Exercise!!!
Okay, that evil 8 letter word!!!! 4 letter words are supposed to be bad, but 8 letters must equal extra bad. :) I have been going out and walking which I suppose is a good thing. What I am enjoying about walking is that I can just move, get some fresh air, and allow my mind to wander. I have decided to give up on focusing on exercise as if it were some foreign element I had to add to my daily routine. And I think this is a problem for a lot of people. I don't own any exercise equipment, and we really don't have the money or space for it. A nice walk at the park or at night around town from our place on Broad street to the central ave downtown area which, it being near Halloween time, is lit up like it was Christmas, because of Foy's Halloween stores. (The ghouls climbing up and down the buildings and standing on the roofs are pretty cool in the dark with certain types of lights shining on them). I admit that I am not enthused at all about what is known as "aerobic exercise". Remember all those exercise videos: Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, etc., and the "aerobic dance" craze. People still do that stuff and I used to, but now I hate it. That kind of exercise, I am not sure if it is even healthy--just a way to sell exercise videos and equipment. Then there is all the having to figure out target heart rates and taking pulses. That just seems unnatural. This type of exercise was designed for aerobic dance instructors and aging movie stars to make money. I did this stuff for years without really losing fat. Maybe it was the fact that I was still on a high carb diet, even low fat. But still, as exhausting and strenuous as it was, I did not lose weight or fat very well.
If you ever watch infomercials, each claims to have the final answer to weightloss. Yet , if you were to purchase them, you'd soon discover that they are all the same in certain ways: low fat dieting is recommended, and the workouts are typical dance aerobics, with some weight training and ab work. There is nothing different really between them. You might find one or two that has some real latin or hip hop dance moves which might be fun, but they are still the same old same old crap. I have finally given up on stuff like this. Why not really dance? I remember a Snoopy comic strip in which Snoopy is dancing, joyful dancing, and his little bubble which shows him thinking says that (paraphrased) "Dancing is the purest artform". And I think there is some truth to that, making the human body the original way to express emotions, and ideas, and to tell
a story. Mankind needed no props--just his or her own body. Later as man needed more props, he invented music and painting, etc. I cannot imagine disciplined exercise more appropriate as dancing: only now, you don't necessarily have to take ballet classes (not bad though, as I have done a long time ago), but now we have all kinds of latin dancing, ballroom dancing (very much in vogue now), not to mention the kind of freestyle and yes, "dirty dancing" so controversial because teenagers like doing it. The body is moving which is what it is meant to be doing. Learning to dance and going dancing are great entertainment and have great social value. Somewhere in there is also calorie and fat burning and fun.
Walking and running and possibly swimming, I believe, are mankinds most original forms of exercise and a good place to start, if you haven't already. Just walking is good for me because that is when I do my most creative thinking and get my best ideas. Running will be good, once I get in better shape, just as a fun challenge to see how far I can run or to set goals for myself. And
swimming. Swimming is great for building endurance without damaging your legs and knees. I like learning the technique as well. Kind of like learning a new dance step. There is that sense of accomplishment, something that you know how to do and can add to your roster of things you know. These are probably the best forms of exercise there are.
Back to the fun and skill category: roller skating, ice skating, tennis, golf, bicycing, etc. Why not take up sports and have fun. And if you must do something considered aerobic, why not roller and ice skating. You could easily make it that way--and have fun at the same time. If you are focused on the fun you are having or the challenge or learning something new, that type of exercise won't seem so "foreign" to you. Golf is fun and you really don't need a partner to play. I love tennis and would love to get out and work on those tennis skills I took 2 semesters to learn, but I really don't have a good partner to play with. A. had to learn to hit a tennis ball in pe class but I don't thing the instructor really gave them some serious lessons or helped them to learn any good skills. But that is typical at the high school level. Most colleges do offer pe courses in specialized sports and sport skills, which was something I also was lucky enought to get in high school, although it does not seem to be that way anymore.
Alright, enough. I want to learn some real dancing, work more on walking, tennis, golf, swimming, etc. rather than the old treadmill or aerobics video.
Now let me rant about fat kids. Granted, kids are eating crappy diets, but think about this: how many parents really push their kids to get outside of the house, go riding their bicycles, play baseball, etc. Most kids, I believe, are wholed up in the house playing video games or surfing the web, when they aren't watching tv. I can remember only getting to watch tv maybe an hour a day, when I was at home. And then, there had to be something specific to watch. Of course, there were no computers or video games, so my brother, niece, and I were, for the most part, forced outside into the sunshine, in the backyard. We played with toys, but most of our activity was physical--meant we were in and out of the swimming pool, climbing and swinging on the swingset (my favorite was to get going as high as possible and then jumping from the swing), turning cartwheels and doing handstands, backbends, etc. We chased each other around, and then in the middle of the late afternoon, we might go inside and watch a tv program that was geared to kids. On one of the local stations, they had "Clubhouse 22" which had kids right there on camera, puppets, a person in a dog costume: Duffy the dog, and Malcom the host. Mostly this was a backdrop of kiddie entertainment with cartoons interspersed. Other than that and maybe HeHaw on Saturdays and Shock Theatre on Sunday afternoons. that was the limit of our tv watching. (oops, I did forget Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and Captain Kangaroo in the mornings).Still our tv viewing is nothing compared to nowadays. Moms and dads who use tv to keep their kids in line and then feeding them a steady diet of fast food does not help their children. But I have to add, pe classes at school.
In elementary school, the kids might play kickball or do some tumbling. But as they get older, if the schools aren't actually teaching them specific sports skills, something is wrong. And the thing is that in too many public school districts, phys ed is not taken seriously as it should be. My daughter told me about learning "tennis" in her phys ed class: just knock around a ball, no instruction in technique, etiquette, or score keeping. Most of what was done in phys ed wasn't even worth talking about. If obesity is such a problem with children, some things have to change and phys ed classes in school are at the top of the list.
Well, gotta run for now. Maybe I will come up with some other junk to talk about later on.
If you ever watch infomercials, each claims to have the final answer to weightloss. Yet , if you were to purchase them, you'd soon discover that they are all the same in certain ways: low fat dieting is recommended, and the workouts are typical dance aerobics, with some weight training and ab work. There is nothing different really between them. You might find one or two that has some real latin or hip hop dance moves which might be fun, but they are still the same old same old crap. I have finally given up on stuff like this. Why not really dance? I remember a Snoopy comic strip in which Snoopy is dancing, joyful dancing, and his little bubble which shows him thinking says that (paraphrased) "Dancing is the purest artform". And I think there is some truth to that, making the human body the original way to express emotions, and ideas, and to tell
a story. Mankind needed no props--just his or her own body. Later as man needed more props, he invented music and painting, etc. I cannot imagine disciplined exercise more appropriate as dancing: only now, you don't necessarily have to take ballet classes (not bad though, as I have done a long time ago), but now we have all kinds of latin dancing, ballroom dancing (very much in vogue now), not to mention the kind of freestyle and yes, "dirty dancing" so controversial because teenagers like doing it. The body is moving which is what it is meant to be doing. Learning to dance and going dancing are great entertainment and have great social value. Somewhere in there is also calorie and fat burning and fun.
Walking and running and possibly swimming, I believe, are mankinds most original forms of exercise and a good place to start, if you haven't already. Just walking is good for me because that is when I do my most creative thinking and get my best ideas. Running will be good, once I get in better shape, just as a fun challenge to see how far I can run or to set goals for myself. And
swimming. Swimming is great for building endurance without damaging your legs and knees. I like learning the technique as well. Kind of like learning a new dance step. There is that sense of accomplishment, something that you know how to do and can add to your roster of things you know. These are probably the best forms of exercise there are.
Back to the fun and skill category: roller skating, ice skating, tennis, golf, bicycing, etc. Why not take up sports and have fun. And if you must do something considered aerobic, why not roller and ice skating. You could easily make it that way--and have fun at the same time. If you are focused on the fun you are having or the challenge or learning something new, that type of exercise won't seem so "foreign" to you. Golf is fun and you really don't need a partner to play. I love tennis and would love to get out and work on those tennis skills I took 2 semesters to learn, but I really don't have a good partner to play with. A. had to learn to hit a tennis ball in pe class but I don't thing the instructor really gave them some serious lessons or helped them to learn any good skills. But that is typical at the high school level. Most colleges do offer pe courses in specialized sports and sport skills, which was something I also was lucky enought to get in high school, although it does not seem to be that way anymore.
Alright, enough. I want to learn some real dancing, work more on walking, tennis, golf, swimming, etc. rather than the old treadmill or aerobics video.
Now let me rant about fat kids. Granted, kids are eating crappy diets, but think about this: how many parents really push their kids to get outside of the house, go riding their bicycles, play baseball, etc. Most kids, I believe, are wholed up in the house playing video games or surfing the web, when they aren't watching tv. I can remember only getting to watch tv maybe an hour a day, when I was at home. And then, there had to be something specific to watch. Of course, there were no computers or video games, so my brother, niece, and I were, for the most part, forced outside into the sunshine, in the backyard. We played with toys, but most of our activity was physical--meant we were in and out of the swimming pool, climbing and swinging on the swingset (my favorite was to get going as high as possible and then jumping from the swing), turning cartwheels and doing handstands, backbends, etc. We chased each other around, and then in the middle of the late afternoon, we might go inside and watch a tv program that was geared to kids. On one of the local stations, they had "Clubhouse 22" which had kids right there on camera, puppets, a person in a dog costume: Duffy the dog, and Malcom the host. Mostly this was a backdrop of kiddie entertainment with cartoons interspersed. Other than that and maybe HeHaw on Saturdays and Shock Theatre on Sunday afternoons. that was the limit of our tv watching. (oops, I did forget Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and Captain Kangaroo in the mornings).Still our tv viewing is nothing compared to nowadays. Moms and dads who use tv to keep their kids in line and then feeding them a steady diet of fast food does not help their children. But I have to add, pe classes at school.
In elementary school, the kids might play kickball or do some tumbling. But as they get older, if the schools aren't actually teaching them specific sports skills, something is wrong. And the thing is that in too many public school districts, phys ed is not taken seriously as it should be. My daughter told me about learning "tennis" in her phys ed class: just knock around a ball, no instruction in technique, etiquette, or score keeping. Most of what was done in phys ed wasn't even worth talking about. If obesity is such a problem with children, some things have to change and phys ed classes in school are at the top of the list.
Well, gotta run for now. Maybe I will come up with some other junk to talk about later on.
posted by Tracy @ 12:32 PM
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