Staying Fit and Healthy is Hard to Do
Keeping fit and healthy is hard to do for most people - at least in my country. Maintaining too becomes more difficult the older one gets. When you are young you can go through periods where you are lazy and inactive, eat to excess, bloat up, and then rebound from that easily if you just make the effort. You can get your body back to where it was, or better, over and over, stretched to one extreme from the other, health and fitness wise. This is not the case once you begin to get older. That rubber band begins to stretch a bit too thin; The elasticity, the snap-back benefit begins to disappear, degrade, and degenerate.
I am not talking about when you are in your 70s and 80s. No. Once you are over 40 and over 50, that is when your body will no longer let you procrastinate on fitness. It won't let you become lazy for a period of time and then get right back to where you were before. It won't! Every time you become vegetative that rubber band stretches a little bit more thin. I admit that since the pandemic lock down I've let my own health and fitness slide.
That is a probably not a good enough word, slide. It didn't simply slide so much as it avalanched. I got lazy and became buried under a Netflix queue.
In the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns and quarantines I didn't really expect it to last all that long. Not really. I thought everything would be solved and the world would open back up in a few weeks or a month, but of course that was not the case. My fitness routines I put off, expecting to be able to go back to the gym to work out, but everything became worse. Time dragged on, and weeks turned into months, and then suddenly it is more than year later.
Look, I have all of the excuses ready for you - and for myself. I am one of those in the high-risk category for COVID-19. I can't go to the gym and workout around people who are breathing hard, not even with everyone wearing a mask. As for the mask, I have COPD so I cannot restrict my breathing. My personal treadmill and weights I gave away years ago when I firmly decided that I would begin using fitness centers and gyms, so I now have nothing at home to do my workouts with. In addition, my seasonal allergies are bad, and we've had air-quality warnings almost daily for the last year, so I can't go outside for fitness walks.
Yeah. I have the excuses. I used those excuses too, on myself.
In the beginning I never really expected everything to get so bad. I truly thought that our world in our futuristic year of 2020 would come up with a solution to COVID-19 quickly. I was wrong on that. I let myself procrastinate on my physical fitness and have paid the price for that. It was really easy to slide back, and when I realized it, I was already a couch potato. Or a computer chair carrot. Or something to do with vegetables, except when it comes to my current diet.
I am beginning to force myself to get back into the habits, the routines, I had before the COVID-19 lockdown. I have to build a fitness habit that doesn't rely on me going anywhere outside of my house. That doesn't mean I am going to rush out and buy exercise equipment, because I simply do not have the space for it in our downsized apartment, and I don't really want those things anyway. I am not fit enough anymore to move that equipment around the place if I needed to. If something fell on the floor and rolled under that equipment, there it would stay.
Simple home fitness routines: That's what I am going to do, and really should have been doing all along. I have lots of excuses for not working out at the gym or going for those walks outside, but I have no excuse for not doing something at home for my own health and well-being.
Wrist/Ankle Weights: That's one start. I have them and have had them all this time. Now they are getting used again.
Walking in place: That's another thing I should have been doing all this time. Walk or jog or Tigger Bounce in place and watch Netflix. Why not! One TV series episode lasts 25 to 45 mins on average (not counting the credits). That's an easy workout. Do that several times a day and Bob's your uncle! (*)
My New Rule:
Never Eat While Watching Television
I've found that I eat more when I allow myself to eat meals in front of the television. I eat quicker, go back for more, or go hunting down dessert. And more than just meals, it is snacks and other bored eating. People often boredom eat as a way to break mental monotony as opposed to eating when they're actually experiencing real hunger. Your brain gets bored watching television, as it has little to do, actually. All it is doing is bringing in external stimuli and doesn't need much processing power or have need of the imagination.
You might be completely enjoying the movie or TV series, but your poor brain is twiddling its thumbs, bored out of its mind, and then begins daydreaming fondly about chocolate pudding or that rather scrumptious looking birthday cake you got today to surprise your friend on their special day tomorrow. Chances are, now, it won't make it to the party.
I was actually doing the wrist weights and walk-in-place workout a few years ago, but shifted all of my fitness habits over to working out "seriously" at the gym. That turned out to be a mistake. At least for me. I am not a person who can shift habit-gears easily. If I break a routine, it kind of breaks me.
It is going to be hard to rebuild my muscle mass and endurance to get back to near the level of fitness I had before I sat down and became a computer chair carrot over a year ago. It is going to take time, effort, diligence, and honesty. I can't lie to myself anymore. I am never going to have a "ripped" body and will never have six-pack abs. That's not realistic for me. I never managed them before now, so I seriously doubt I will achieve them at the tender age of 57.
Time to get moving and shaking - hopefully not due to Parkinsons. ;P
I am not talking about when you are in your 70s and 80s. No. Once you are over 40 and over 50, that is when your body will no longer let you procrastinate on fitness. It won't let you become lazy for a period of time and then get right back to where you were before. It won't! Every time you become vegetative that rubber band stretches a little bit more thin. I admit that since the pandemic lock down I've let my own health and fitness slide.
That is a probably not a good enough word, slide. It didn't simply slide so much as it avalanched. I got lazy and became buried under a Netflix queue.
In the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns and quarantines I didn't really expect it to last all that long. Not really. I thought everything would be solved and the world would open back up in a few weeks or a month, but of course that was not the case. My fitness routines I put off, expecting to be able to go back to the gym to work out, but everything became worse. Time dragged on, and weeks turned into months, and then suddenly it is more than year later.
Look, I have all of the excuses ready for you - and for myself. I am one of those in the high-risk category for COVID-19. I can't go to the gym and workout around people who are breathing hard, not even with everyone wearing a mask. As for the mask, I have COPD so I cannot restrict my breathing. My personal treadmill and weights I gave away years ago when I firmly decided that I would begin using fitness centers and gyms, so I now have nothing at home to do my workouts with. In addition, my seasonal allergies are bad, and we've had air-quality warnings almost daily for the last year, so I can't go outside for fitness walks.
Yeah. I have the excuses. I used those excuses too, on myself.
In the beginning I never really expected everything to get so bad. I truly thought that our world in our futuristic year of 2020 would come up with a solution to COVID-19 quickly. I was wrong on that. I let myself procrastinate on my physical fitness and have paid the price for that. It was really easy to slide back, and when I realized it, I was already a couch potato. Or a computer chair carrot. Or something to do with vegetables, except when it comes to my current diet.
I am beginning to force myself to get back into the habits, the routines, I had before the COVID-19 lockdown. I have to build a fitness habit that doesn't rely on me going anywhere outside of my house. That doesn't mean I am going to rush out and buy exercise equipment, because I simply do not have the space for it in our downsized apartment, and I don't really want those things anyway. I am not fit enough anymore to move that equipment around the place if I needed to. If something fell on the floor and rolled under that equipment, there it would stay.
Simple home fitness routines: That's what I am going to do, and really should have been doing all along. I have lots of excuses for not working out at the gym or going for those walks outside, but I have no excuse for not doing something at home for my own health and well-being.
Wrist/Ankle Weights: That's one start. I have them and have had them all this time. Now they are getting used again.
Walking in place: That's another thing I should have been doing all this time. Walk or jog or Tigger Bounce in place and watch Netflix. Why not! One TV series episode lasts 25 to 45 mins on average (not counting the credits). That's an easy workout. Do that several times a day and Bob's your uncle! (*)
My New Rule:
Never Eat While Watching Television
I've found that I eat more when I allow myself to eat meals in front of the television. I eat quicker, go back for more, or go hunting down dessert. And more than just meals, it is snacks and other bored eating. People often boredom eat as a way to break mental monotony as opposed to eating when they're actually experiencing real hunger. Your brain gets bored watching television, as it has little to do, actually. All it is doing is bringing in external stimuli and doesn't need much processing power or have need of the imagination.
You might be completely enjoying the movie or TV series, but your poor brain is twiddling its thumbs, bored out of its mind, and then begins daydreaming fondly about chocolate pudding or that rather scrumptious looking birthday cake you got today to surprise your friend on their special day tomorrow. Chances are, now, it won't make it to the party.
I was actually doing the wrist weights and walk-in-place workout a few years ago, but shifted all of my fitness habits over to working out "seriously" at the gym. That turned out to be a mistake. At least for me. I am not a person who can shift habit-gears easily. If I break a routine, it kind of breaks me.
It is going to be hard to rebuild my muscle mass and endurance to get back to near the level of fitness I had before I sat down and became a computer chair carrot over a year ago. It is going to take time, effort, diligence, and honesty. I can't lie to myself anymore. I am never going to have a "ripped" body and will never have six-pack abs. That's not realistic for me. I never managed them before now, so I seriously doubt I will achieve them at the tender age of 57.
Time to get moving and shaking - hopefully not due to Parkinsons. ;P