M. Suzanne Terry

In many ways, this month is going exactly as I had planned. I am finding workable ways to become less sedentary. I am having fun with it.  I even had a good time at the grocery store. Dance is a regular part of my life again.

In some ways, though, it’s been hard. Of course, it’s always a challenge to change a habit or add a new one. It’s been more humbling than I expected. It’s disheartening to experience how out-of-shape I am when I try to reintroduce things that I used to do all the time.

Friday was all of those things.

The theme of the dance party this week was music from my childhood.  I put on my Girl Child of the 80s mix on Spotify, and I prepared to be transported back to the days when my sister, our neighbor Ginger, and I would choreograph dances to our favorite songs. We would even videotape ourselves and force our parents to watch them (you’re welcome, Mom and Dad). We had a few routines, but mostly, it was freestyle.

Friday’s dance party lasted about ten minutes. 80s music is exhausting, particularly when a person tries to do the same routine for Material Girl she used to do when she was in junior high as if she’s still that skinny and energetic.

Now, I don’t expect at 39 to have the same energy that I had at 13.  I did expect to make it through the song, though.

*sigh*

Most of the time, I find these moments motivating. Recognizing my current limit just gives me a starting point for gauging progress.

But this week was rough. I wasn’t looking for a starting point.  I was looking to have a little fun and then go on with my evening. Instead, I got exhausted, frustrated and pouty. I quit, stretched a little, had a glass of wine, and went to bed early. I regret nothing.

Well, except maybe the cultivation of a lifestyle that makes it impossible for me to get through a simple dance routine. Maybe I regret that a little. I’m sure in a few months, when I’m in better shape and I am able to make it through multiple songs, or maybe even in a few days when I am surprised to find something less difficult than I thought it would be, I will look back on this day and be able to extend grace to myself.

Right now, though, I’m just discouraged.

I’m committing to 31 days of movement…even the ones that suck.

I am a bit of a Jane Fonda fangirl.

Barefoot in the Park* is my favorite role of hers, but my fandom started when I first watched Barbarella.*  

Just click on that link and look at what a badass she looks like on the cover.

It’s no surprise that I am drawn to her workout videos, and I’ve worked out to most of them.  If you search “Jane Fonda workout” on Amazon, you get 558 results. This, of course, includes more than videos, and as this is a 31 Days project, clearly there is not time to go through all 558 items (also…you’re welcome). So I chose one.

I am not as fit as Jane Fonda in her prime workout-video-filming years (nor have I ever been, if we’re being perfectly honest). I must also confess that a commitment to daily movement balances on my fickle and tender fitness ego NOT being utterly deflated. I had to choose wisely.

Yoga for beginners?*  Yep.  I can do that.

I like that it has three different morning routines and two different nighttime routines, and I like that they’re short. This appeals both to my need for variety and my preference for brevity. I feel like Jane Fonda really gets me.

I checked this video out from the library, but I will definitely be buying it.

I’m committing to 31 Days of Movement.

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Once upon a time, I signed up to do 31 days of posts about movement. I outlined all my daily posts with care in order to be assured that no day would go by when I would be at a loss for something to do.

Then I made plans to go to my parents’ house for the weekend.

To say that my plan to add movement to every day derailed the last five days would not be completely accurate.  I worked in some movement every day.  It was not, however, the movement that I planned.  It was movement that I had already done (and thus written about) before, so I had no words to say. Well, I had few words to say. So I’m compiling them in a cheaty post here.

Day 16 – Thursday 

Original plan: arm workout with dumbbells. Revised plan: spend half an hour searching for dumbbells, fail to find them, give up, and just do the Tracy Anderson routine from Day 9.

Day 17 – Friday

Original plan: salsa dance party! Revised plan: morning stretches, frantic cleaning/packing, bedtime stretches.

Day 18 – Saturday

Original plan: vaguely titled “A Day on the Farm.” Revised plan: still a day on the farm, but instead of the gardening and dog-chasing, it was spent traipsing through fields, taking pictures, and stretching at night.

And look how pretty!

Day 19 – Sunday

Original plan: accelerated Pilates. Revised plan: the Mari Windsor video again.

Day 20 – Monday

Original plan: go to the gym. Revised plan: lol – not gym (in fact, as that plan holds zero appeal for me, it might get nixed altogether) but a nice walk around the neighborhood.

What I have learned from this is that the most important guideline for everyday movement is flexibility. That’s what I’m calling this little detour.

I am still moving every day, even when I don’t manage to write about it. 

I’ve taken a Zumba class before, and I really enjoyed it. So I thought I’d bring the party home.

At the library, I found a book called Zumba: Ditch the Workout, Join the Party!* (click the link – you’ll want to see the cover.  You’re welcome.), so I thought I’d check it out. This book will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Zumba – the background, the moves, and much more. It also has recipes and meal plans, which pleasantly surprised me.

Last night, I popped in the DVD that came with the book.  It takes you through the basic steps that you will encounter in any Zumba class. Then it gives you some music to practice the steps. If I had read the reviews of the book before I got it, I probably wouldn’t have done so. Most people didn’t seem to like that it didn’t give them a set routine to follow.

I am not most people.

To be fair, I already knew how to salsa, so I was already familiar with the rhythm of it and picked it up pretty quickly. I can see how the video would have been frustrating to people without that background. I’m also more of an individual learner than a group learner; I usually find a group learning environment to be more of a distraction I have to overcome than a help to the learning process. So maybe for extrovert beginners, the book and laissez-faire instructional DVD are not ideal.

I loved it, though. I put on the music portion of the DVD and Zumba-ed around my living room. Because I didn’t need to be tied to the screen to watch what the next move was, I Zumba-ed into my kitchen.  I Zumba-ed while filling up my water bottle.  I Zumba-ed while going through the mail. I Zumba-ed while folding laundry (challenging, by the way). Given freedom from routine, I probably Zumba-ed a lot longer than I would have if I had been forced to stay in one place to do it.

One of my biggest fitness challenges is that, while I thrive off routine in other areas of my life, routine is death to my workout regimen. I find it difficult to be motivated to work out if I know what’s waiting for me there is the same thing I did yesterday. I think that’s why it’s been easy to stick to the daily movement, because I planned different activities for each day.  There are definitely recurring themes, but the day-to-day plan is varied enough to keep me coming back to it.

I know that if I’m going to eat right, I need to make a plan. If I make a plan, I eat better and healthier food. I make fewer fast food runs, because I know I have things ready to eat or quick to make at home. I cook more, so I have food to bring to work for lunch rather than ordering a salad or a sandwich from the delivery service.

When I was in undergrad, it was easy to move daily. I parked once and walked around campus all day.  I took dance and physical education classes – everything from badminton to swim conditioning – making movement not only a part of my schedule but also a part of my GPA (so you KNOW I was going to show up). As a founding member of the Social Dance Liberation Front (motto – we are not a club; we are a radical movement), I made movement a fundamental part of my extracurricular activities. Most importantly – the activities were varied enough that I was never doing the same thing two days in a row.

In order for daily movement to continue to be a habit after these 31 days are over, I will need a plan, and that comes with challenges. As I am not a student, I no longer have the protection of my impeccable GPA to motivate me, nor do I have the built-in, every-other-day class schedule and the luxury of someone else planning the classes that automatically vary the routine. I have to come up with new motivations and new variations.  I have to find new reasons (that will actually matter enough to me to function as reasons) to commit to daily movement.

Any suggestions?  How do you make movement a priority? What motivates you?

*Affiliate link

Oh, Fall.  You’re so pretty. The leaves change color, repainting the landscape. The skies are more often overcast, giving an all-day complexity to its palette that we usually have to wait for sunrise or sunset to see. And there is a chill in the breeze, making it less common for people to turn into hot, sweaty messes between their cars and their offices.

Fall fashion is my favorite. I love the deep, rich colors that always seem to accompany the decadence of the season. I love layering. And we all know of my love of boots.

When I was taking dance classes, I took the long muscles in my legs and calves for granted. After I graduated and got a job, changing dance to a hobby rather than a responsibility, my body changed. Normally, this would not be cause for alarm.  Bodies change over time.  That’s just what they do.

But this change – this thickening of my calves – affected my shoe choices.

Unacceptable.

I keep my legs – specifically my lower legs – in shape. Even if the rest of my body is a little more on the softer side than I like, I am fanatical about my legs. Maybe it’s the years of dance training that have ingrained the ten-minute stretch at bedtime into my routine. Maybe it’s the memory of shin splints that spur me to strengthening exercises so that such pain can be avoided in the future. Maybe it’s the observation of the reduced mobility of older relatives that terrifies me to the core of my being and jolts me off the couch.

Maybe it’s those things. But frankly, I think it’s the boots.

There are a lot of videos out there that will show you how to get strong, muscular calves. These are not the videos for me. I want long and lean, not ripped. Bodybuilders’ calves don’t fit into badass boots; (most) dancers’ calves do.

This video is a good mix of the exercises I do. I have sensitive ankles and knees, so I have to be careful to avoid hyperextension. Really, it’s a good idea for everyone to avoid hyperextension, and it’s easy to fall into with anything that involves standing in a way that is not strictly flat-footed (i.e., pretty much every exercise in this video), so be careful that your lifting up and lowering down are aligned properly.

Welcome, Fall.  My boots and I are happy to see you.

I’m committing to 31 days of movement.  Click the button below to see the rest!

I love it when the weather looks like this:

Overcast. Rainy. Stormy.  Twin Peaks-y.

I don’t like it so much when I’m dog-sitting, though, because the dogs DO NOT like it. They do not like it at all. They will refuse to go outside. This not only means puppy pads on the floor and the inevitable clean-up (ick), but that all that pent-up energy from not being about to go outside, bark, and run around like crazy comes in sudden little explosions inside, usually when the show I’m watching is at an intense point. I guess they sense my tension, and it makes them antsy. I suppose I could choose to see that as sweet. One might hope, however, that they would also sense that their sudden barking like all hell is breaking loose does nothing to ease my tension. As of this posting, no such hope has been realized.

It’s even harder to see them as sweet when it happens to be stormy all night. Every time the thunder gets a little louder, I get to wake up to the town-crier barking.

I would have pulled an all-nighter last night – gotten some writing done, since apparently, I wasn’t going to get any sleep – but I crashed. I had a full day. I overslept (Saturday night was also a bit stormy), so I missed church, but I had time and a few blessed hours of sunshine to run around the backyard, chasing the dogs. My goal was to tire them out. It didn’t work the way I’d planned, of course.  I’m certain as soon as I headed over to my sister’s for lunch, followed by going to see Gone Girl with the book club, they curled up and had themselves a nice, rejuvenating nap.

But it did tire me out enough that I had no problem going back to sleep every time their frenzied barking woke me up last night. So while I got less sleep that I probably would have gotten if I were dog-free, I still was able to get enough to make me functional today.

Movement, 1. Storm/dog conspiracy, 0.

I’m committing to 31 Days of Movement.

So I was going to go to the Pantry Dash on Saturday to support efforts to raise awareness and funds for several food agencies in our area. And by “I was going to…” I do mean “I recognized that it was a good thing that I was glad was happening but was 1) on a weekend morning, 2) was not dependent on my attendance in any way to go off without a hitch, and 3) involved running, possibly even before coffee, so chances were always pretty slim that I would actually be there.”

There was a time in my life when, if something were happening and I said I might attend, I would end up attending, if only out of obligation. Sometimes that obligation was external (other people’s actual expectations); most of the time, it was internal (imagined sense of what other people expected of me, loosely based on abundant self-importance).

Clearly, that time has passed.

It was a rainy Saturday, and I was dog-sitting, so I spent Saturday with Netflix, watching Scandal reruns and having a Gilmore marathon while IM-ing Maggie and Michelle. But a day inside does not mean that I shirked activity.  In fact, if I am going to watch TV all day, it is imperative that I get up and move around occasionally.  So between each episode, I took about five minutes to run in place or do jumping jacks.

The first couple of times I did this, it got the dogs all riled up. After that, though, this was pretty much the reaction I got:

(Maddie’s thinly veiled contempt)

As a result, I probably moved more over the course of the day than I would have if I’d gone to the Pantry Dash.

I’m committing to 31 Days of Movement.