Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Mix it up

I mentioned in my last post that I went kayaking this weekend for the first time. One thing that I have found has helped a lot with my weight loss, and one thing that I hope will help me to maintain my weight loss, is to mix up the exercise I am getting. Adding a lot of variety and trying new activities not only keeps it interesting, but it helps to remove the excuses I would often use NOT to go out and move. For one thing, and I guess this is pretty obvious,  if I enjoy the activity, I'm more likely to go out and do it and less likely to find excuses not to. For example I have a Zumba class on Tuesdays and Thursdays that is awesome fun and I absolutely love it. I will move heaven and earth to get to my Zumba class. I love to kayak and I am already planning to go again with my husband on Saturday morning. Again, it would have to be pretty awful weather for me to miss it.

Another thing that variety does is that it gives me options. If it is windy and really rainy and I cannot go kayaking on Saturday, I can go to the gym and do a workout there - and if I don't make it to the gym, I can do a Zumba or Cardio work out on my Kinect. Variety also helps to balance the workout my body is getting. I will admit that I need to add some strength training to my routine, but Zumba and swimming give me a nice cardio work out, the elliptical, walking, and biking give my lower body a good workout, kayaking gives me a good core (and some arms) workout.

I've tried a couple of activities that I didn't enjoy as much - but I'm glad I tried them. I have found so many more things I love to do - I'm often kicking myself for not starting this sooner - I missed out! But not anymore.

I still have days where it is gloomy outside and / or I have to force myself to trudge over to the gym to get my daily exercise and I probably always will. However, because I have found so many different active things I love to do, I am happy to go out on most days and it doesn't even seem like I'm dragging myself out to get in my required calorie burn for the day - I'm just out having fun and enjoying life.

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