06 February 2011

Help Me Get Off The Couch

I'm trying to get back off the mailing list for Title Nine. I moved, I bought an undergarment or two, and all of a sudden I'm getting their catalogues again.

(A few years ago, I started calling all the people who were sending me junk, and telling them to take me off their mailing lists. Apparently, you also have to instruct them not to rent or sell your information. It worked: after several months, the rivers of junk mail slowed to a stream, and eventually to a trickle. It does take some maintenance, though, if you ever buy anything on line.)

So now I have these catalogues coming to the house filled with pictures of incredibly buff and quite skinny young women. The little boxes of text suggest they're real people, working moms who somehow find time to mountain bike competitively or rock climb professionally or surf several days a week. All of this makes me feel incredibly inadequate.

Hey, even when I was doing triathlons, I didn't look like those women. Ten years and one child later, I look even less like them. My BMI is a nice healthy 21.1, and I walk almost daily, even with pneumonia -- it's not like I'm a total couch potato. But there's a lot of flab.

But I know I'm supposed to get more exercise if I want to avoid getting completely decrepit as I get older. And carving out the hour that takes, three or four or five days a week, seems to be completely beyond me.

Maybe admitting to that in public will shame me into changing my slothful ways. Anyone wanna throw in a pep talk or a trick? (NO, NO, NO, I'm not getting up an hour earlier to get the exercise in. Just NO.)

3 comments:

  1. Then you have to pass on lunch and do it then. Getting up an hour early or doing it at lunch are pretty much the only options, although three hours on Sunday would also help. I personally do none of these. Jeanine

    ReplyDelete
  2. I almost always work through lunch, whether I'm at the office or working at home (like today, while the guys are at a chess tournament). But still, not a bad idea. Got a committee report written this morning, and now I'll go off and work out, then try to get a letter of recommendation written and another report finished before they get home. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This one is harder than it looks. Exercise for aging isn't necessarily about weight loss ... It's about bone preservation and muscle tone. Plus the areas where the research is still dodgy -- how much cardio is necessary for things like reducing the chances of cancer.

    You know me. I'm all about working smarter not harder. It might be as simple as packing some weights while you walk... i.e., altering what you do not how much or when you do it.

    Hug

    WCD

    ReplyDelete