When it comes to staying healthy, I have spent the last 7-8 years focusing on the diet and food part. I have never been much of a fitness nut, outside of playing a little basketball and my brief stint in karate. I have always believed that all the exercise in the world can’t save you if you eat like crap, so naturally food was my interest.
As far as food goes, eating is a lifestyle for me - I don’t do “diets,” unless you call moderation a diet. I see no point in depriving myself, but there’s no need to go overboard with it either. Despite my love for baking and all things chocolate, I really try not to eat them all that much, but my coworkers love me for this because I am always bringing the extra cakes to work.
Yes I can still do better and there are lots of things I would like to try, I think I’ve done pretty well for myself seeing that I’ve maintained my weight in all this time just from eating in moderation and avoiding as much overprocessed foods as possible.
In honesty, weight has never been my focus and it still isn’t. Weight by itself doesn’t really determine whether you are fat or shapely, it’s how it is distributed in the body. And I know that weight doesn’t always equal fat. So I never really had a target weight loss goal, on top of that it’s like watching water boil: the more you it, the longer it seems to take. I was just interested in process and I was just tired of feeling sluggish. It was more of a food game that I was playing with myself, you could say. Before I knew it, I had dropped 15 pounds that I never intended and realized I how much better I looked that way.
In the past year or so, however, I have taken on a bigger focus on exercise. I know that a typical person’s metabolism slows down as they get older, no matter how healthy you eat. So I’d really like to take it to the next level — up from light exercise and activity several times a week.
In fact, I think it would be really cool to be part of an adult sports team, like basketball or rowing. Even a more individualized sport like tennis would do, but I like the idea of teams because I like the sense of community, that other people are depending on you and it’s much harder to quit. One of my regrets from high school is not being a part of a sport, although granted the majority of my time was spent on studying in the college prep program I was in. But better late than never I say. : )
I know I still have a lot of work and training to do before I feel like I am in the tip top shape needed to play on a team. Another motivation for doing this is to get in better shape in time for all the light backpacking I’m set to do in Europe.
I’ve been doing a lot of speed walking / jogging and light weight training /stretching at home when I am in a crunch. But I am always researching and trying out different sorts of cardio activities (ix-nay on the gyms), from spinning to rowing and now kickboxing just to add some variety.
I recently found a really good 10-class deal for kickboxing so I am excited to show up there and see what it’s all about. I’m really looking forward to some upper body work out because I have practically none, all of my strength is concentrated in lower body and I have been told that I have a mean kick lol! I’ll definitely be putting both of it to work in these classes.
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Val, this is so cool to hear you write about this. I love to play basketball and play a few times a week with guys at work. I’m definitely interested to see if you find a basketball team to play on.
Have you ever thought about doing any kind of strength training? That’s another area we decrease in as we get older.
Thanks for sharing.
I figured you loved basketball because the main character in your book was a basketball player and loved the game. I used to be a huge basketball fanatic (watching it) and I used to take turns shooting hoops before class.
I do have a set of small weights in my room which I use from time to time, incorporated with stretches or warming up before cardio. But nothing serious. Do you recommend any videos?
For workout videos, it’s tough to beat P90X. However, it’s a bit on the long side and it helps to be very familiar with exercising.
I always thought about doing some simple videos on the workouts I do. All the require is a pull up stand, push up stands, and your own body weight and that keeps me pretty fit without going to the gym.
Are you interested in basketball videos as well?
Yes, I am trying to keep things as simple as possible so that I don’t lose steam. It sure is better than nothing! I am still hurting from last night’s work out LOL. You know what they say, if it’s burning it’s working.
No I haven’t watched any basketball videos. I haven’t played in quite a while so it never occured to me to look those up.