Try something new - Rediscover an old love!

What's one activity that you have never tried, but always wanted to?

Have you ever kayaked out on the bay? Tried surfing? Kayak surfing? Even played a game of golf? Attended a Zumba class? How long has it been since you went bowling? Played a volleyball game? Played tag????

It doesn't matter what you do. What matters is to do something!

When asked "What is the best activity to practice for weight loss?" 12 trainers out of 12 answered the same thing "Whatever activity you enjoy enough to practice regularly."

This week find an activity that you have never tried or that you used to enjoy, but have stopped practicing. See if you can give it a try. Who knows, you might just find your activity Mojo all over again!

Making Walking Challenging!

Last spring with the Walk It Challenge, we talked about walking a lot, and with good reasons. It's an easy activity that is not only very effective, but low cost.

Still many people confided in me that they thought walking was not enough of a challenge for them. They couldn't figure out how to add intensity to their daily walks. Really? In San Francisco?

Incline:

The first obvious suggestion is find a few good hills and go to town. Walking uphill will add intensity. We are lucky you can find all grades, all heights, we have it all in SF!

Surface:

There isn't much difference in intensity between walking on pavement or on gravel really, but soft sand? Try walking on the beach away from the water. After a while you really start feeling it!

Weight:

You can buy vest that are made to add weight. Those are a good way to add weight to your walk without compromising your posture and/or your joints. There are also ankle and wrist weights that you can get. Honestly, with a bad knee, I would not use those, but it's between you and your doctor to know if it's ok for you to use them. Remember that any weight you chose to carry on your walks, you have to walk back with. :o)

Speed:

Sounds obvious, but if you don't have any hill nearby (hum..) or beaches, and weights are not happening, go for speed! You usually do your loop in 45 minutes? Shoot for 40 next time. Or keep the same time, but add a few blocks to your walk.

Walking can be a challenging activity if you want it to be, you can take it outside the city too! Go hiking! Just remember that it's generally much hotter outside of San Francisco, so plan adequately for clothing, sunscreen and water!

Be your own personal trainer!

What does a personal trainer do? They assess your present abilities, figure out what your goals are, and then break them down so that they can put together a plan for you to achieve your goals.

Sound familiar?

What if you were to take notes on your work outs, how much you are doing, how you feel afterward, and then used that to assess your abilities?

Cardio is really good, but you could use some strengthening? You're fairly strong, but looking at a hill makes you winded?

Once you've done that, you can make a plan!

To boost my cardio abilities, I can...

To tone up my arms, I can...

To _____ I can ____

As with everything we do, it's only a matter of taking this one challenge at a time, setting realistic goals, and having a plan! You can do this!

Rev up your walk!

Want to find a way to add intensity to your walk? There are so many ways!

Find a hill: In San Francisco it shouldn't be too hard right? Find a hill to climb, two if you want even more challenge.

Find stairs to climb: There are plenty of those in town. There's even a book about them!

Walk on the beach: Not by the water where the sand is good and hard, but away from it where the sand is dry and soft. You can burn a lot more calories walking or running in soft sand.

Add weight: There are weighed vest that you can get, also weights for the wrists and ankle. Be careful though, too much weight can be hard on the joints!

Walk faster: Ok, sound simple, but it's true! Try to add distance to your route without adding time.

These simple thing can rev up your walk! Make them more effective and challenging without making huge changes to what you do.

So what will you do differently this week?

Lindy in the Park! and it's FREE!

Laura, a member at the Jewish Community Center on Tuesday night has been talking about this for quite a while now. I haven’t done it yet, but keep meaning to.

If you want to give Lindy dancing a try, there are free lessons every Sunday (unless it’s raining) in Golden Gate park at 12:00!

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
(South sidewalk of John F. Kennedy Drive, between the de Young Museum and the north entrance to the Music Concourse)

You can find more information and contact info at this website:
http://www.lindyinthepark.com/about/free-lesson/

Doesn’t that sound like fun? I have to give it a try!

Sometimes it’s in the little things…

We have talked a lot about “challenges” lately, and “beating excuses”, and “Goals” when it comes to activity. Those are good, and important, but lets not forget that sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.

What are the little things that you can do to add to the total number of calories you burn in a day?

Are there instance where you could take the stairs instead of the elevator?

Could you park further away and walk to where you are going? Could you avoid having to park altogether and just walk from home/work?

Could you turn off the TV and go for a walk instead of watching a rerun?

In your day to day life, find those little opportunities for success, they might not seem like much, but in the long run they make all the difference!

Challenge:

Do not forget that we committed to moving 3 times this week! It doesn't matter if it's for 5 minutes or 2 hours, get out and move at least 3 times!

Monitoring your Activity

How do you monitor your activity? To earn Activity PointsPlus we look at Duration, intensity, personal weight. What else could we track?

What about these?

• Distance
• Weights
• Repetitions
• Post Work Out overall feeling

How far did you go when you first started walking/running/biking/swimming? How far are you going now? Did you add distance for the same time and intensity? Should you?

How heavy are the weights you work with? Could you swap the 7 lbs for 10 lbs? the 10 lbs for 12?

How many repetitions of each exercise are you doing? How about adding 2 to each set?

How do you feel after a work out? Ready for another work out? Maybe you need to bump up your routine. Worn off and sore to the point of not being able to go on to your daily activity? Maybe you are overdoing it! Sick of it? You need to try something else!

Self assessment is an important part of your activity routine. It keeps you on track, and let you know if your routine is effective, and realistic. It also is a great way to measure your improvements which are great motivators!