Tag Archives: exercise

Just dog it

Rory and I were passed by a jogging dog and his human this morning in Central Park and, as always, I tried to read the dog’s mind.

jogging dogDid he give Rory a look of superiority?  You know — the one a long-time yoga student gives a newbie when he enters class?

(Not that yoga’s competitive…yeah, right.)

Did he scorn my dog’s meandering pace?  His aimless sniffing and peeing?

Or was that really a look of longing?  Did Rory’s relaxing walk spark a memory from his puppy days, when mornings didn’t include a mandatory three-mile run?

Perhaps he was just in the zone.  Focused.  Wired in.  Didn’t see me or Rory at all……

Good boy..

Thrill seeker

What do you do when you’re bored?

I read.  Go to the movies or a show.  Often just hop online.

Clearly that wouldn’t work for this guy.

 

Kudos to him for raising money for charity!

Fun is a’foot

Like roller coasters? Hiking, too?

Then you’ll love Duisburg, Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magic Mountain is an elevated walking path designed by German artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth. Rising up to 147 feet above the ground, this serious climb mimics a roller coaster…and provides some amazing views for hikers.

And walking in a loop-to-loop? Pretty cool.

Leave it to my German cousins to come up with a way to make roller coasters healthy. What’s next? Subways that are powered by footpower? Buses that we pedal?

WALKING???

Whackadoodle.

Open arms

What can help you both build up your immune system and decrease your risk of heart disease and stress?

Hint: it’s not a pill, an exercise routine or the now ubiquitous green smoothie.

It’s the hug — that simple (and simply wonderful) one-on-one human contact between friends and loved ones.

Fantastic, huh?

Lucky for all of us, today is National Hug Day!  The holiday was established in 1986 to encourage PDA-phobic Americans to ‘reach out, reach out and touch someone.’ So now’s your chance to get out there and improve your health, your happiness and your overall state of being.

You’ll probably freak out a few people along the way, but hey — that’s just a bonus for feeling so gosh darn happy!

(See you out there.)

Walk walk

I was walking home from an early appointment this morning and waved to one of the doormen on my block.

“Sorry, I didn’t recognize you for a moment,” he said.

I’ve heard this one before.  “Because I don’t have the dog with me, right?”

“No,” he said.  “Because you’re walking so fast.  You and Rory normally just stroll along.”

This observation kind of took me aback.

I’ve always thought of myself as a fast walker — am in fact always being reprimanded by friends to “slow down” when we are walking together around the city.

I attribute my pace to my days at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.  The campus is sprawled out from North to South, and with only 10 minutes between some classes, you have to book — and I mean seriously motor — to get from one end to the other on time.

I thought my personal walk speed had been permanently reset.  Apparently Rory Dog has taught me how to slow down and enjoy the sights, sounds and people along the way.

Chalk up another life lesson to the “hairy human” in my life.

Up all night

I was a bit under the weather Friday and slept about 30 minutes the entire night. It was agony.

How do people who suffer from chronic insomnia deal?

I was doing a bit of reading on the subject online and discovered The Insomnia Blog by Dr. Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist and self-proclaimed “Sleep Doctor.”

Dr. Breus has a formula that he says will help you get all the sleep you need; wake up before the alarm goes off; and keep you from gaining the weight that can sometimes go along with insomnia.

This guy must be rich.

Here’s what he recommends:

  1. Figure out your typical wake up time
  2. Count back 7.5 hours
  3. Set an alarm to tell you when to go to bed  (and go!)
  4. If you wake up 10 minutes before your morning alarm for three days, you have found your perfect bedtime.
  5. If you still need your morning alarm to wake up, then move your bedtime back by 15 minutes until you wake up just before your morning alarm.

After reading this, I realize why I don’t usually have insomnia.

  • I usually get about 7-8 hours sleep.
  • Rory Dog is the ‘alarm’ that tells me to go to bed.
  • I wake up each morning before my morning alarm goes off (Rory Dog again).

I’m cured.

Fat chance

As someone who has tried to outrun her backside most of her life, I had to at least entertain this idea.

FreezeAwayFat — how’s that for a company name — has created a product that uses the cold to reduce fat cells in your stomach, hips and thighs.

How does it work?

They contend that extreme cold activates your body’s brown fat cells, which in turn cause the white fat cells — the icky kind you apparently don’t want — to shrink away, thereby making you trimmer and slimmer.

You achieve this by wearing their Cool Shapes Contouring Shorts and inserting cold gel packs next to the areas you want to trim. Thirty minutes a day for five weeks is all it takes.  You’ll see results without surgery.

I want to believe this will work — even though the shorts look ridiculous — and I’ve never heard of brown and white fat cells before.  It also runs counter to all the things I’ve doubt done in the past to shrink my hips and thighs…like wrapping them in saran wrap under my sweat pants.  (Attractive, I know.)

Plus, if extreme cold is the key, wouldn’t people who live in arctic cold conditions be predisposed to be thin?  Because I’m not sure demographic data supports that.

In the end, Cool Shapes only costs $90 plus shipping — and five weeks of your life — to check out.  If they do work, good for you!

If they don’t, you’ll be set in ice packs for life.