Get up and get moving!

Even though I stopped blogging for a while there, the one thing I have started doing is exercising.  I hope you were sitting down for that, because I know it's shocking.  Earlier in the year, I convinced myself that walking those few avenues from the 6 train to the office (instead of the 1, which lets me off around the corner) was good exercise.  And it is, it's more than I'd normally do, but it wasn't enough.  At a minimum, I think - don't quote me on this - the experts recommend 30 minutes of exercise at least 3 times a week.  So in my head, I totaled up all the walking I do to/from the train and the bus, and met the requirement.

But at some point during my rationalizing, I forgot that: 1. I'm a 25-year-old woman who needs more exercise than the weekly minimum, and 2. I do not want to be a lazy person as I get older.  I just don't enjoy exercising.  It is not fun for me to get all worked up and sweat like Santa Claus the day before Christmas Eve thinking he doesn't have enough toys for all the kids in the world.  (The heat wave in NY has definitely made me crave the colder times of the year.)

The first thing I did: Zumba with Joe Arteaga at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Trumbull.  I used to attend this class all the time, and nobody can get me to do cardio for an hour straight like Joe can.  It's fun, it's entertaining, and the songs he plays make you want to shake your butt.  hankfully, there is a whole bunch of booty shaking involved... and shimmying, salsa-ing, and so on.  It was the perfect opportunity to get me up and moving. 

The second thing I tried: C25K.  Couch to 5K is a way to get couch potatoes much like myself out of the living room and onto the pavement.  It's a 10-week regimen to slowly coax non-runners into running.  I downloaded an interval training app on my phone to tell me when to walk and run.  I also found some great links including inspiration and music to get you going.  I actually started with this program at first, because it seemed shorter than the 20 minutes that the other program starts off with.  But I don't know that it coaxes you as slowly as I thought.  I never got a chance to find out, because a knee injury that I had during the spring started to flare up as I was running.  I only got to the second week before I had to give it a rest.  I'm thinking of doing it again, but this time on a track that might have a better surface for my knees.

Next up: free yoga classes on Thursday nights in Bryant Park.  I have always wanted to try yoga, but the classes are so expensive.  I've heard about all the health benefits of yoga and I've been dying to try it.  So when my good friend Pam suggested I meet her for a free yoga class, I was psyched!  We were in the front row in 96° weather, so I like to think my first class was actually a hot yoga class.  It was extremely enjoyable and I worked muscles I didn't even know I had.  I also liked that it was low-impact, because it was easy on the knees, and it focused more on connecting with your body and finding its limitations.  I will definitely be at the next class!

I also started Googling and Pinterest-ing yoga to do at home.  I've never been great and self-motivation and working out by myself, but I'm starting to love yoga.  Caitrin and I found some on-Demand videos and did it one night, and another night I found a short 15-minute yoga video to do before bedtime.  (I slept really well that night, in case you wondered.)

And, of course, I've been playing softball since April.  So once a week, I have that workout, too.  I've been trying to get myself in the groove of doing some sort of activity when I get home from work, if I can.  If I have something to do after work, I try to walk as much as possible without taking a cab or a subway.  I'll take the stairs instead of the escalator.  If I'm out, I won't look for the closest parking spot to the store.  Every little bit helps!  I've been building a board on Pinterest containing exercises for newbies to the fitness world.