Tidying up (fitness stuff)

It's a good thing that the people in Austin who set up this Governor's Fitness Challenge consider housework to be a form of exercise. Remember when you were a kid in gym class, having to bend over, twist and touch your toes to do what the teacher called "Cherry Picking"? That's good practice for picking up dirty laundry and stuff around the house. I think I'll rename it "Sock Stretches," in honor of attempting to pick up a pile of clothes and having at least one sock fall out that you have to bend back over to get (and not drop the other stuff). It's kind of like that first "Karate Kid" movie where Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) has Daniel (Ralph Macchio) doing the cleanup and painting to teach him proper hand and arm technique - wax on, wax off, Daniel-san.

Getting back to point, count me as an hour of light housework on Wednesday and two hours of moderate housework yesterday. I've parked and walked to the third grade wing to pick up a child every afternoon. This morning, I found the time to do three laps around the big block and cool down in 30 minutes. I'd like to do more on the walking side, but with three kids in the house, keeping up with housework is a competition in itself.

Progress? Yes. I feel good, and I don't feel guilty about not walking on days when I was busy since I'm allowed to count the housework I do before I go to work. I think I'm much more apt to keep this going for that reason. Soft drink status: still none this year.

How many points for laundry??? Fitness, Day 2

I am sooooo out of shape. No way should my legs hurt the day after two brisk trips around the big block but they do. This is embarrassing. Today I didn't do another two laps. Saturday morning and early afternoon became housework time before I had to go to work. According to the Governor's Fitness site, housework can count (I'm sure they're thinking of something more than dusting) so I'm counting the 120 minutes of dishes, laundry, kitchen counter and cabinet cleaning and picking up as light housework. According to my activity log, that gives me 138 minutes for the week and a cleaner kitchen. I'm liking this...

My Latest, Greatest Attempt at Fitness, Day 1

10:16 a.m. to 10:34 a.m. – Okay, I’ve begun. Ignoring the old wives’ tale about not starting things on a Friday (what’s that about?), I kicked off my fitness project with two laps of brisk walking around our “big” block. Our neighborhood is roughly a square – three one-block-long streets running north-south hedged by an east-west street on either end. Weather report: partly cloudy, around 60 degrees and a strong, gusty south wind. Made for headwind resistance part of the way and a nice push up hill part of the way. I managed to hack off dogs at three locations by daring to walk by – twice. How do I feel? Good. This was a good start.
3:05 p.m. - Instead of driving around to pick up a child from school, I parked and walked. It's not far but it's something. Considering how drivers will cut in front of others clearly waiting to turn at the school, it's better for my blood pressure.