Fixing Bad Habits

I read this interesting article today on "fixing bad habits". I agree with most of what has to say. It has not been easy getting into the habit of going to the gym every day, and sure, there are plenty of days I'd rather sit around eating bon-bons, but once it became a habit, not going just really doesn't seem like an option anymore.

Enjoy the article, hope it inspires you to GOYB and join us for the SOS walk this Sunday!

Boot Camp Week 2

So, for those of you who don't believe I'm doing a boot camp, I had HFC David come down and take pictures tonight. Note that there are a bunch of people in the class, but I don't really know them well enough to ask if they want to be on my website, so I cropped as much as possible. Without further ado, me at boot camp:

 Warming up.

Windmills

Alison, telling us what horrors lie in store for us tonight.

 Hey mom, notice I'm not only wearing a hat, but I'm wearing my very cool spider hat! I might be slow and fat but at least I am the most fashionable at boot camp!

Hurling a tire down the length of the field. And back.

 In the background you can see the other tortures of the night including box steps and kettle balls.

 Hurling a 15 lb medicine ball down the field.

Bear walking. This doesn't look like much, but you really feel it when you go up and down the length of the field like this.

There was more, but David left to come home and make me a healthy nutritious dinner. Which means I didn't get ice cream for dinner and will hate him forever and ever.

(Ok, I just ate dinner, it was actually pretty good, guess I won't hate him too much.)

Event Update: SOS Walk #2

We did our second official SOS walk this morning. There were a few setbacks. First, none of us realized that there are at least 3 parking lots for the North Sebastian Conservation Area. Second, there are no maps at the park, the trails are poorly marked, and none of us had been there before. Third, it was hotter than hades. We realized at about the 1.5 mile mark that this would still be an SOS walk, but instead of Six on Sunday, it would stand for SWEAT on Sunday! So, we kind of wandered aimlessly for 3 miles, but it was all good, had a great time, got cool pictures, and got to see some things this week! So, if you didn't GOYB this weekend, here's what you missed:

 This is a female scrub lizard. With the really spiny back she kind of looks ancient.

 This is a Tar Flower

 This is a boy scrub lizard. Notice the brighter colors on the tummy.

 Another shot of the boy scrub lizard. I love the bright blue under the chin, just makes me want to go kootchi-kootchi-koo!

 This is a Marsh Pink.

This is so cool. We came across this indian midden. Here is the divine Miss Heather showing how the shells were used.

 The cool thing about this conservation area is the critters. It's amazing how good at camoflage they are. Here is an oak toad. They were all over, but hard to see.

This is HFC David beside a palm tree that had a pine tree growing out of it.

 This is a Day Flower. I like the way it looks like it has a little spider in the middle.

 This is a yellow bellied slider with an attitude.

 HFC David with a gopher tortoise

 Heather with the same gopher tortoise

David took this shot of the board walk. It was a georgeous day!

Heather and yours truly.



It was a great day out there. Make sure you remember to GOYB and join us in our future adventures. Remember, you might see life on TV, but won't actually live life on your couch!

Why 5-Minute Activities?

Here is a precise explanation of why we should be doing at least 5 minutes of activity every hour instead of just sitting at our desks. Let's get serious, and let's start on Monday, especially all my work at home readers. For the first week, I'll even make a deal: If you make a suggestion for a 5-minute activity, in addition to posting a picture of me doing it, I'll also send you a custom DeeMotivation t-shirt! Let's move!


Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Homework

Ok, I thought I'd make a homework assignment this weekend. Since it's way too hot, every one is given a pass for a few hours today during the hottest part of the day. You are allowed to sit on your couch and watch one movie. The catch is that it has to be something highly inspirational. This movie is why I can't workout without an iPod. It is available on NetFlix. DeeMotivationites, your homework is to watch it, then the next time you work out, remember the beat!!

But you don't get a pass tomorrow, remember we are meeting at 8:30 am for an SOS walk at North Sebastian Conservation Area. Be there or be square!

What a difference a few decades make

So, back in high school, I kind of "forgot" to go to gym class. A lot. Technically, I skipped gym my entire senior year. A few months before school ended, I was told that if I didn't make up all the classes I skipped, I wouldn't be allowed to graduate. So I spent the last 2 months of my senior year walking the track over and over till I made up all the skipped classes.

As mentioned a few posts back, I recently signed up for a "boot camp" style outdoor fitness class. I think I was insane the day I signed up, but regardless I have attended for 3 days now. Here's how it's going so far:

• Day 1: Accidentally did pushups on a fire ant hill. Don't really need to say anything else about that day, now do we?
• Day 2: We had to pick a partner and between the 2 of us, had to do 100 reps at each of 6 stations. By the time we got to the situps with a 12 pound ball station, I was kind of hoping for rain. And lo, it started raining. So we moved inside where Alison (the trainer) had even worse things in mind for us. It was too horrible to talk about. I came home and was so tired that I asked the cat for my water bottle. He wouldn't get it for me so I had to actually walk across the room and get it myself. Barty can be a jerk sometimes. 
• Day 3: We had to do push ups, ball slams, lawn mower pulls with weights, kettle ball swings, and a bunch of other torturous things. And it's hot out. Very very hot. The worse part about it was that I had to stop at Publix to get some milk on the way home. I passed through the ice cream aisle and was going to get some Ben and Jerry's Phish Food for dinner, when I noticed someone from the boot camp in the store. I put the ice cream back, but I will secretly hate and resent that person for ever for foiling me. 

So basically, other than the searing pain in every inch of my body, including my hair, it's actually going quite well. But if you had told 17 year old me that in 30 years I would be paying someone to make me do this stuff, she would have laughed you into the middle of next week. And then continued walking around and around the track (and those of you wondering, yes, I did get my diploma. Eventually.)

Event Update: SOS 1

So, today we did our first official Six on Saturday (SOS) walk. It was very hot, but very awesome too. If you didn't choose to GOYB, here is what you missed. As usual, click photos to embiggen:

This was a really pale hawk. Not entirely sure what kind. He flew out in front of us when we first started out.

 This guy must be a local, I think I got a picture of him the last time we walked A1A too.

 A neat tree top.

 This was scary. We were just innocently walking along when suddenly Heather grew as big as palm tree! Here she is doing her patented Attack of the 50 Foot Woman pose.

 These aren't sea beans, but I have already forgotten what Heather said they are called.

 Heather returned to normal size by the turn around point, 3 miles.

 Your fearless leader, at 3 mile point.

It was very very hot, so we didn't see a huge number of critters, but on the way back, we found some bob cat poop, so we know the critters are out there!

Hope you can join us on our next outing.

Remember, you can only watch life go by from your couch, you can make life happen by getting off your butt!