Don't Be Fuzzy!

I have a complaint regarding ageism in America.  And sexism too, for that matter.  The other night I was watching the only t. v. show I regularly watch: The Closer.  I really enjoy the writing and the characters on that show.  Kyra Sedgwick is absolutely lovely and you can tell by her arms that she is dedicated to working out.  She looks just great.  But I noticed the other night that they have started to fuzz her out!  There was a close-up with her and one of the other characters; his face was as clear as could be, but she was just slightly out of focus.  What's up with that?  They don't fuzz out the men.  Why can't a beautiful woman in her 40's look like she's in her 40's?  She obviously takes good care of herself, so why does she have to be wrinkle-free?  Maybe I am overly sensitive since I am in my 40's (and next year I won't be in my 40's anymore).  But I wish Kyra and all the other 40+ actresses out there would stand up and say, I won't be fuzzy anymore!  Then maybe the rest of us wouldn't keep trying to compare ourselves to the impossible standard of perfection that has been set for us. 

OK, thanks for listening.  I feel a little better.

Resolutions

Last year I didn't make a New Year's Resolution.  I really didn't make any resolutions until April, when I watched my husband complete a half-marathon and noticed, on the faces of each and every single person who crossed that finish line, a look of achievement that I decided I wanted for myself.  The really fast runners, the newbies, the ones who looked like they were about to drop...they all had the same look on their face: "I did it."  That encouraged me to start training for a half-marathon in October, which I successfully completed.

So now I have come up with a new goal, and I'm putting it out there right now so that I can't back down.  2011 is going to be the year I learn to swim.  I talked to the swimming director at the gym today and signed up for private adult swimming lessons, beginning some time after the 10th of January.  I have several reasons for wanting to attain this goal.

First of all, during the last mile of the half-marathon my knee began to bother me.  I did not stop running, of course, because I only had one mile to go.  But since then it has continued to bother me and I have not been able to run on it very long or very often.  So I need to find something else to burn big calories. 

Second, although I am still and will always be younger than Becky, I know age is going to creep up on me.  Finding something that is easier on the joints is going to be a bonus in the future.

And third, it just stinks not being able to swim.  Last year my husband and I went to St. John in the U. S. Virgin Islands for our 25th anniversary.  St. John is one of the ultimate snorkeling sites in the world.  But on our first day out, I got out in the water about up to my neck, started to panic and hyperventilate, and had to turn around and go back to the beach.  Luckily my husband is not the type to say, "Well, see ya later, I'm going to go have fun anyway."  Instead he is the type to say, "We're not having this."  He went up the beach until he found a place that would rent me fins and a life jacket (translation: water wings for weenie adults) so that I was able to snorkel with him.  And the day we came across a big group of sea turtles will always be one of my favorite memories.  But I almost missed it, due to my fear of the water.  So it is time to learn how to do this.

I will keep you posted, and in the meantime, what is your goal for 2011?  What do you need to do to achieve it?

More Holiday Fun

My sister-in-law Keri, in town for the holidays, agreed to accompany me to the gym on Christmas Eve.  Her gym at home keeps eucalyptus-scented towels in a little refrigerator and the fitness staff walks around offering them to the members.  Luckily she gave me this information before we arrived at my gym, so she was forewarned that there would be no eucalyptus-scented towels awaiting her there. 

What was awaiting us, though?  Becky had been hard at work creating yet another of her masterful holiday-themed workouts.  This one was called "Undecorate the Tree." 

Under each of the ornaments were instructions for a different exercise.  Some were serious - like five minutes of cardio with 45 seconds hard and 15 seconds recovery to each minute.  Others were just for fun - like creating some elf mischief in the gym.  Angela surprised the heck out of a young man when she changed the weights on his machine between sets.

We had so much fun with this workout that by the end of our workout, there were six people participating.  People who weren't participating with us were surely feeling jealous as we sang "Deck the Halls" and "Jingle Bell Rock" while doing walking lunges up and down the hall.  After telling Keri recently that our workouts never exceeded an hour, this one of course took an hour and a half. 

Here's the group, with our fearless leader decked out in antlers at the bottom (she wanted to be sure you could see her holiday socks).

The Two Buff Chicks hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have much joy and exercise in the coming year.

An Early Christmas Present from the Two Buff Chicks

Becky and I have a whole bunch of holiday related workouts.  Yesterday we did one of our all-time favorites.  We do it every year around Christmas.  We thought you might like to try it today or tomorrow.  Then you can feel strong and good about yourself even if you are a complete slug on Christmas Day.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• You should try to be as festive as possible during this workout.  Wear antlers, wear red and green clothing, wear bells, sing Christmas carols.  Be as obnoxiously festive as you can.
• There isn't a lot of leg work in this workout.  If you want to work your legs, change some of the exercises or add to them.  We were plenty tired without working our legs.
• We have been doing this workout for several years.  Each year it takes a little longer to wear us out.  But if this is your first year and you want to take it easy, do just some of the exercises.  Or if you're a maniac, do the whole thing twice.  Whatever works for you is what we want you to do.
• Singing the song as you work out can be quite annoying to the people around you.  Don't ask us how we know that.

 The Twelve Days of Christmas Workout

Directions:  For the first round, perform the first day exercise (5 push-ups).  For the second round, perform the second day exercise AND the first day exercise (5 stability ball crunches and 5 push-ups).  Continue in this manner until in the last round, you will perform all twelve exercises.  If you're good at math you will have quickly calculated that you will have done 60 push-ups by the end of this workout.

On the first day of Christmas we did 5 push-ups
On the second day of Christmas we did 5 stability ball crunches
On the third day of Christmas we did 5 bicep curls
On the fourth day of Christmas we did 5 triceps extensions
On the fifth day of Christmas we did 5 overhead press
On the sixth day of Christmas we did 10 jumping jacks
On the seventh day of Christmas we did 5 stability ball crunches
On the eighth day of Christmas we did 10 upright row
On the ninth day of Christmas we did 10 incline press
On the tenth day of Christmas we did 12 bent over lat raises
On the eleventh day of Christmas we did 12 triceps kickbacks
On the twelfth day of Christmas we did 15 assisted pull-ups

Just our little gift to you!  Have fun!

Penance

Here is my post-vacation confession:  I did not do one single solitary lick of exercise during my entire week in South Carolina.  I thought about it.  I thought about it a lot.  While my husband was out for his 4 or 5 mile runs, I thought about it.  On the days it warmed up and the wind stopped blowing, I thought about it.  I even thought about my usual morning crunches and push-ups.  But thinking never once led to doing.  I did not even go for a walk. 

Food-wise I did okay.  I tried to be sure to get my water, eat my fruits and veggies, and stop when I was full.  There was one particularly ugly incident involving a box of Cheez-Its that I found in my mother-in-law's kitchen, but other than that things seem to have stayed in balance.

So now it's back to the land of the ice and snow.  I have been exercising hard and faithfully since my return and continuing to try to make good choices when I eat.  As a result, I'm a little sore and a little hungry.  But that's okay.  Sometimes you need a little break and then you go back to your regular habits and life moves on.

And in the meantime, on days when I leave the gym and my fingers get so cold that I have to run the heat on full blast all the way home in order to warm up, I can always come home and look at this picture:

Or this one:

Yes, that's a dolphin.  He was totally awesome!  Even better than a box of Cheez-Its!

Zzzzzzzz

You know how they always have those lists of things you need to do to be healthy?  Well, I can make myself exercise.  I can make myself eat properly.  I can make myself take a multivitamin.  I can make myself floss.  But how the heck do you make yourself get a good night's sleep?  Either you get one or you don't.  And they keep pointing out how that is one of the most important things you can do, which only adds to my stress level when I'm trying to sleep. 

I can fall asleep.  But if I wake up, I'm up.  Last night I woke up at 1:30 a.m. and I don't really think I ever fell fully back to sleep all night.  I tried really hard to make myself do it, but myself was having none of it.  I'm nice and sleepy now, though, thanks very much!  I'm a bad napper, though, so I will just try to tough it out until bedtime.

My son says if you wake up in the night you should get up and do something productive, because that quiets your mind and makes it possible for you to go back to sleep.  Usually it's too warm in the bed and too cold out of the bed for me to consider that, but I may get desperate and try it.  I could count sheep or better yet, count the days until Becky turns 50...oh, that wouldn't take very long so scratch that.

Anyway, here's wishing you a good night's sleep and wishing myself one as well.

Winter in the South

As I mentioned yesterday, it's cold in South Carolina.  Those of you in Minnesota might not have much sympathy, but the locals here keep telling us it never gets this cold in December, so we're feeling a little chilled.  Yesterday the wind was blowing so hard you could have surfed on the whitecaps in the sound.  Not the ocean, the sound.  And you ain't seen nothin' until you've seen hunks of Spanish Moss rolling across parking lots like tumbleweeds.

But the trade off?  Here is how they decorate the harbor for Christmas.  It is so pretty and really gets you in the spirit.  (It also helps that the forecast for later this week is 60's and sunny).

People have the masts of their boats lit up with Christmas lights and the reflection off the water is just beautiful.

By the way, today's fitness effort was to look up the local YMCA on Google and try to find it.  We ended up in the middle of a fancy-schmancy subdivision where the nice lady in the guard shack told us we weren't the first ones to have been misdirected.  She thought she knew where it was but when we went where she sent us, there was nothing that resembled the YMCA except a basketball goal in an empty parking lot.  With Spanish Moss rolling by like tumbleweeds.