Healthy Lifestyles: Staying Motivated to Move

I thought I'd entertain myself today and put up on our blog the first version of the FitBriefing Putting the Pizzazz Back into Your Exercise Routine that we posted this week on our women's healthy weight loss website.  Hope some of you enjoy (or even recognize) my attempts at humor.

It happens to the best of us.  One day, we’re lovin’ our physical activity routine; the next, frankly, we’re bored, bored, bored.  If we have to do that again (whatever that is), we’d rather not do anything at all.  What’s a fool for fitness to do?

Go to the pros.  Yeah, we know you’re good, but not that good.  We mean go check out instructors and personal trainers at the local health club. You’ll see them revamping cardio on the treadmill or elliptical with five minutes at a steady pace, bumped up for the next five to a challengingly intense level, then bringing it back down again.  Besides mixing it up, cardio interval training increases cardiovascular endurance, too. 

Or, they’re handing out Power Bars (no, not those; the weight lifting kind) and/or resistance tubing.  Bonus: More creativity in movements and more flexibility (ok, we know they’re rubber tubing; we mean you can adjust the degree of resistance just by moving your feet on the band wider or closer together.)

They’re shaking their booty a lot, too.  Kickboxing’s still fun, but sassy dance classes like Hip Hop Funk or Salsa Step get your hips moving like they haven’t since, well, Saturday night.  Do you work up a sweat?  Remember Saturday night?

Go Jane.  You know, Jane Fonda – the technology queen.  (No, we’re not stuck back in the 80s, just couldn’t think of any other way to creatively turn the subject to technology.  Jane was basically responsible for taking exercise videos, the technology of that time, mainstream.  This is sad having to explain all this.  I obviously need to think of another segue.)

All that is lead-up to the fact that there’s a whole new world waiting for us if we’re on to today’s technology.  Like iPods – from tiny ones you barely know are there to ones with touchpads that offer all kinds of extras — that put the beat back into working out.  Jam out to your favorite sounds by building playlists of warm-up, high-intensity and cool-down tunes.  Or, if you’re like me, you use them to listen books on tapes while exercising (maybe doesn’t sound very exciting but, hey, I like books a lot).

Nike+ shoes, along with the Nike + iPod Sport Kit or Sensor, tracks your runs to tell you time, distance, pace and calories burned (but you can forget that last part. We don’t count calories – either eaten or burned – at Green Mountain).  Also gives you that feedback both halfway and in the final approach to your goal.  (That sounds so focused; it was obviously written by someone who puts songs in her iPod instead of audiobooks.  I forgot to mention that Jennifer on our fitness staff provided the meat for this post.)  Then, ta da, you can even load the details into your computer!  So?  You can throw away that old exercise journal, that one over there in the corner.  See it?  The one all covered with dust.

Save money, too!
No, that wasn’t a ploy for your attention.  You really can save money by turning to YouTube to try different forms of exercise without a financial commitment.  YouTube is full of short ‘videos’ of aerobic or strength classes.  They’re not all worth watching, though; some give incorrect advice.  Look for those produced by a certified fitness professional.

The options are many for mixing it up to keep the fun in physical activity to reach your fitness and health goals.  Try something new today!