Dogs: A walker's best friend

Believe me, this dog is no couch potato.

Ever try to exercise with a friend? You arrange to meet at 6am for that walk, run, swim, step class. It works great until one of you gets bored (me) and blows off the other. "My kid is sick." "My husband has an early meeting." In comes Chloe.

I got Chloe in a fit of maternal instinct (I was pregnant at the time) about six years ago. I vowed I would walk her *every* day. That went fairly well for a few years but a couple of winters ago we both got cold feet. Her tootsies got sore walking on salt encrusted ice in our neighborhood. I almost had a fit when I saw her holding that hind leg up - not the knee again! But she was just cold. Subsequently we quickly got out of the habit of walking at all. I've been feeling pretty badly about that lately and decided to do something about it. Due to the recent thaw and rain the street is pretty clean. Over the weekend we managed to take two walks. Yes two! (applause). We both enjoyed it.

Chloe is so forgiving. She doesn't make me feel terrible about all the walks we missed. She might not even remember them at all! And she's smart. The morning I took her out the first time she got right up when I did, ears perked, and looked at me. "Are we really going?" She seemed to ask. There's no negotiating with a dog. She doesn't say, "it's raining, let's wait until tomorrow." In fact, I know that rain enhances the smell of smelly stuff. She likes that. Chloe is always up and ready to go. She can take a nap later. Chloe is a motivator because she's always enthusiastic, waiting by the door, ready before I am.

I'm including Chloe in my little fitness quest. I read an article that says to exercise on "most days." How often is that? That's just excuses in the making, my brain trying to do that counting thing. I'm going to ignore that and try to take my dog out more often. It benefits us both.

Breaking the ice

I haven't been on skates in about ten years or so. But I was an o.k. skater so I wasn't too worried when my oldest daughter began to hound me for ice skates. It was the kind of hounding that, if she didn't get skates for her birthday, it was going to be a very bad day. She's six.
She ended up getting the skates and a pair for her sister too, thank you Play it Again Sports. There are some terrific places to skate in Maine and we chose Falmouth Family Ice on the recommendation of a coworker. The first time we went, it was just me and the girls. I felt nervous! Would I fall and be embarrassed? Hurt myself? What if they hated it? I was wrong on almost everything.
We struggled along the wall at first, the girls falling and falling but never getting discouraged. Amazingly enough, my oldest started to get it! The ice skating coworker suggested having them stomp their feet to get used to the skates and the ice. I have to report - it worked! Getting through that first day was thrilling.
We went again yesterday, this time with the husband and three year old. That was challenging, taking the boy around. An observant spectator commented as I went past, "how does your back feel about now?" I was in agony. We took a break shortly thereafter.
My husband, hero that he is, convinced me to skate with him without the kids. I was able to keep my eye on them in the stands as we went around the rink. I was doing it! Silly as it sounds I felt a teenager again, doing the couples skate at the local rink. Very cool.
The highlight of the afternoon was heading outside with my oldest daughter to the pond for a few more minutes. She wasn't done yet! At six, second time on skates, she's skating independantly and confidently. We went around, smiling and laughing. It couldn't have been a better day.

Winter Feels Good!

Did you check out all the snow we got this weekend? It's awesome. The photo there shows a couple of terrific looking snowmen someone built in Central Park of NYC. Pretty cool! So I was poking around in the news and I read an article about schools that are buying snowshoes for kids. This is a great idea that led me to think about winter sports in general. I learned how to ski a while back and was a determined blue trail skiier. I wasn't concerned with being fast, or especially skilled. I most enjoyed being outside during the most inclement season in New England, winter.

What else could we do that would enable us to be outdoors for 6 to 8 hours at a stretch? We even packed sandwiches to stuff in our pockets in order to eat lunch slopeside. Barring bathroom breaks they were full fresh air days. So why don't I ski anymore? Life intervened and it's not feasible to get three kids on the mountain these days. Anyone check out the price of lift tickets? Yikes.

My next goal is to scale back my expectations and enjoy the snow with the kids. There are snowmen to build, and angels to make. Instead of watching from the window I'll recycle my ski pants into snowpants and start doing what they do. We'll keep trying new things like ice skating and maybe snowshoeing. And I'll keep checking out websites like Winter Feels Good to get ideas and inspiration. Snowball fight anyone?

Yes, I can fly like Superman. In the water, that is

That's not my picture, but I hope I look as snazzy as that lovely lady in the far, far distant future. Anyway, a fun thing happened to me while swimming today. I was swimming along and my brain started to think superhero thoughts as I went back and forth. I'd stop and rest a few seconds on the edge of the pool with my feet on the wall and think, "I'm Spiderman. I'm hanging out on the side of a building like Spiderman." Or, while skimming the surface of the (very deep) end I'd think, "I'm Superman, flying high in the sky." You might be wondering what I was smoking, but those thoughts led me to certain questions about exercise.

Usually when I'm exercising my mind is in SERIOUS countdown mode - "O.k. Annette, only 10 more reps, laps, minutes, lifts, etc." I have to pep talk myself almost the entire time. That's really boring. I thought about my kids and how they move, which is almost constantly. They need to be commanded to stop: don't run, come inside, stop playing, stop climbing, get out of the water. Their natural impulse is to move their bodies and somehow we lose that. Is it TV? Junk food? Team sports? Parents? I've talked about how serious adults can be while exercising. We have to distract ourselves with TV's mounted over the treadmill or get another adult to goad us into doing it. Personal training is big business because money is a great (but temporary) motivator: If I pay you to make me exercise I will do it. Because I don't know you it's o.k for me to loathe every minute of it.

In trying to figure out how to remain motivated I think I found something out: if the activity is fun, physically pleasurable and offers some other benefit (like letting my imagination run away) then maybe I'll continue to do it. Today, after 600 meters, the little voices told me to get out of the pool, I had done enough. But instead of needing the internal cheerleading squad to keep me going I just went back to Spidey and Superman, and easily swam the last 200. It was a good day.