Friday, September 30, 2011

Useful Exercise (or why I'm not really sedentary)

I'm pretty lazy, I must admit... and pretty sedentary... and not sporty at all... And I'm obviously always quite out-of-shape. Luckily, I'm skinny -- I know, this is a crime against humanity, I must pay for this genetic crime by never ever daring to mention to other people that maybe perhaps I'm not that tiny and that maybe they look just fine. No... being who I am body-wise is an insult to some people even though I don't do it on purpose, sorry!! Sigh. really, I do feel just like that sometimes... :(

Of course I end up using my body type as an excuse for not being more fit, but the truth is... apart from yoga, I don't enjoy other kinds of exercising and fitness classes! And I don't enjoy running or jogging or even walking (I know, I'm an annoying creature, am I not?). Sports that involve a ball? Oh please... me and a ball? Let's just say we don't get well along at all! I am so uncoordinated that I've never managed to play any ball games in my life.

What kinds of physical activities do I really enjoy then? Ice skating... roller-blading. Both quite tricky 'cause the first requires... well... ice, obviously, and the second requires relatively smoothly paved ground, preferably not a street. (there are no paved trails in most counties close to where I live -- oh how I miss Western Massachusetts and their awesome bike trails that I never used enough... :(  ). I also like skiing, but it's so costly and also requires lots of advance planning and... it is not very easy to do with small kids (I've skied 3 times in my life).

The major subject of this post is this: what I really enjoy doing is "useful" exercise: e.g. walking for hours and hours and many miles doing tourism (sight seeing, museums, landmarks, etc.). Hiking -- preferably to see a great view -- this is plentiful here, BUT... it requires quite a bit of planning, a large chunk of time and good weather conditions. And... I truly enjoy "useful"  physical work such as that done in gardening: hoeing, digging, weeding (with a hoe), mowing the lawn. So this week I mowed the lawn and loved it! There's nothing quite like sweating and getting something useful done at the same time! It feels good in various ways!

K has declared that now I have to mow the law all the time... and I think I will! Sometimes I think that I would truly enjoy working on a farm/farming. Now... I know that vacuuming, sweeping the house, moping, things like that also count as "useful exercise," but I need to confess that I don't enjoy those as much, but I think there's a good reason (excuse?) for it: these activities are done indoors, not out in nature.

Well, I'm glad that I finally found yoga (and a bit of pilates isn't that bad, but not great either) and I hope that next semester I can attend more classes at the university and... I'm hoping!... at a local yoga center in town. Meanwhile, I hope I can find "useful" physical activities at home to help me be more active!

What about you, what kind of physical activity(ies) do you enjoy?

Edited to Add: MemeGRL's comment reminded me that I forgot to mention that I enjoy riding bicycles too and I know we should do that more with the kids, now that they're older. The only problem is that riding uphill is not very easy and we live at the bottom of our (cul-de-sac) street. ;)

2 comments:

Oonie said...

I just tried Zumba and it was a blast! And I agree, I'd rather work exercise in to my day (walk/bike to errands, etc.) than do something just for the sweat!

Anonymous said...

we are just alike with respect to exercise (except I'm not especially skinny). I love to walk, especially if I'm going somewhere. And I have no objection to labor that involves physical activity if it gets something done. If it's part of my day, I love doing it. Taking time out to exercise? I'm bored. My friends who run marathons? I'm not so much put off by the physical exertion. Pretty sure I could handle that part. But the part where I have to do the same repetitive action for four hours straight? I'll pass.