Either my husband or I will pick up mini-man from daycare and we’ll meet at the park. Big-man will pick up something to eat or pack a picnic at home and I’ll bring my running gear and enjoy the seawall while the guys play ball, frisbee or just wrestle around.

I think this has become my new favourite thing.

I have missed running; I haven’t done it much lately – only once a week or so for the last few months anyway. Now with this quick jaunt from either John Lawson to Dundarave and back or from Ambleside to Dundarave and back to John Lawson Park to meet up with the family, I’m getting out 2-3 times each week it seems.

Such a beautiful way to enjoy the dinner hours.

What is your favourite thing this summer?

Photo: m_e_l_o_d_y on Flickr

I remember a childhood filled with sport. Is it just me?

I don’t remember having to drag my butt off the couch and give myself a self-pep-talk in order to get outside and enjoy myself. Do you?

I tried gymnastics, ice skating, roller skating (and not the inline variety – yes, I’m that old!), soccer, ballet, swimming, t-ball, track & field, skiing and basketball. My brother and my friends and I used to ride our bikes everywhere we went and walk to and from school about a mile each way. Being active was just a part of childhood.

Now I’m really going to sound old, but when I was a kid the TV programming was pretty bad (made worse by watching on a black & white TV), the closest we came to viable video games was Atari and Coleco Vision and a cassette tape only held about 20 songs. We didn’t get a computer until I was about 10 and then it had a tape drive and games included Pong and Space Invaders. Just. Not. Worth. It.

Anyway, back to sports…

Photo: carf on Flickr

There are certainly times in my life when I’ve been more active than at other times. When I was in elementary school I was always involved in at least one sport at any given moment. Through high school, however, I was much less involved as music became the centre of my world. At the end of high school, I joined the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves (to be a musician, actually) and found out just how unfit I had become. Wowza. Basic Training sure served to remind me of the need for a physical existence and awakened in me something I needed to explore.

I took up kickboxing in 2000, just before I turned 25. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. There’s something about martial arts training that really helps you to feel good about yourself and what your body is capable of. From there I added running and yoga. Running seems to feed my soul somehow – it’s so primal – and it also doesn’t hurt that it burns a crapload of calories. Yoga is a great complement to running in that it helps stretch out all the muscles that tend to want to shorten when I run. Add in my love of snowboarding in the winter and even the odd day kayaking in the summers and I feel my life has been enriched tremendously by these activities.

When I don’t get to participate in sport of some kind my life feels out of balance.

It’s so easy to say, “I don’t have any time for exercise.” The truth is, you have to make time. You wouldn’t say, “I just don’t have time to shower regularly so I don’t do it.” You would be gross. But what’s happening to your insides, your cells, your organs, your skin? What’s happening inside your body when you don’t make time for exercise? It isn’t pretty.

In my opinion, sport is the way to self-preservation, and I don’t think active living needs to be as hard as people make it out.

Photo: CasaDeQueso on Flickr

Photo: targophoto.com on Flickr

Now, if you’re anything like me you’d rather cut off your left arm than spend an hour on a cardio machine at the gym and follow it up with a series of weightlifting sets while staring at the spandex-clad fitness model doing one-armed pushups in the mirror. Forget gyms. Go elsewhere.

Going back to that childhood thing… we played sports, we made up games, we lived actively. We didn’t sit so still during the day we had to plan in a trip to a ‘fitness facility’ at the end of it else our muscles would atrophy. I think everyone needs to make it their goal to find a sport they enjoy and participate whenever possible. I don’t think this is an option; it’s absolutely imperative.

If you don’t like it, you won’t do it. If you don’t do it, it’s like not showering. But if you search and you find, I guarantee your life will be enriched and you will likely live longer.

Here are just some ideas for non-gym sports and activities you might enjoy, even if you hate the gym:

• Kickboxing/tae-kwon-do/karate/muay thai (hard style martial arts)
• Tai Chi/Kung-Fu/Capoeira (softer style martial arts)
• Yoga (so many great styles to choose)
• Ballet/hip-hop/belly dancing/pole dancing
• Walking/running/hiking/trail running
• Skiing/snowboarding/telemark/cross-country skiing/snowshoeing
• Ice skating/hockey/curling
• Swimming/diving
• Cycling/Cross-Country or Downhill Mountain Biking
• Softball/Baseball
• Soccer (indoor or outdoor)
• Surfing/Wind Surfing/Kite Surfing
• Rock Climbing/Ice Climbing/Mountaineering
• Kayaking/Canoeing/Rowing/Dragon Boating
• Scuba Diving
• Water Skiing/Wakeboarding
• Bowling/Lawn Bowling
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Football/Flag Football
• Volleyball
• Tennis/Badminton/Ping Pong
• Squash/Handball/Racketball
• Horseback Riding/Water Polo
• Golf

There really is no need to ever set foot in a gym again if you don’t enjoy it.

I’m going to continue running and snowboarding when time permit, hitting the odd yoga class as I can fit it in and hiking the Grouse Grind once the trail opens. What do you like to do to stay active and enrich your life?

Photo: ReefRaff on Flickr

Ah, running… So good.

I’m not sure what it is that makes me love running so much. I don’t even mind doing it in the pouring rain – sometimes it’s even nicer like that. It does far more for me than just provide physical benefit.

I just went for my first run this morning in God-only-knows how long. I have been just dying to find more ways to work out… the video I bought is awful and I’ve had some trouble fitting it all in. And while big-man is no longer working out of town, it seems he will be working 12 hours a day for the next 6 weeks or so… with no days off.

So this morning I called my amazing mother in law (hereafter refered to as AMIL) to rescue me (again) and managed to eek out a 45 minute run in the rain while she walked mini-man around the neighborhood (hey, exercise is great for him too!) I was actually impressed that I was able to run for so long given how long it’s been, but it was like a million stresses all faded away instantly, and it was just me and my ipod.

When I’m running I feel like the person I want to be.

I’m strong, and healthy; a lean fighter. My mind and body both somehow recharge while my breathing plays a rhythm in my head. I feel joy and freedom, as if I’m doing something God intended me to do and I feel a little sad for those who can’t use their bodies in this way. I feel more energetic and better equipped to handle the challenges life throws at me. I feel peace.

Now that big-man will be home (and exhausted) in the evenings, I think I may just have to take a night or two each week and run after mini-man is in bed and big-man is passed out on the couch. And maybe my AMIL will continue to oblige a weekly Saturday morning jaunt through the neighborhood.

I wonder if it’s poor form to run to and from church on Sundays? It would mean I’m not really dressed appropriately (or clean) during the service, but I would be able to get in more run time that way. Besides, the bible even mentions running:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. [Hebrews 12:1 ESV]

It must be okay then. Guess I’ll find out tomorrow…

Why run?

• Calories burned
• Increased cardiovascular health
• It’s free; you just need some good shoes
• You can do it anywhere
• You can always go at your own pace
• Each time is different
• You can use speed and duration to vary workouts
• It works your whole body
• It’s good for the soul

What do you love about running?

Photo: david.bunting on Flickr

So, you may have already guessed. This photo is not of me. I know there is a resemblance and all, but no… I’m a little more… um, what’s the word… brunette.

I am in desperate need of a workout. When I say desperate, I mean I feel like I’m melting. I think I can feel the muscles turning into fat and the fat cells growing in size.

Big-man has been gone two weeks now and because of that, coupled with a few weeks of illness, work events etc. beforehand, I haven’t managed to work out once in about a month now. I’ve had to quit kickboxing for the time being and have not managed to fit in another activity.

The problem is complex but is really taxing my ability to feel like my life is in balance. Mostly because it’s not. I need to be more active than I am, and I absolutely need to find a way to make that happen.

I’m completely open to suggestions, but only ones that don’t include leaving my kid with a babysitter during his waking hours. See, he’s already in daycare 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. He sleeps 11 hours at night and, thus, is only awake 13… so subtract the 9… you can see where I’m going with this one.

I get up between 5 and 5:30 every day and have a cup of coffee and go online – check email, twitter and my feeds. At 6am mini-man is up and demanding my attention. I get him something to eat and let him watch TV while I get showered etc. Then I make lunches, get ready and leave for work by 8am.

At 5pm I leave work and pick up mini-man from daycare, get home by 5:30, give him dinner, play a little put him in the bath and put him in bed at 7pm. My after-7pm activities are dictated by the day of the week… Mondays is band, and Wednesdays is my church home group and those are the only two nights of the week I get free babysitting services from my amazing mother in law. If I want to leave the house after 7:30pm any other night of the week, I’ll need to pay a sitter to be home in my place for an hour or two… that would make each workout cost $10-$15 in babysitting alone. I suppose this isn’t a terrible option for maybe once a week – I could go for a run which wouldn’t add any other cost.

I’ve tried getting out with mini-man in the stroller after dinner, but there really isn’t time with only an hour and a half of awake time between daycare and bed. Besides, this weather means everything takes that much longer because we have that much more clothing to deal with. I’m also super afraid of trying to run while pushing 50 lbs. I run slow enough on my own thank you very much.

I may have to resort to the unthinkable: doing some kind of stupid-looking step-like workout video in my livingroom. Ick. I hate sweating where I live. Furthermore, being in a 2nd floor apartment means it has to include no jumping and I have to be able to do it in very little space; I have about 7′ x 7′ to work with. That doesn’t sound like much of a workout, but I guess anything would be better than nothing.

I can’t keep doing this. I need some exercise. I guess I’m off to find a DVD and a local babysitter.

Wish me luck! Maybe one day I’ll be hurling myself in the air for the spike and allowing someone to capture it forever.

I do apologize for the assault on Thursday night. The crab walking and endless kicks were not my idea. I, like you, prefer to hang out in a relaxed state, martini in hand, on a nice lawn chair somewhere. I completely understand your frustration with the type of endeavour, especially given that we’ve been sick and have missed several kickboxing classes as of late. You know I try my best not to miss, but sometimes it’s simply unavoidable. Why so angry?

Please reconsider the punishment you are offering. Without the ability to lower myself slowly to a seated position, I might actually break something whilst falling to the floor in a heap. I do have a two-year-old after all, and I have to be able to fold you underneath me without tears so I can participate in the day’s floor activities – blocks, crayons and the like.

I do hope you’ll feel a little better about the situation tomorrow. Please just know it was unintentional – I would never purposely create a rift between us. I love you quads.

xoxo