Oh my goodness it is COLD outside. Not just a little cold. Not zip up your jacket and grab a hat cold. Nope, old man winter has taken up residence in Central New York. Going outdoors, unprepared can take your breath away.
I bundled up the other day to walk Fenway. I had long johns, jeans, a long sleeve shirt, my heaviest sweater, a winter vest and a heavy jacket. I had a neck warmer with a hat attached and another hat plus my hood. I had winter gloves on my hands and 2 pairs of socks under my winter boots. The weather app on my phone said it was 1 degree with a real feel of -13. I was so bundled, I could hardly move.
It is hard to stay motivated to get some exercise when it is that cold outside. I had some help in the form of a Christmas gift from my sisters. I asked for and received a Garmin VivoFit2. It is one of those activity trackers that measures your steps, distance walked and also has a watch. It can connect to My Fitness Pal and sync to my computer to show me pretty graphs of my progress. It also measures sleep and shows graphs on that as well. It sets daily goal for me based on my activity level and lets me know when I have been sitting too long.
The activity tracker came with 2 black bands but my sisters went a little crazy and bought me a pack of every color band in the rainbow! So far, I have worn black and blue! Today, I have 6452 steps with 1733 more to reach my goal. Guess I better plan on a long walk in the cold this afternoon.
My honey and I were both off today and we wanted to get some exercise. Playing outside didn’t sound like much fun so we grabbed our gear, drove to the gym and played some squash. I haven’t played in over a year and had lots of fun. We are pretty evenly matched (I think she has been practicing on the sly) and we each won 2 games. It was nice to break a sweat!
In the winter, it is easy for me to hunker down and let my inner couch potato out of the closet. I can’t throw my kayak in and paddle around the lake, I can’t go for a swim, I can’t jump on my bike, I can’t … you get the idea. Sometimes when I get caught up in what I CAN’T do to choose health, I have to STOP and remind myself what I can do.
I can bundle up and go for a walk, I can strap on my snow shoes and get some exercise, I can go skiing, I can play squash at the gym, I can turn on my Wii and play a bunch of different games that burn some calories and help me reach my step goal of the day! If none of these make me happy, I can always go shovel more snow. We have plenty of snow to move.
I gave myself an attitude adjustment today and all is good. Don’t get caught up in whatever negative self talk you are telling yourself. Don’t let the devil on your shoulder stop you from reaching your goals or from paddling your kayak in the direction of health, wealth and happiness. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy when it comes to making good decisions in terms of maximizing health. My Garmin is beeping at me for sitting too long. Come on, grab a shovel and let’s go have some fun.
Lake Girl
Number 1 just sent me and the rest of the siblings a picture of me and my honey last night. We were all bundled up to go home and I was wearing 4 hats. Wind chill? -21!