Move it or loose it

I just got back from a hike with a group of friends. They do it every Thursday. We carpool to local trails and beautiful places within about a 50 mile radius. They range from semi-difficult to easy easy. Everyone is challenged in some way, age, size,bad back, knees... It is NOT a stern, keep up with anybody event. Usually the terrain itself provides any level of difficulty. I have gone with them about 4 other times, sporadically over the last several months. I am committed now to go every Thursday. Between the fresh air, often at least tinged with ocean, the beauty of nature, today the sunshine and singing birds, and the social aspect, the rewards are so much more than the "exercise."

Earlier this week I attempted a yoga class. I have always been drawn to yoga and the numerous times I have tried it, have always been unsuccessful. I need a small, slow starting class, I think. Anyway, this was a small class with caring people. The teacher is an awe inspiring 77 year young master. They were all very accommodating but I was basically being drug along kicking and screaming. The screaming didn't stop for 2 days and sleepless nights because of all the unused muscles that I'd tried to use.

Recently, I heard someone when speaking about "exercise" say that they didn't like the word or the doing and that the KEY to an active life is to organize your life around "activities" that you ENJOY. I concur.

Most of us can let our wills keep us on the couch or in the easy chair no matter how much we enjoy some activities but if we win just that small battle with our wills and get up and outside to do something we enjoy, we will move.

Movement is ESSENTIAL! If you don't use it you will loose it. The "it" in this case being the ability to move. It is additionally true that if you "move it," if you use the calories you intake, you will loose unwanted pounds and inches and without movement you won't.

But I repeat, exercise is best if it is gotten with an activity you enjoy. Then it is adding to your life NOW, not a dreaded and not enjoyed activity that you require of yourself in order to get to some future goal.

"Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind, it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life." suano mind (part of a quote received from my youngest son's I phone this AM)