I Have Watched An AARP Video For More Information On A Fitness Program. This Is Where I Am In Life.

Mondays are great days to start anew.  I imagine most diets, exercise programs, and self-improvement projects are started on Mondays.  And today I'll be using all the that fresh start Monday juju by kicking off my own little personal project.  Today I will attempt to launch and (hopefully) maintain a running program.  So there it is.

I've always wanted to like running - it just isn't something I could truly embrace, not unlike my experiences with goat cheese and Dave Matthews.  I want to like those things.  Liking those things would feel kinda cool, even.  I just don't.

So the other day I was rewriting a proposal, and for background noise I had some YouTube videos playing.  They were mostly from a strange little channel I found on YouTube that featured a British woman interviewing authors in her kitchen.  They even made cocktails before each interview.  What's not to like, right?  One interview was with a woman who had just written a book about fitness for people in the 50+ category.

I was going to turn it off assuming she'd suggest chair aerobics, Prancercize, or using canned vegetables instead of weights for some toning work.  But she wasn't much older than me and looked fabulous - she also drank her cocktail with gusto and appeared to be loving life.  I was intrigued.  She noted yoga, with its emphasis on balance and flexibility, is a very important part of fitness as you age (round of applause), but also that running (gasp) is a good way for people to maintain bone density and cardiovascular health.  I thought the cardiovascular thing was obvious, but the bone density thing caught me by surprise.  I grew up with a grandmother who suffered with osteoporosis and as a small boned woman who's calcium intake doesn't extend much beyond triple cream cheese and calcium supplements, I thought yoga was enough to keep me out of the osteoporosis woods.  Perhaps not.

She suggested a run/walk program that would work you up to being able to run a 5K.  That's all I want to do.  I'm not looking to run marathons (though I have quite a lot of respect for those folks), I just think that anything taken to an extreme loses some of its charm.  A 5K is great.  As a workout, it shouldn't take too long, it can be done anywhere, and if I wanted to actually participate in a formal event, there are a ton available and most offer pretty cute t-shirts just for participating.  So, after some research, I found an app for my iPhone that is actually a run/walk program.  It has you run/walk three days a week for however long it takes until you are able to completely run a 5K.  It tells you when to start and stop each run/walk portion of your workout, it plays music to match your pace, and the guy who created it apparently gives you encouragement throughout each run.  This should be interesting.

I'm going to try to keep this up in addition to my yoga practice.  In order to fit it in though, I'm having to cut back a bit on yoga so I'm hoping I'll still get the great calming and energizing result from this that I do form a nice vinyassa session.  Here is a link to the app if you agree misery loves company you're interested in starting a program yourself.

I'm wearing this day.  When I'm not blazing a trail in my running shoes.

I love a simple grey tank - such a great basic piece.  It always looks good.  The boyfriend jeans?  Basic too, but meh.  Maybe running will make me feel like I look better in them (do you hear me Running?  I'm expecting a lot from you!!!)

So for Meatless Monday, we'll be rocking a chopped salad with Ina Garten's blue cheese dressing.  Because sometimes if you are eating only veggies and white beans, covering the whole thing in a bit of blue cheese creaminess, makes it just a bit better.

gratitude:  technology, athletic tape, Eliza's return to sports, pumpkins in our garden

thanks and love.