October Challenge

Don't Snicker, but the Two Buff Chicks have a sweet trick-or-treat for you.  This is no Twix!  You might think we're Goobers, but we think you'll have Mounds of fun.  Starting tomorrow, check the blog every day to see what new trick or treat we suggest for you.  These tricks and treats are Good and Plenty!  You won't win 100 Grand, but you'll find plenty of Almond Joy in our workouts.  We're not Airheads!  We really do want you to have some fun with your fitness this month.  Think of each workout as a Payday to better fitness.  Some days you get to Take 5, but other days you have to Score.  We don't want to hear you say, "Oh Henry, I can't do it."  For one thing, our names aren't Henry.  Don't call us Nerds either.  We'll make you walk over to the Whatchamacallit machine and do 15 reps.  So don't be a Zero.  Check the blog every day. 

Another Small Change

I really like food. Like to grow food, like to shop for food, like to cook food, and most definitely like to eat food. So one of my favorite suggestions for a small change in your life is this: eat all day long! If you will eat 5 small meals instead of 3 larger meals, you get to eat more often, which is awesome! Plus you will end up eating less at each meal because you aren’t starting out quite as hungry. Eat breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner. Or as Hobbits would say: breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, and so on. Try to make each meal healthy and balanced.


When you eat only three meals per day, you can get famished in between. Then you will end up eating too fast and too much and ignoring your body as it desperately tries to signal you that you are full. Not that this would ever happen to me. No voice of experience here, no sirree.

Cleaning out the junk

It was heavy trash pick up today.  The sidewalks along my block were crowded with piles of discarded stuff.  All kinds of stuff.  Strangers to the neighborhood were cruising by with their pick ups ready to snatch up the discarded stuff.  You know, one person's trash is another person's treasure.

I almost missed heavy trash pick up because I had to be at work early and I knew I would have to get rid of the junk after my husband was gone.  You see, he didn't see the junk that filled the garage.  I did.  So, with a gleeful grin I rushed home for lunch and went straight to the overstuffed garage.  My time was limited.  I could hear the rumble of the garbage truck on the next block.  I loaded up and made several trips out to the curb.  In five short minutes I had amassed quite a collection.  I was pleased.  I was even more pleased when I looked out at the street a few minutes later and the pile had vanished.  How simple was that!

We deal with a lot of stuff in the course of a day--some of it's junk, some of it's treasure.  The trick is knowing how to eliminate (or best deal with) the junk and how to make the most of the treasure.  How nice it would be if we could just pile up all the stuff that bogged us down and have some magic truck pick it up and haul it away.  How much more we would get out of life if we could toss out the stuff that really wasn't important so that we could focus on the stuff that really mattered.

My "magic truck" is often a workout.  More times than I can count I have felt overburdened and overwhelmed, like the load I was hauling was almost more than I could bear. Often, all it took was a chance to exercise, to move around, work up a sweat, feel my muscles challenged, and the load lightened.  I'm not saying that all my problems were no more, but I felt much more confident that I could deal with them.  I was able to focus on the treasures more and not worry quite so much about the tough stuff.

Over the years exercise has been a real help in dealing with life's less than pleasant aspects, and the best part is I don't have to wait for heavy trash pick up day!

Choices

My mother and I went to Little Rock, Arkansas, this weekend. One of the things we did while we were there was to go to Little Rock Central High School. My parents both graduated from there in 1949 (but didn’t meet until college; it was a pretty big school) and my husband’s father was a member of the 101st Airborne who was sent there to enforce desegregation in 1957. Without realizing it until we arrived, we were there on the 53th anniversary of the day the Little Rock Nine were escorted into the school.


The State of Arkansas has built a museum and visitor’s center kitty-corner across the street. If you ever get a chance you should go. It doesn’t take long to go through it but it is so moving and so important to remember.

We take so much for granted. Of course I’m allowed to go to school wherever I want! Of course I’m allowed to worship however I want! Of course I can vote for whoever I want for a leader! But we should never forget what others went through before us so that we have those rights.

Those rights are the big ones. But it got me thinking about the other things we take for granted. You get one body. That’s it. You can fill it with junk food and sit it on the couch while you watch “Biggest Loser” or you can make the choice to eat right and get moving.

Once early on when I started losing weight, I came home late after a long, stressful day at work. A big wreck had slowed down my commute even more. By the time I got home I was crabby and starving. I did not want to take the time to prepare the healthful dinner I knew I should have. I wanted junk food. My husband said, “You can have whatever you want. It is up to you.” He wasn’t judging me or trying to make me feel bad. He was just stating a fact. And that has stuck with me all this time. Nobody else was going to make me eat right. Nobody else was going to make me exercise.

It is entirely up to you. What are you going to do?

10 Simple Things

It really isn't the big things that make for a good day, but rather the small things that create feelings of serenity and a sense of joy.

Here are my 10 simple things that made my yesterday a truly good day:

1. A sweaty Cycle class with a nice swim afterwards.
2. Wearing something fun.
3. Finding a bargain at the first and only garage sale I visited that day.
4. Getting a required training finished with minimal pain and many laughs.
5. Yoga in the middle of the day.
6. A truly decadent brownie.  Yum.
7. Getting to see my son coach--even though the game was HORRIBLE.
8. Kettle corn.
9. Getting a new puzzle magazine.
10. Being around people who are upbeat and find joy in life.

What would your list look like?

Exercising My Parental Rights

Nancy’s son turned 22 this week.  How did she get old enough to have a son who is 22?

He was a challenging child.  So smart and so funny…but not easy, especially as a teenager.  How did we get this boy to the age of 22 without killing him?  What saved us?  The YMCA.  We started going to the Y when he was about 14.  He was interested in gaining muscles and I was interested in losing weight.  We kept each other motivated.  On days when one of us didn’t feel like going, we could usually count on the other one to say, “Come on, please?” and we would end up working out and being glad of it.  I wouldn’t be where I am now on my path to fitness without his encouragement – there were a lot of days I wouldn’t have gone if he hadn’t made me.

For all you parents out there who are having a hard time finding a way to connect with your kids during the teenage years, this did it for us.  No matter how angry he was at me or I was at him, no matter if he was grounded or I had gotten a phone call from the school or he was just in a bad mood and “didn’t want to talk about it,” something happened when we got to the Y.  We would get that first set or two in on the bench press and some small comment or praise would break the ice and we would be talking.  It never failed. What a motivator for working out!  Keep in mind that once we left the gym for the day we were right back where we started.  But at least for that one hour he would talk to me, and that kept us connected all through those rough teenage years.

Now here we are, eight years later, and he’s no longer a challenging teen.  He has turned out to be someone who gives me a lot of joy and makes me laugh.  We still meet at the gym several times a week.  He doesn’t let me spot him anymore, because he can now lift weights that are heavier than my body weight.  That job goes to his buddies at the gym.  But I will be forever thankful that we found the YMCA when we did!

Our Little Corner of the Gym

Unintentionally, a little corner of the gym has turned into “our” corner.  We use the corner so much that people comment on it.  One day we had a new person lifting with us.  As we headed over to set up our corner, another of the gym regulars told her, “Don’t let them take you in the corner!  They took someone in there once before and they were never seen again!”

We like to use this corner because it’s out of the way.  We can set up all kinds of equipment and leave it out for our workouts without getting in anyone’s way.  We can do our push-ups without anyone having to walk around us.  It’s also a really great place to stall for a minute if we get tired – not that we would ever do that. 

Last Friday we did our “Multiple Choice Test” workout.  This workout is set up so that you can do it as a beginner, intermediate or advanced lifter.  We chose to do the advanced test, and it was harder than either of us remembered.  Several complaints were lodged during the course of the workout, including, “Was it this hard last time?”, “Seriously, do you remember this being so hard?”, and “I’m really getting tired.” 

The last thing we had to do was a one minute plank.  There is a nice sweet lady who is often there when we work out.  She sits and waits for her friend and we “allow” her to wait in our corner.  But Friday we put her to work.  We asked if she had a second hand on her watch.  She did, and she agreed to time us for one minute.  As soon as we started, we told her she had to tell us a joke to keep us entertained, because a minute is a long, long time when you’re doing a plank.   And she, this nice, sweet lady, said, “Well, I don’t think I know any jokes that are clean enough to tell!”  That was better than any joke she could have told.

If you come to our gym, be sure to look for us in the corner.  We will probably be there.