Now, I am adding on to the steps,keeping up with Step One (the tea w/1 tsp turmeric and ginger) and adding in some easy aerobics before and rafter each meal.
When I say easy aerobics, I do not mean lazy aerobics. I mean, something that doesn't require a lot of effort to get to or maintain. So, this is not about going to an aerobics class , or, for me, even going on a walk or putting on a DVD. I, also, mean, no substantial amount of time. Doing a half hour of aerobics, before one is allowed to eat, or doing a half hour of exercise directly after eating is not easy! Especially not when doing it at every meal.
It does not have to be the same sort of aerobics, every time or even for the same duration. For instance, if I wanted to walk down to Burger King (approximately 1/3 of a mile away) or down to Pappy's Diner (1.8 miles away) for lunch, the walk to it and back from it would count as an easy aerobic session before and after the meal. Though, if I brought the food home, I would still need to do an easy aerobic session after eating, and, the walk to and from the restaurant would count as one session, in that respect.
If you have kids, then, a brisk cleaning of their room, with them helping (I hope) would count as one session. So, if you are the type of person who feels you don't have enough time to exercise because you know you need to clean house and you know you have the sort of spouse (or, whatever you call them) who is going to come home and be depressed, or, angry, because the kids toys are all over the place, take heart. Clean the mess up fast and well, and, count it as exercise. Same for any other household chore, inside or outside, which will get your heart pumping along merrily.
For today, I have chosen to do step ups on my stoop, as I did yesterday. This morning, for breakfast, I did 25 right leg leading, 25 left leg leading, ate a Cup O' Noodle with some lemon, cumin and garlic seasoning mix and drank the juice from another one (my son doesn't like his noodle juice), and, followed it up by 25 more steps with left leg leading and 25 with right leg leading. There is no reason to have one leg leading at the beginning of an exercise session and the other one leading at the beginning of the next exercise session, by the way. It just happened that way.
Before, I used to do walking in place, leg lifts and such, to music, while waiting for food to cook, so I could be in the kitchen to keep an eye on things, and, because, it was one of the few places for privacy. It was a good system, at the time, but, then, on the days when I am not cooking, or, when someone runs off with the stereo, it makes it harder to maintain it
Later on, I know I will have another Cup O' Noodle, same spices, as my son had a friend over who, when I asked my son "Do you want a Cup O'Noodle, boy?" said "Yeah." So, I made him one, too, and, then, he forgot and left without it.
The reasons for the easy aerobics before and after meals are:
1) Aerobics in short bursts of time (10 minutes or less) are more in keeping with the way people used to live, naturally. Very few people, outside of soldiers or when being attacked by same (or a wild animal) put on a big burst of speed and kept at it for enormous amounts of time. Instead, they would put on a great burst of effort to bring in firewood, or chop down a tree, or whatever it is they were doing, and, then, they would rest for a time before going back to it. Most of the time. There are always exceptions, but, in the main, it is not natural to exercise for long periods of time (except, maybe, walking) and it is not natural to remain sedentary for long periods of time.
2) When you begin to exercise, your body gets ready to burn fat. So, doing several bouts of aerobics per day, instead of one big bout, means that your body is getting ready and firing up to burn fat several times a day, which keeps it actively burning fat throughout the day.
3) When you exercise, you tend to be less stressed out; but, thinking of doing a long bout of exercise can make you feel stressed out and make you less likely to exercise. So, the small sessions take away stress in two ways.
4) Exercise before eating helps you burn the calories that you are bringing in and the fat that was already there.
5) Exercise after you eat, helps you burn glucose for energy, and, to keep from storing fat.
6) Is explained in 3), but, is not about the stress. It's just about the likelihood of continuing to exercise. If I told you to do a 16 minute session of aerobics, every day, and you were not used to doing exercise, how likely is it you would just jump right in? What if I told you that you were going to have to set aside an hour or more block of time to do exercise, every day? Could you do it? Would you want to? I wouldn't!
This is not a big block of time. It is not taking up time that you need to cook dinner, clean, or do anything else. If you need to mow the lawn or rake the yard, take the kids to the park, clean a room or something similar, then you can do that purposely, while dancing, moving faster, adding in squats or flexing your muscles, and count it as exercise.
You can definitely make a commitment to get up and do a few minutes of exercise before and after each meal. There is no time limit, so long as you feel exercised. You should get your heart going, your breath rate going, heat up and need time to cool down, get your heart rate back down and your breath back to normal. That's it.
So, if you are in fairly decent shape, that might take you ten minutes. If you are in really bad shape, that might take you a few steps. Start wherever you are, and, go from there. Eventually, the goal is to work up to one hour of exercise in six 10-minute increments, every day; understanding that if you are going out to a restaurant or to a wedding, or some other event, you can do the exercise for that meal before you go to it and after you get home, if that's what's needed. But, for now, the goal is to do something significant for a short duration, before and after each meal, even if all you can manage is 10 seconds or if you can go the full 10 minutes.
The other goal is to incorporate your needs. Look at your house. Is it nasty? Does it need vacuuming? Are the windows dirty? Do the kids complain that you never take them to go play? Find ways to fix what needs fixing while making it part of your exercise schedule. When you are ready.
When you are ready? Yes. If it scares you, stresses you out, thinking of trying to make sure you get the proper amount of exercise and cleaning, at the same time, then, don't do it, yet. Do them separately, as you can. If you stress yourself out, you are missing the point.
Like, right now, my room is a horrible mess. It is not the sort of horrible mess that can be taken care of while doing aerobics, though. It is sorting, hanging things up sort of work, not mopping and sweeping, at this point in time. So, I am not going to incorporate it into the exercise. If I was going to go outside and weed, though, I would count that, as there is a lot of bending, stretching, walking sort of movement.
I am having my glass of tea with turmeric, ginger, a little lemon juice and some Stevia, by the way. And, I am really enjoying it!
Now, it is time for lunch, and, the eating of the other Cup O' Noodle, which I have semi-reheated. I have also done my 50 steps. I'm going to be sooooo tired and sore from this.
I ate 4 squares of graham crackers: 2 with chocolate frosting and 2 with lemon frosting. my sister bought it, last night. I do not remember if I noted that in yesterday's post or not. Anyway, we ate some last night and then she gave the rest to me, so that she would not be further tempted. As I got into it, today, I could see her point, as she was mostly eating the chocolate frosting and I was mostly eating the lemon frosting; and, the chocolate frosting is mostly gone, while there is still over half the lemon frosting left (even after I ate some, today).
Anyway, for my after meal exercise, this time, I tried a few windmills, but, that didn't seem to be doing anything. I don't know why, as I remember they used to be horrible for me to do. So, I switched to standing side leg raises and I did 25 for each leg. Then, I did 16 step ups for each leading leg.
On a side note, it is much harder to lift my right leg than my left one. I would have though, because of how much weaker my hip and buttock and lower back are on the left side, that would not be true. Apparently, my right leg is so much heavier that it makes up the difference. That's all I can think. It is really hard to do more than 5 standing side leg raises on my right side. I have to take breaks to do it. Weird, but, true.
Anyone out there who is a physical therapist or trainer, who might be reading this, please chime in with your own theories, observations, etc. Thank you!
UPDATE: I am so sore, that I have decided not to do it before and after every meal, right off the bat. I did it twice before and twice after a meal today and that is what I shall stick with, for now.
For dinner: spaghetti noodles and tomato/meat sauce. Small plate. Maybe more later. Maybe something else.
I did not do the exercises beforehand, but, earlier, while waiting for the mail, I did a few leg lifts while laying on the massage table that is being used as an outdoor bench. Didn't count them, but, I definitely did feel them in the abdominal region.
I ended up eating a couple of weird pumpkin cookies. I thin 1-1/2. And, I did do 25 more reps per leg.
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