Category: health

the gym

by Karen, posted in books, fitness, health

when i go to the gym, i bring a book (for distraction from stairmaster), am if it’s a day i have to go immediately to work, a clothing change. oh, and car keys (except for once, but that’s another story).  goal: get in, work out, then get out as fast as i can. it’s interesting to me that others do not. i am constantly amazed at what i see when i get there. what are some of their agendas?

  1. the sitter: today there was a man at the gym; there is one like him every time i go. he arrives. he chooses a weight machine. he sits. he waits. he stretches. what is he doing? he rests his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. perhaps he is thinking, “how did i get here?”.  i, on the other hand, am thinking: “please get up sometime today because i need to use that machine!”  doesn’t he have chairs at home?
  2. the baggage carrier: sitting (!) on a weight machine bench. has a gallon of water. a notebook. an ipod. sunblock. gym bag. “hello? are you unaware of the locker room directly to your left?”  perhaps he has no peripheral vision?
  3. the poser: this may be a man or a woman. they are decked out in their finest gym-wear. they have their hair done. they choose weight machines that are near the mirrored wall. then, for a moment, you think they may actually be going to, you know, exercise…but no. they drape themselves over the machine and strike a pose, then look in the mirror. they adjust the pose, then look in the mirror again. “hello? you aren’t alone here; we can all see you!” this begs the question: don’t they have mirrors at home?
  4. the laundress: there was actually a woman in the ladies’ locker room doing her ironing. standing there in her underwear doing her ironing. okay, so you know where i’m going with this, right? don’t you have an iron at home? actually, come to think of it, i don’t. hey, maybe i could make this work for me! i could bring my ironing and do it at the gym, instead of working out! is that worth $10 per month plus the $29 annual fee?

what do you take with you to the gym? how long do you stay?

summer camps, part two

by Karen, posted in education, family, fitness, tweens

or…what to do with the tweens in the summer.

there are lots of fun camps in southern maine for the kids to attend. whether your main focus is their enjoyment or your child care needs, there are plenty of options. here are a few:

1. for your aspiring actors: ogunquit playhouse runs a summer theater camp for kids ages 5 through 18.  this will be my daughter’s 3rd year attending and she has loved it every year. http://www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/childrens-theatre/comingsoon

2. for some variety: York County Community College in Wells runs a College for Kids program for kids 7-14. they have pared the offerings down in the past few years (alas, no more magic camp), but my daughter as well as some of her friends have attended (adventure camp) and enjoyed them in the past.  http://www.yccc.edu/cebs/college_for_kids.htm

3. for your horseback riding kids: Lyman Hill Farm runs a horse riding camp for kids age 4-14 for all skill levels. This is a fun camp with caring counselors that runs rain or shine (the riding area is enclosed). they still have some spots left in most weeks as of today’s posting.  http://lymanhillfarm.com/

4. if you have a child that learns differently, you may consider a summer school program through your child’s school. if your child has an IEP, ask about ESY; this would be the time to bring this up if you are interested in this option. here’s a website with more information about this topic: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/esy.index.htm

5. Wells Parks and Recreation for kids entering K-grade 6. i have no first hand experience with the summer camps but i do with many of their school year programs, which are excellent. most communities have a parks department that you may want to investigate. hint: i’ve been told that the summer camps fill up fast…http://www.wellstown.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B9BC8EF4A-0E1C-491C-B0B3-D9F15EE2BCBA%7D

any other good ideas for camps in southern maine?

any of you brave enough to send your tween to overnight (gasp!) summer camp?

summer day camps, part one

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, tweens

5 reasons to send your tween to summer camp

1.they will not be calling you at work every 10 minutes with the latest update on their loose tooth

2. they won’t be fighting with their brothers/sisters/peers  (within your earshot, anyway)

3. you will be forced to be very efficient with the decisions about “what’s for lunch?” ; that will be dealt with the night before (as in: bag lunch). (added bonus: there will be no occasions of  “can we go to dairy queen/maine diner/east/duffy’s/seacoast pizza for lunch?”)

4. they (probably) don’t have jobs, and you (probably) do…maybe even one that you’d like to keep…so, what else are they going to do? unless, of course, your children are blessed with loving, involved, local grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.

5. you can only play so many rounds of uno/war/operation before your patience starts to wear thin…

do any of you have some other reasons to add to this list?

here’s a link with some more information about summer camps for your kids: http://www.summercamp.org/index.html

jumping

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, health, no fear, tweens, yoga

i was at my regular saturday morning yoga class and the teacher taught us a short ashtanga (http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/1366) sequence that involved jumping. one of the women said something like, “kids do it all the time, but how often do adults get to jump in real life? never!”.  i was thinking, “i do! i was jumping just the other day!” i had, in fact, just been jumping two days prior. i was sitting in my cubicle at work and suddenly realized i had been sitting for a couple of hours straight and needed to get up and move…i have a programmed alert in my outlook calendar that pops up every hour, prompting me to “GET UP!!”, but i must have inadvertently clicked on ‘dismiss’ instead of ‘snooze’ earlier in the day. so i stood up, and surprised my fellow cube mates (not to mention myself) by starting to jump up and down. i don’t know where it came from, but it was like the jumping just spontaneously sprang forth from my body, without my prior knowledge or consent. once i started, though, i realized that it felt good and i continued for several more seconds before self-consciousness gained the upper hand and i stopped.

reasons to jump:

1. it’s fun!

2. if you own a trampoline, you can get your money’s worth!

3. if you have a jump rope (come to think of it, i do), you can get your money’s worth!

4. it’s good cardio!

actually, speaking of cardio, money can be raised by jumping. my daughter recently participated in a jump-a-thon  (for the american heart association) at her school and raised $55.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=2360

how long has it been since you jumped up and down just for the fun of it? 🙂

Rule #1

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, no fear, tweens

my daughter fell off her horse at her riding lesson last week. her instructor said something like, “is this your first time falling off a horse?” fortunately, her dad brought her to that lesson, not her mom, so there were no hysterics involved. when he asked her what happened, why she fell, she said, “I let go of the reins”.  which leads me to

Rule #1: always wear your helmet!

i understand that “first time” implies there are other times to come. i try not to worry too much about this. i try but i don’t succeed (hel-lo? remember Christopher Reeve?). i looked up some info online about horseback riding lesson: http://www.wikihow.com/Get-a-Child-Horse-Riding-Lessons

now that i know a little more about what i didn’t know about horseback riding, i feel like i can comment a bit on this topic.

  1. about wearing jeans: my daughter did just fine wearing jeans and then one day she finished her lesson with a complaint that her leg hurt. upon investigation, we found a large round blister on the inside of her shin just below the knee from the inseam of the jeans…prior to that day she had been wearing long johns under the jeans (it was COLD, riding outside in february!) but in the warmer weather she had adjust her riding wardrobe to prevent injury.
  2. another point made in the online article was to ask your child if she prefers private lessons or riding with another person. turns out, she prefers riding with others.
  3. it is a good idea to shop around. ask for referrals from friends whose children ride (or ride themselves) but be prepared to make up your own mind. just because someone speaks highly about a facility doesn’t mean it’s right for you or yours. also, prices for similar services can vary widely.

the bottom line was that she did get back on, which i understand is a sure sign that she  really does want to learn to ride a horse. 🙂

bowling

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, tweens

recently i went bowling for the first time in more than a decade. i took my daughter and was immediately presented with a bowling dilemma: to add bumpers, or NOT to add bumpers? that is the question. with bumpers, will they ever learn to throw the ball properly so that they can one day bowl without them? without bumpers, will they become so demoralized by their gutter ball induced lack of measurable scores that they will not want to play ever again? hmmmm.

how do you other parents out there solve the bowling bumpers dilemma?

the worst thing about bowling? the SHOES (ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww).

the best thing about bowling? spending time having fun with my family doing something other than eating.

bottom line: bowling is fun.  here’s a link to find a place to bowl near you:

http://www.bowlcandlepin.com/bowlzip/index.htm

trust your instincts

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, tweens

well. my daughter has been riding at the new barn (http://home.comcast.net/~goodrich-puffer/index.html) for a while now, and loves it here. she is learning things like “posting”, “diagonals”, and “emergency dismounts”…oh my! more importantly, i am not experiencing that vague feeling of uneasiness that never left me at the other barn…the “i can’t put my finger on it, but something doesn’t seem quite right” feeling that mothers (and others) sometimes feel. i don’t feel like that at all when she is riding here. plus, this instructor taught her more in an hour than the prior one did in a month. this instruction makes the other look like…pony rides. expensive pony rides.

have any of you ever had a “gut feeling” about something that turned out to be true? did you follow your instinct right away, or wait awhile first?

potlucks

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, health

march is nutrition month, and this year we celebrated it at work by having a potluck. the general overall theme was healthy eating; the underlying challenge was to prepare and bring healthy foods that people wanted to eat, which left quite a wide range open for interpretation.  we had the requisite fruit and veggie tray, and a box of clementines from the no-time-to-shopper…then we had the piece de resistance: vegetable casserole, which was a hands down favorite.  this recipe can be found here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1750,149169-249195,00.html

ahhh, and then there was the bread.

is there anything better than a potluck to improve morale in the workplace? if so, what??

marching into may

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, health

i just took a walk, then negated the benefits of said walk by accepting and eating a homemade peanut butter oatmeal cookie when i got back to work. i took the walk because this year i signed up for March into May, a program designed to help you become more active. you set your own goals, then update them each week for 8 weeks.  i consoled myself after the cookie-eating with the fact that i DID, at least, take the walk, which i probably wouldn’t have done if i wasn’t thinking about my MIM goal not yet being met for the week. (i probably would have eaten the cookie either way…one of the best bakers i know made it!).

if you decide to sign up for MIM (it’s free! and you can build in your own rewards (cookies!) for staying on track each week , or for whatever behaviors you choose to reward). here’s a tip from someone who has participated in MIM for several years (me!):  for your goal: set the bar low; make it achievable, so it is motivating, not demotivating. 🙂

http://www.marchintomay.org/march-into-may.php

what do you think? is this worth doing? will it help you get out and do some exercise of some sort that you might not have done otherwise ?