exercise daily

I can’t really recommend lying to your doctor, but it turned out to be a big motivator for me. When I went to the doctor in May and he asked how much exercise I was doing I said “60 minutes, 5 times per week.” That was true, but nearly half of it was stretching and yoga and I’m pretty sure he meant aerobic exercise.

So, since then, I’ve been bound and determined that the next time he asked that question, I would give the same answer and it would be completely true. Today was the day! I’ve been consistently walking for 60 minutes, 5 times a week for over two months now, so I was able to give him exactly the answer that I wanted.

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August

1: 50-min yoga

2: 20-min yoga

3: 4 15-min walks

4: 20 min recumbent, 20 min elliptical, 20 min track + stretching, 25 min yoga

5: 20 min recumbent, 20 min elliptical, 20 min track + stretching, 20 min yoga

6: 20 min recumbent, 20 min elliptical, 20 min track + stretching

7: 25 min recumbent, 15 min elliptical, 20 min track + stretching

8: Rest Day

9: 20 min yoga

10: 4 15-min walks on treadmill

11: 20 min recumbent, 20 min elliptical, 20 min track + stretching

12: Walked an hour at Powder Valley with RV

13: Sick Day

14: 15-min walk on treadmill, recovering day, I suppose but I probably could have done more than that—I just didn’t.

15: an hour walking to and from the Greentree Festival, plus 45 minutes walking around there. That makes up for some of the malaise over the last couple of days.

16: over 3 hours walking around the Greentree Festival—including the car show

17: pulled out the carpet in the basement and made pesto from our basil harvest—not particularly aerobic, but it took all my energy

18: Sick Day

19: 20-min walk, 20-min yoga

20: 2 15-min walk, 30-min walk

21: 40-min walk, 20-min walk

22: 20-min walk, 20-min yoga

23: 30-min yoga

24: 60-min walk in neighborhood

25: 40-min walk at Galleria, 20-min walk in neighborhood

26: Walked 40 min w/ R in neighborhood

27: Walked 40 min w/ RV at Powder Valley

28: Walked 20 min w/ R in neighborhood, walked 40 min on Grant’s Trail

29: Walked 20 min w/ R in neighborhood

30:

In spite of dog days of summer doldrums from my allergies, I’m right where I wanted to be. This week, I did 60 minutes of an aerobic activity 5 times—and, assumming I do my yoga today, did yoga the other two days. I think I’ll stick at this level for awhile and just work on getting my intensity up. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be at a level where I can honestly say “I’m exercising about enough.” I also can’t tell you how pleasurable it feels to carry in many bags of groceries and just enjoy the sensation of moving my body rather than have that be an exhausting chore.

January | February | March | April | May | June | July

1: 25-min walk in neighborhood w/ R, 20-min recumbent, 15-min elliptical = 60 + less than usual stretching (I was hungry!)

2: 25-min recumbent, 15-min elliptical, 15-min walk = 55 + stretching

3: 50-min walk in neighborhood

4: 20-min yoga

5: 30-min yoga

6: 20-min treadmill, 20-min recumbent, 20-min elliptical + stretching

7: 5 10-min walks on treadmill in basement (best I could manage on an allergy-induced low-energy day) = 50

8: 60 minutes of walking at the mall (another good workout for a day featuring allergy malaise and 100 degree temps, but I’m running out of ideas, so hope to get to the gym tomorrow)

9: 25 min elliptical, 25 min recumbent, 10 min walking = 60, no stretching (strange day)

10: 0

11: 20 min recumbent, 20 min elliptical, 10 min walking = 50, plus stretching

12: Yoga, 45 min

13: 25-min treadmill, 15 min elliptical, 20 min recumbent = 60, no stretching (hot tub closed for maintenance this week – maybe, I’ll take this opportunity to do a bit more yoga)

14: 25-min recumbent, 15-min elliptical, 20 min walking = 60

15: 4 15-min walks on basement treadmill = 60

16: 25-min recumbent, 25-min elliptical, 5 min walking = 55

17: 20-min yoga

18: 50-min walking in the neighborhood

19: 20-min yoga

20: 25-min recumbent, 25-min treadmill, 10-min track = 60 + stretching

21: 2 hrs walking at Botanical Garden

22: 35 min on treadmill,15 min recumbent, 10-min track = 60 + stretching

23: 50 min walk in neighborhood

24: 20 min yoga

25: 2 15-min walks

26: 50-min yoga

27: 4 15-min walks

28: 4 15-min walks, 45-min yoga

29: 25 min recumbent, 25 min ellipitical, 10 min track + stretching

30: 2 hours walking at Botanical Garden

31: walked to old house and back >60

I exercised every single day in July! I’m consistently doing 5 days of aerobic exercise and 2 of yoga. Two of my aerobic days are up to 60 minutes, the other three are 50 minutes. By the end of August, I’d like 4×60, 1×50 and then get to work on that last one.

January | February | March | April | May ! June

1: 20 minutes of yoga

2: 30 minute River Walk, 15 min walk + stretching

3: 25 min recumbent, 20 min walk + stretching

4: 45 min walk

5: 20 min on elliptical, 15 min on recumbent, 10 min walking = 45 + stretching

6: 60 min yoga

7: 45 min walk

8: 2 yoga DVDs ~50 minutes

9: 50 minutes River Walking + stretching, 50 minute yoga DVD

10: 20 min elliptical, 20 min recumbent bike, 10 min walking on track + stretching

11: walked a lot, longest about an hour

12: 20 min yoga DVD + physically demanding day

13: 20 min elliptical, 20 min recumbent bike, 10 min walking on track + stretching

14: 5 10-min walks = 50 + 45 min yoga

15: 30-min yoga DVD

16: 10-min recumbent, 15-min elliptical, 30-min River Walk = 55, plus stretching

17: 20 min elliptical, 20 min recumbent bike, 10 min walking on track + stretching

18: walked 3 hours at MO Botanical Garden

19: 20 min elliptical, 20 min recumbent bike, 10 min walking on track + stretching

20: 25-min recumbent bike (won today’s stage of the Tour de France), 25-min River Walk + stretching

21: 30-min yoga DVD

22: 30-min yoga DVD

23: 50-min walk with RV at Powder Valley

24: 40-min walk & 25-min walk in neighborhood = 65

25: 50-min walk in neighborhood

26: 50-min walk at mall

27: 35-min recumbent bike, 15-min elliptical, 10-min walk = 60 + stretching

28: 30-min yoga DVD

29: 40-min yoga DVD

30: walk 50 min with RV at PV

31: walk 60 min in neighborhood

My exercise in June took a big leap when I signed up for the Iron Man challenge at my gym—then a big dive when I got a cold and had to admit defeat.

Oh well, it’s got me doing cross-training and made me realize that I can do more minutes of aerobic exercise a day and a week than I thought I could.

So, goal for July: work my way up to 60 minutes aerobic activity five times a week plus stretching. And yoga two times a week.

January | February | March | April | May

1: 2 30-min walks = 60

2: walk >40 min, stretch >20 min = 60+

3: 20 min yoga, 40 min walk = 60

4: 5 10-min walks, 30 min walk = 80

5: 60 min walk (5K)

6: 30 min walk

7: 0

8: 2 10-min walks, 20-min walk, 20 min yoga = 60

9: 30-min walk, 30 min yoga = 60

10: 30-min stretching, 20 min walk, 25 min yoga = 75

11: 4 10-min walks, 20 min yoga = 60

12: 25-min yoga, 20-min walk, 15-min walk = 60

13: 5K walk (50+ min), 10+ min stretching > 60

14: 15-min walk, 10-min walk = 25

15: 2 20-min walks, 40-min yoga = 80

16: 20 min stretching in hot tub

17: Rest Day

18: 20 min Lazy River Walking, 23 min cycling, 18 min walking, 20 min stretching (first day of Iron Man challenge at my gym) >60

19: 12 miles on recumbent, 1 mile on treadmill, plus stretching > 90 min

20: 1 mile walk downtown, 4 miles on recumbent, 1 mile on treadmill, plus stretching > 60 min

21: Rest Day

22: walked 2 miles, biked 8 miles, stretched >60 min

23: Rest Day

24: walked 1 mile

25: water walk .6 miles, bike 4 miles, walk 1 mile ~60

26: Bike 6 miles, walk 1.5 miles, stretch > 60

27: Sick day

28: Sick day

29: Sick day

30: short walk

Fell apart in the middle of the month—didn’t even manage to record some days! But I met a major goal of walking 5K at one time.

June goals: walk 5K once a week, workd toward 60min+ exercise 5 days a week

January | February | March | April

1: 4 10-min walks, 40 min yoga class = 80

2: 3 10-min walks, 40 min Candlelight Yoga DVD = 70

3: 2 10-min walks = 20

4: walked 4K on treadmill (40 min), 20 min stretching in hot tub = 60

5: walked 40 minutes to mailbox and back = 40

6: walked 30 minutes, 10 min yoga = 40

7: 2 10-min walks, 30 min walk = 50

8: walk 30 minutes = 30

9: ?

10: ?

11: ?

12: 90 min art fest walking

13: family walk ~30

14: 3 10-min walks = 30

15: walked 4.5K, 53 min

16: ?

17: walked 30 min, stretched 15 min = 45

18: stood 90min+ (commencement volunteer), walked ~25, stretched ~20 = 45

19: 20-min walk, 40-min walk = 60 (yay!)

20: 60+min walking around garden centers, 50-min yoga DVD = >60 (yay!)

21: 10-min walk, 20-min stretching = 30

22: 10-min walk, 4.8K walk (55 min) = 65

23: 2 10-min walks, 30-min walk = 50

24: 35-min walk, 25-min stretching = 60

25: ~20 min stretching

26: 40 min walk, 20 min stretching = 60

27: 0

28: 10 min walk

29: 5K walk (58 min) + stretching >60

30: 25 min walk

31: 20 min walk, 45 min yoga = 65