UPDATED: A Full Week of Activity

I just recounted over the last week, and somehow I've managed, without too much effort, to exercise every day this week. Which is pretty cool, if you ask me. 

On Friday I went for a long walk around my town, about an hour, hour and a half, I'd say.

Saturday, Guy For Whom I Have Not Come Up With A Good Blog Alias™ and I went on a four hour hike through some of the gorgeous wilderness just to the North of us. Living in Canada, especially in cottage country, is great if you like amazing scenery.

Jealous? You're jealous.

Upon returning that evening, I logged all of the time spent hiking into MyFitnessPal and laughed at the fact that the calories burned (according to their system, which i don't think is totally accurate, but a decent ballpark guess) was more than my total daily allotment for the day. Over 1500 for what was probably about 2.5-3 hours walking, all told. 

Sunday I got up and drove to Mount St. Louis for hill-training for the Warrior Dash.

source 

This is the hill we're supposed to run up.

Me?  I walk.

Given I was sore as hell from the previous day, I still managed to get up the hill twice.

Monday I had kickboxing class, and after that I had my first outdoor boot camp. Now, I've mentioned before that in order for me to stick to something it has to be fun. Kickboxing can be hard as hell, but it's loads of fun. Boot camp...? In spite of my instructors efforts, I did not find it fun.

It felt like work. Just work.

 No, that's not true. It felt like high school gym class.

 Hard and frustrating and beyond my capabilities. I'm going to go back next week and try again. Hopefully it will be better this time.

Tonight I have kickboxing again, and tomorrow night marks my first baseball game of the season. Apparently our league has all new team colours. This excites me more than it should.

So yeah, I've accomplished a whole week of exercise.  Just wanted to share that.

UPDATE:  Holy crap, I missed a whole day in there.  YESTERDAY.  Yesterday my friend Tess and I played 50 minutes of Just Dance 2 as part of our bi-weekly Just Dance date.  The game kept picking out the crappier songs last night.  SO MUCH AIR GUITAR.  I was disappointed that it didn't pick last night to play Body Movin'.  RIP MCA.

My Thighs Hate Me Today

Hoo boy.

So, I was sick last week, so Monday night marked my first night back at kick-boxing in over a week.  I am paying for it now.  My thighs are still screaming at me today.  Our instructor, a fun and enthusiastic woman with what I suspect is a vaguely sadistic streak, had us doing all manner of high kicks and lunges.  Freakin' lunges.  And I get to go back tonight.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm in pain, but I love it.  Years ago, I couldn't have done what I do now.

Back when I started on the first leg of my journey, I realized that to get this to work I was going to have to, you know.. get active.  I've never been real fond of that whole moving around and being active thing, having always been drawn to more sedentary pursuits such as reading, tv watching and sleep.

I started slow.  I'd take walks everyday on my break.  I'd park at the far end of the parking when I shopped.  I took the stairs in my apartment building, especially on laundry day.  Four or five trips up and down a flight of stairs carrying a hamper definitely felt like a workout.

Walking gets boring, so I decided I needed to up the ante.  I had joined gyms in the past but always found them boring.  I needed something that didn't feel like work.. something I could do that would be fun but also force me to be active.

I joined a women's softball team.  This year will mark my fifth season.

Later I took 3-4 months of belly-dancing lessons.  Unfortunately, they are no longer offered in the area as my instructor had to give up teaching due to a slipped disc.  Sad.  I enjoyed the dance class because it taught me a lot about how my own body moves and taught me that, various imperfections and all, my body is sexy and can move with grace.  I used to come home from those classes feeling very sensual and relaxed and kind of in lust with myself.

Roughly a year and a half ago, wanting something more challenging, I went to a kick-boxing open house.  The first class killed me, but I felt like such a bad-ass that I scrounged the money together and signed up for a three month course.  The first few weeks, dead in the middle of July, were rough.  I whined and bitched and moaned through each class and limped my way up the stairs to work the next day.  But I kept going back.

When I started, I could struggle my way through maybe 5-6 from-the-knee push-ups.  Since then I have done thousands upon thousands of push-ups (or so it seems!).  I've gone from being close to tears after 20 crunches, to being able (with great effort) to struggle through close to fifty straight push-ups.  I've also learned I can take a round-house kick to the face and not cry.  And I can punch, kick and spin my way through a 20-move combination barely missing a beat.

I've learned to appreciate how it feels to sweat, to work my body to its limit.  So I'll go tonight, even though my muscles are still cursing me, and I'll bitch, and moan and shoot Jill dirty looks when she calls out "15 Burpees!" with a smile.  And I'll come home tired but feeling good that I haven't given up.  It still has to be fun, though.  If I'm not having fun, I can't be arsed to take the pain (and by pain I mean the good pain...I don't want to injure myself).  If you're struggling for a way to be more active, find your fun and as you progress you may want to try new things.  Being active doesn't need to be work, and if it doesn't feel like work, you may be more inclined to stick with it.

I'm all Chuck Norris n' shit.