Surviving a triathlon – even when they said you wouldn’t

Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due.

Yesterday I participated in a sprint triathlon.

Let me just put it out there, it wasn’t pretty.

I wore a fat-kid-at-the-beach tee shirt during the swim, mostly because I didn’t have the right tri outfit. You’re just not going to find me in one of those hi-tech wet suits, I fear that once on, the darn thing would never come off.

Due to some shoulder problems, I did the breast-stroke for the entire 1/3 mile swim. I was looking throughout the previous waves and knew that I was the ONLY one doing breast-stroke but you know what? It was enough to get me around those buoys to the finish of the swim (and apparently it was enough to keep me ahead of the snapping turtles that had been spotted in the lake the day before – pretty strong incentive to swim as quickly as I possibly could)

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Final update on the One Hour or Die Exercise challenge

The month ended on a Holiday and I wasn’t able to get this final updates up so here you go –

One hour or die – exercising one hour a day as per the AMA recommendation

Just wanted to close out this challenge with the following three updates:

1. On Sunday night, due to the many, many tournament soccer games (our 4 soccer kids had a total of 10 games this weekend) Griffin and I didn’t get to the gym until late on Sunday. The gym closed at 8:00 pm and I was perversely proud when at 8:00 on the dot I was told by an attendant to stop my incessant exercising because the gym was closing.

Break out the band, yup that’s right, we closed down the gym. Who would have ever thought?

2. On Monday (Memorial Day) the gym was only open from 7 am to 2 pm. True to form Griffin and I were on the elliptical at 8:30 in the morning in order to fit the gym in along with the town parade and planned Bar-b-Que.

3. And lastly, just wanted you to know that for the last 2 months, that’s 61 days – I met my challenge and made it to the gym every single day (although not without some complaining on several of those days).

It wasn’t the easiest challenge I’ve ever undertaken but it was one of the most fulfilling. My son joined me halfway through, my clothes fit a bit better, and because of the workout summary, I now know how much exercise it takes to work off that chocolate chip cookie.

No thanks, I’ll stick with an orange.

Although my knee did get irritated by the exercise (please, sometimes I think that simply being alive irritates this knee) I found myself happy, stronger, less stressed, more toned, and contrary to the AMA’s findings weighing less than I started.

Not a bad outcome.

Will I keep exercising? Without a doubt I will but this time, I’ll be doing it because I want to and not because I have to.

One hour or die – exercising 1 hour a day as recommended by the AMA – final update

It’s been almost two months now since I started moderately exercising every day. My son Griffin (who joined me halfway through) and I have learned a few things along the way:

• It’s never the boyfriend who commits the murder – that’s too obvious
• Those water bottle flavor packs that clearly dissolve keeping people from knowing you are cheating by drinking something sweetened are the bomb
• While Griffin can work up a sweat that can bleed down to his belly button, my sweat stays as a sopping yoke around my chest stopped by my bra line. Yet one more difference between the boys and girls.

This past week I also read the book Younger Next Year for Women – Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge M.D. It was recommended to me by one of my Facebook friends. Finally, there is a document that gave me true and reasonable reasons to exercise (Basically exercise sets up “good” inflammation with then triggers repair of tissue which turns back the clock on your body.) It’s a fascinating and entertaining read that will get you up out of your seat by the end of the first few chapters.

I started exercising an hour a day because I was challenging the American Medical Association, I’ll continue because of that book.

One Hour or Die – One hour of exercise a DAY to maintain weight – End of month update

Today is the last day of the month. A month which, may I remind you has 30 days in it. 30 long days.

Which of course means that because I’ve been exercising one hour every day, I have exercised for a total of 30 hours during the month of April? And when I say I’ve exercised it doesn’t mean that I’ve casually strolled around the block. It doesn’t even mean that I got up from the couch and used the buttons on the TV instead of the remote.

What it means that is for one hour each day I have exercised so much that my kids refuse to sit next to me when I get home from the gym until I take a shower. It means that I haven’t been able to reuse yesterday’s reeking work-out clothes for fear of being stopped by Homeland Security as a bio-threat suspect.

One Hour or Die – Still at it and still alive (barely)

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that middle-aged women need to get at least an hour a day of moderate exercise if they hope to ward off the creep of extra pounds that comes with aging.

One hour.

Every day.

Every single day of the year.

It’s just not fair.

The April Experiment – One hour or Die Challenge

Have you read the latest news with regard to exercise? Now they are saying that at least an hour of moderate activity a day is needed for middle aged women at a healthy weight who aren’t dieting to keep the flab off. It used to be a manageable 20 minutes of exercise a day.

Now it’s one hour.

That’s just not fair. Don’t people realize that middle aged women are mothers? Doesn’t someone out there love their mother enough to stand up and say that the original 20 minutes was okay?

The study states that for those who are already overweight, and that’s most American women, even more exercise is called for to avoid gaining weight without eating less.