Walking is the easiest way to meet your exercise goals!

It was Seattle-type misty today but warmer than it has been here lately.  In fact, it might have been in the upper 40's/low 50's when it was time for our little guy to go to school.  We (mostly me) decided to walk.  The problem with walking is that the roads are narrow with no sidewalks.  Therefore, it is dangerous to stay in the road when cars are coming.  Puddles are everywhere at the edge of the road.

It is almost all uphill going to school.  Making it count as exercise if we keep a good pace.

Did I mention that the streets were narrow?

After I walked to and from school at a brisk pace, walked from the parking lot to my desk, read and answered my email, I decided to look to see what my exercise totals were.  I made it to 26 out of 30 minutes of exercise.

You can see my exercise went off track the two days between today and my tag/dance party day.  

For lunch, I walked to PBW and had a salad (the half of any salad is $4.19 including tax--you can't beat that).  

As soon as walk in the front door of my office, my phone informed me that I made it to 30 minutes.

Today I met all the goals.  Not bad for a Friday.  Oh, and I got this really cool photo from the pocket in my red raincoat.

Playing tag

Two days ago the exercise goal was not met and it is not being met today.  However, I have started walking faster to and from my car.  The commute from the car is now being counted as exercise.  Today, I received 9 minutes of fast walking from the parking lot as exercise.  I say received because I feel like that probably should not count.  Maybe I am cheating the system already.

The above stopwatch is from yesterday.  I started the watch when we started playing tag.  Basically, we ran around in the circle from my living room to bedroom to hall to family room.  It is a nice circle and both children were either chasing or getting chased.  We all got exercise for 6 minutes and 24.06 seconds.  We then got water and danced for "Shake it Off."  Shake it Off inspires lots of synchronized pivots on the balls of your feet.  Sometimes even pivoting with one pivot at at time.  But no pivots are in the basketball way.  Instead just side to side ankle pivots are done.  "Whip/Nae Nae" was next and again I tried to do the moves as enthusiastically as possible.  "Sugar" and "Uptown Funk" followed.  While I may have had to put in my parental code for those two, I am not sure the nudity and subtle messaging from the nudity are not worse in "Shake it Off."

My son finally convinced us to go back to tag.  After he ran too fast for the corners and ran into things, we discontinued running.  Then we did bunny hop, frog leap, hop-on-one-foot, skip, and regular hop tag.  Can I say how much harder those versions are?

Confession: I have only told my assistant that I am doing this blog again.

Upcoming: We went to pick up the stand my husband bought me for Christmas to turn my bike into a stationery bike.  Turns out that he bought me a parking stand and not an exercise stand so we fixed it. Tomorrow, I am putting my bike on it and seeing how that goes.

Dance Party

Yesterday, I met my exercise goal mostly with dancing (28 minutes).  Chasing my children into church garnered me two minutes of exercise.  They were so excited I had to jog to keep up with them.  They love their Sunday School teachers.

I tried dancing on New Year's Eve but head bobbing and swaying do not actually count as exercise.  Alternating moving one foot to the middle and back did not seem to count either.  I had to "Jump Around" (remember that song from maybe the 1900's?).  Running man from the 1990's seemed to count as exercise.  So did the step forward step back and hop that is in the Electric Slide.  I added hops whenever possible to the Whip/Nae Nae moves while watching the video that seemed to work too.

The only songs on demand deemed peppy enough for exercise dance work were "Sugar," "Uptown Funk," "Whip/Nae Nae," and "7/11."  7/11 also had some dance move instruction in the song.  Justin Bieber, Adele, and Taylor Swift were deemed not peppy enough by my five year old.

Isn't Zumba some type of dance?  Maybe I should try that.  Wonder if it is on demand?

This morning my Apple Watch told me that my move goal should be adjusted because 460 calories was too much.  It suggested 190 calories.  Isn't that just encouraging my sloth?  I decided I would take its suggestion but I upped to 250.  Who really needs the Apple Watch telling me my business even if it is tracking my every move?

Reinvented Home, Away, and Food

I have to realize that I am no Anthony Bourdain.  This was a maternity leave project after our daughter was born nearly four years ago.  I like the idea of writing a bit.  No one reads this so it is safe, right?  Safe from criticism.  Safe from weirdos reading it.  Safe from anyone reading it except spammers.

Using this for something is better than nothing.  How about the home part be an exercise blog of sorts?  I am trying to get more exercise into my daily life without spending time away from my kids.  The mom guilt of working full-time plus doing some church committees is enough.

To start, I received an Apple Watch.  It tracks my every move so that should make me instantly fit?  Except instant fitness has not happened in the week that I have used it.  In fact, other than my stand goal, which I have come to understand means stand and move around for a minute, meeting the exercise goal of 30 minutes and the move goal of burning 460 calories have been elusive.

How to meet the exercise goal, which seems to be tied to heart rate, is a work in progress.  Today while I was putting away laundry, I got 11 minutes of exercise on breaks. I typed my parental control password into music choice on Xfinity on demand and danced to Sugar and Blank Space.  Then at some later point, the watch gave me credit for another minute of exercise.

Even though I stepped some (5,188 steps) at the library and the river getting progress toward my move goal, I did not get any "exercise" doing those things.  I cannot be disappointed though.  The river is up.  The view was nice.  Most importantly, it was activity that my five year old enjoyed.  Here are some photos:

I have always had a bit of obsession for light posts.