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.

Go Soak Your Head! A Tale of a Reluctant Exerciser

My first experience with open water started with my mom dipping my baby toes in the ocean at four months. Then there were the intervening years at the YMCA, you know, fish, flying fish, dolphin, porpoise. I didn't consider myself a "swimmer". I loved to swim around, mermaiding in the ocean. But I never thought about swimming for exercise until last summer, when a couple of coworkers finally convinced me to give it a try. At first we swam outside with mixed results. Some days it was nice and warm. After a few laps I'd lay out on the deck and sun myself. Other days it was too chilly and I walked back to the office, grateful for that bit of exercise. Then Labor Day arrived and the pool closed for the season. What next?

My colleagues convinced me to give the local indoor pool a try. "It's only $3 bucks, no commitment." That I could go for. It seems that once I have a monthly contract I MUST stop going and agonize about my lost gym fees. This would be different. And it was.

The pool, at a local school, has adult swim during lunch. The water is deliciously warm. I splurged on a swim cap and goggles which made me feel legit. The first days in the pool I felt clumsy but that soon left me. I tend to daydream while going back and forth. I often think of a line from one of the kid's books: "shooting back and forth like a silver arrow" running like a mantra in my head. (Although I'm no silver arrow, that's for sure). A swim, followed by a hot shower, is enough to turn me to jello for the day. It's heavenly.

I used to be a walker. Then for various excuses and reasons, I stopped. Now I'm swimming and I'm going to enjoy it for as long as I can. My hope is that when the time comes to transition from one type of exercise to another, I'll recognize what's happening. Then I'll be able to reduce the time it takes to switch to something else. Maybe I'll be a walker again. Until then, it's splashy time.

Why not play like kids?

I took my daughter to a birthday party yesterday at a local gymnastics place. There was a jungle gym room next to the princess table set with hats and the cake. The kids, all around 4 or 5 years old, immediately ran to the gym room which was filled with slides, climbing ropes, balance beams and a trampoline or two. They were unstoppable. Eventually the group moved to the main floor where the instructor took them through several actvities. One included running down a runway-sized trampoline and leaping off into a giant pit of foam blocks. As my daughter struggled to free herself there was a huge smile on her face. I gave her a hand up and she said, "again Mommy!"

After cake and ice cream the kids had another run at the jungle gym room and this time I joined them. My hands itched to grab the rope and take a swing but I was too embarrassed in front of the other parents. During the ride home, with my little one sound asleep in the back seat, I wondered, "when do we stop going to the playground?" My oldest is six and we all still love to go. Why are there no jungle gyms at the gym? We have treadmills and exercycles, free weights and exercise balls. There are step classes and Pilates. Where are the adult-sized monkey bars? Where is the tunnel slide?

I thought about military styled obstacle courses and boot camps. Usually that type of training is punitive and seems to be founded on goading the attendee to complete the course at a fast pace. Why can't it be fun? I think I could get a stellar workout running around the playground for an hour, if it were my size.