When I get up 1 hour early this morning to prepare for the swim class, it was hard to decide which suit to wear; One that is 2 sizes smaller than I am now (I almost had to wear that one, as it took several attempts to get it off after seeing the fat that hung out of the top (when did all that back fat come from?) or one that has a skirt, which seems to hide more of me than I care to expose to the general public. The one with the skirt won. After 30 minutes in the pool, I discovered that those “cute little skirts” always float up to the surface and…well, ended up making me look like a fat floating little ballerina. Even a cute hat and earrings wouldn’t help that look. So here I am, headed out to the local store, Ok, I admit, I’m going to Walmart to look for a bathing suit to wear to class in the morning. That was the only place I felt might have larger women than me, trying to find the “perfect” suit.
This has given me a new lease on life. The exercise wasn’t what was fun, but all the socializing going on in the water. We laughed and talked about all the lazy ladies who were probably still in bed while we were out there, swishing our arms and hips to the movement of the water.
Tomorrow, my reward after class is going to the donut shop. I gave up wearing earrings in pubic for an hour, but I’m not giving up my donut run. I’ll just do some extra swishing at class on Thursday.

Daily Thoughts

Silver Sneakers & Seniors

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

For the past few months, I have begun to feel guilty that some extra pounds have found their way onto my person. (love that term, makes it sound not so personal, like it is happening to someone else)

Some of our kids are real exercise junkies and are always making fun of me for keeping almost as much butter, cream cheese and whipping cream in stock as Costco. As I tried to zip up my blue jeans a few days ago, I decided that maybe I should check into an exercise class that would help me get some of the new ounces that had landed on my rear. As I researched my possibilities, some friends back in California told me that I should check into this Silver Sneakers class that is available in most gyms, and it is “FREE”. Well, hot dog, my kind of exercise. It is suppose to be low impact and if it’s free, I will be able to use my money on rewarding myself for going to exercise with a Baskin-Robbins chocolate shake. So I talked Randy into going with me to Kohls to buy a cute little exercise outfit. It is my theory that if I can’t do something well, if I look cute, maybe people won’t notice that I don’t have dance talent nor am I able to keep up with instructors that lead the class in fancy footwork. That is one reason I don’t go to gyms in the first place, well, that and I don’t like to sweat. So we find the perfect outfit in pink and black and it covers my behind. Perfect. Yesterday, I am so nervous that I feel like I’m goin on a first date. I have visions of walking into a room with 30 men and women all lined up, staring at the new person (me) walking in and making me get on the front row as punishment for being the new kid on the block. I even go on FB the night before, asking fiends about what I should do: do I wear makeup and if so, how much? Do I leave my earrings on? Do I forget the eyeliner that I never leave the house without? Do I carry a water bottle so I look like I’m at least trying to be healthy? Even though I cannot remember the year that I last had a glass of water. Oh, yes, I do remember, it was in 2006 when we went to Greece and they didn’t have Dr Pepper. Anyway, I arrive 15 minutes early. I walk into the room where SS is suppose to meet and the teacher is there. So far so good. I ask her if this is a large class and she tells me that sometimes there are 3 or 4, depending on who is in the hospital or not, or has dr appointments scheduled or sometimes just OOT. I quickly realize that “ok, I’m really shouldn’t be here just to socialize.  I might be the only one here and maybe baking cookies for my new friends that I was excited to meet in class wasn’t such a great idea. But that just leaves  more cookies to snack on when I sit at home after class as I talk about all the details of why I’m sore from all the new moves that I learned. So back to the class. The teacher and I begin by placing a chair on a mat so it doesn’t slip. I keep turning around to see if someone else might show up. After 15 min, another lady shows up and waddles over to the mat and chair that the teacher has placed out for her. So now there are two.

We continue sitting in the chair doing some stretching using some 1 lb weights and some straps which have handles on them. The hour passes pretty quickly and I leave, strutting out to my car, proudly calling Randy telling him that I was the best in the class, on my first day. I just didn’t tell him that there were 2 of us and that the other lady had just had 2 hip replacements and just that morning had fallen on her kitchen floor. None of the exercise required us to leave the chair. Why I can do this at home watching Dr Phil. e On the way home, i began to think about my morning and have come to a few conclusions regarding being healthy and the importance of exercise. I get more exercise going back and forth to the fridge than I did in class. The heavy 5 lb sacks of flour and sugar that I lift and empty in my canisters are more of a workout than I got with the 1 lb weights we used.

Stirring my fudge for 15 minutes on the stove uses more arm muscles that I used yesterday. My legs get more use and stretching when I am trying to get the huge canister of chocolate chips off the top shelf in the pantry.

I don’t get sweaty since I have a fan blowing directly on me when I’m using my mixer and I can wear my earrings makeup, eye liner and jewelry, while baking.

So I ask myself, why do I need Silver Sneakers when I have a kitchen that is loaded with exercise equipment that is there any time of the day that I care to use it. I have my phone right there beside me to FaceTime any fiend I might want to talk to without hearing all about hip replacements or rearranging dr’s appointments so they could come to class.

I did however decide to wear my new exercise outfit, while baking. Because it is so tight, it makes m feel like after going to one class, I am almost back at my goal weight. So there you have it. My exercise experience and why baking is the way to go.

PS……So glad I didn’t go buy silver sneakers thinking that that was part of the acceptable outfit. But will be sure to get a silver wig if I ever go back, just to fit in!