Ad Hoc Exercise Plan

I hate gyms! I can provide no reasonable logical reason for this so leave it at that. And after 12 years in the Army, I vowed I would never run again unless someone was chasing me intent on causing me physical harm. I have broken that vow on occasion, breaking out in a spontaneous jog while walking the dog, but it's never planned or intentional - only when the jog mood strikes.

So how do I achieve fitness if I don't follow the over-prescribed meme of gym and jogging? Over the past few years I've made a number of deliberate small changes in how I approach life such that I get exercise in a non-traditional manner that's just a part of how I live daily life.

Penny (R) pesters Pistol, her brother (L)

First and foremost on the list was acquiring our Chocolate Labrador, Penny. I knew that with Penny I had no excuses available for not walking - the dog must be walked! So every morning in every weather except significant rain (I even walk in drizzle and sprinkles) I walk Penny. And except for sniff stops, we walk at a blistering pace. Typically 15-25 minutes per day. Oh, and there is one other daily walk exception - I don't walk her when we go out to our 10 acre ranch (see my other blog: Manchmal Gruene Weide) because both Penny and I get plenty of exercise out there.

But, but, that's not enough exercise! You're supposed to exercise at least 30 minutes per day! (As recommended by the latest health guidelines.) Aha! I have that shortfall covered in several ways. For the last several years I made it a habit to park my truck at work under the shade of a tree as far from my desk as I can get. It takes me literally five minutes to walk from my truck to my desk (at the same Penny-walking blistering pace.) Thus I get at least 10 additional minutes of walking and that's doubled if I need to drive on an errand somewhere. In addition, nearly every day I go on an afternoon 15 minute walk with coworker(s) as a source of stress relief (and juicy work rumors.) And last, but not least, for the last 18 months I have been standing instead of sitting in my computer work cubicle. Using some scrap walnut boards and oak plywood I built a stand to elevate my keyboard to elbow height above the desk while standing and stacked phone books to lift the monitors to good viewing height. I scrounged a tall stool from the lab to perch on when my feet get tired, but I never spend more than a few minutes on that before I'm back on my feet. The funny thing is, within 3 weeks of setting up the standing work space I lost an inch off my waist without loosing any weight. I also spend more on shoes because my feet tell me when a pair of shoes is worn out.

To top all that off, nearly every weekend I head out to our ranch and at the very least walk. Most of the time though it's far more intense than that because we have an orchard (6 peach trees, 3 plum trees, 2 apple trees) a row of blackberries and raspberries, two grape vines, and a 1000 square foot garden plot. Oh, and Inge's donkey, Herbert, which requires lots of hay bale lifting in the winter. So I'm usually digging, hoeing, lifting, building, watering, and on and on. I always come away from the land with a glow in my muscles (and in my spirit!) from the work required there.

So I don't feel my life lacks a healthy amount of exercise. But I know there's room for improvement because 1) I'm not particularly strong, and 2) even when I had dropped to 180 lbs in 2006 I still had a bit of a paunch and love handles. However, a couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon an article about Kettlebell training - something I'd never heard of before. After a bit of investigation I decided that the Kettlebell may be the tool for me to attack the paunch problem and improve my strength as well. I'll explain my reasoning and approach for adding Kettlebell training (real exercise!) to my lifestyle in the next post.