Part one: Walk with or withoutsticks. Need to be achievedbefore 10.30 am as it comes too hot. And I mean too hot –+33 C! It is lovely to walk around the village and seethe awakening of the new day.
Part two:
Mat exercise: 15 min average max for 30 min. Just the basics; crunches, squats, glute lifts, blanks, stretches and twists. This needs to be done when the little ones are having their siesta.
Part three:
In the early evening aqua aerobics including two different types of exercise. Section a) free style with my god daughters including lots of jumps and lifts with a child as a weight. Section b) walk in the pool approximately 10 lengths, crunchesand leg lifts holding the pool ladders.
I have a new hobby, or rather a mission and a challenge: I want to learn to spin. And I do not mean spinning with a bicycle. I mean spinning with a spinning wheel. It is very technical skill in terms of equipment and body movements. And I ensure you, it will not take me to the target easily.
My very first spinning marathon was yesterday with 8 enthusiastic ladies from The Long Draw Spinning Quild at Stoke Albany Village Hall. After three hours spinning I had my first hand spun yarn: Five meters and 10 grams! Maybe in the future it wants to turn to be a broach or perhaps I keep it as The Evidence of My Efforts. At this speed it will take 27 more hours to make 100 grams of yarn for a pair of mittens.
I wanted to learn something completely different, something of which I had no previous experience what so ever. I wanted to be a learner. What a healthy experience! I who know a lot of all kinds of things and happily shares my knowledge with the rest of the world, had to keep my mouth shut and sit on my bum accepting instructions, failures and hand over hand tutorials.
My spinning marathon was tiring but I finished it with a feeling of happiness; I have taken my first baby steps as an apprentice. It will take some time to become a brilliant sock yarn spinner. At the moment I making "art yarns".
It was in mid April when I last did some serious exercising. After my second calf injury I bought a new pair of trainers as the nurse at the walking clinic suggested. It was not before yesterday when I actually put my feet into them and went to Zumba!
What on earth does happen in my life? Yes, I have been extremely busy both at work and with my other commitments but isn't it depressing that the same patten repeats itself over and over again: If I need to leave something out from my life and reschedule it seems to be an easy option to stay away from the gym.
My calf injuries kind of gave me an excuse to stay away from the gym. For Goodness sake I could have some some weight exercise! I have written before about how important energy management is instead of time management. From that point of view my past weeks haven't really been that bad. I have focused on things which have been pending and which have taking my mental energy for a long time. Now eventually they are successfully finished and I SHOULD have energy and time for something else.
The beginning of year hasn't really been what I expected it to be in terms of exercise, weight loss and well being. There is no need to dwell on regrets and bad feelings.
"The first step towards getting somewhere, is to decide that you are not going to stay there where you are."
That is exactly what I am going do. Upwards and onwards!
I went to my colleague's wedding and at the evening reception there was a cartoonist entertaining the guests. It is amazing how quickly this talented artist captured the main features of the model and drew a funny caricature of them.
Yes this is me: these are my thin lips, big ears, high eye brows, round nose and cheeks, long eye lashes and short hair. I love my long ear rings and new flower fascinator in my hair. And yes - genuinely I am a happy person who likes a good laugh. I could say that I am fairly confident with myself as I didn't mind too much the other wedding guests laughing and giggling at me whilst the artist finished his work. It was slightly uncomfortable to model in front of the crowd but it was because I didn't know what kind of image the cartoonist will reveal.
This is what I have been thinking about lately: Is my outer image reflecting my inner image? Am I the same in and out? I know that my search for a healthier life-style, slimmer and stronger me comes from a conflict between how I am and how I would like to be. However this contradiction in life can be a catalyst and motivator to move on.
My life has been full of all sorts lately. And when these "all sorts" have been full and greedy it has eaten my time and energy and I find it hard to concentrate on my general well being issues. Time management is about energy management. To nurture my energy level is important and as one theory says, 'strategic disengagement allows recovery'. All aspects of life which support physical strength and emotional well being and which will widen the inner perspective and thinking are equally important. For me at the moment this means a continuous effort to get better at balancing work and leisure + being disciplined but nurturing flexibility.
Today a piece of news on TV BBC1 drew my attention. It was about a movementwhich has grown rapidly over the last few months. Action for Happiness tries to find an answer to the question of why people are not generally speaking happier, despite having a higher income and therefore a wealthier society. "Rejecting a societal focus on materialism and self-obsessed individualism, the movement instead prioritises healthy relationships with others and meaningful activities as a means to achieving happier living." The present UK government has expressed their concern about the fact that Britons are not amongst the happiest citizens in the world. David Cameron states that gauging people's feelings is one of the "central political issues of our time".
Action for Happinesswebsite crashed today because of an oversubscribed interest. It is the world's first on line membership organisation dedicated to spreading happiness. No wonder everybody is interested in that. "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give," said Winston Churchill. The Action for Happiness movement focuses on making positive choices for improving the quality of life.
I had a peek and found quite a few of interesting articles.
March gone. Done and dusted. How did it all go: Exercise and heath: The calf injury at the beginning of the month forced me to give up exercising for two weeks. It was very frustrating and I was impatient to get back on track. Mid March I started my exercise programme again at first with cross training and weight lifting, next balance and then back to zumba. And it went a bit pear shaped again as I did three zumba sessions in a row every other day. Obviously my body didn't like it and developed a mild flue. Tisk tisk. Nothing major but a little chesty cough started to lurk there in the mornings. Lessons learnt
- do not do three zumba sessions in a week however much you love it if you not fit to do so
- everything in moderation and in balance: variety, variety
- go back to the basics: a little cardio, short weight lifting followed by a bodybalance session is really what I need to do regularly
- exercise less (time wise) but do it more often
- no more than two zumba sessions per week and have a longer break between them
- MerjaUK you are stiff like a stick: Research for a home stretching programme which would be SHORT but effective Eating: My daily calorie intake is planned for - 500 kcal / day in order to lose approximately 2 kgs per month. This hasn't happen regardless that I have followed the system. What a puzzle. Either I'm cheating, or I fill some estimates wrong or my metabolism is so slow that I should aim for bigger daily calorie loss. This is something I need to look at this month. Emotions. Fine. I am a happy bunny and zen with my "Fit for Fifty" plans and actions.
Next Steps: Carry on. Give love away: EDIT Food for Thoughts: "To be a miner of diamonds,
take care of your picks and shovels.
To be a miner of your spiritual Self,
take care of your body, breath, and mind.
But don't confuse the tools and the goals."
Friday the 18th was a Red Nose Day. At the moment after last night's TV show the total amount for donations is a whopping 74 million pounds (about 86 million euros). WOW. This top record figure is still likely to rise as people are downloading programmes or music from iTunes and companies, schools etc. haven't got their money into the system yet.
You can not escape from it: Red Nose Day is in the shops, packaging, accessories, TV adverts, TV daily shows, TV celebrity challenge programmes, news, radio and social media. The final loooong show on the TV on Friday night gathers millions of people to have some good laughs whilst observing the rising figure of money donated.
The idea of Red Nose Day is pretty simple - everyone has a good laugh whilst raising money to help change lives across the UK and Africa. Every two years, thousands of people do something funny for money. They do it at home, at work, in schools and, well, just about everywhere. Comic Relief'sRed Nose Day is extremely well organized and is a launched trade mark. For marketing minded people it is well worth of exploring their concept. It works. And it works well around the globe from Finland to Australia and between.
The slogan "Do Something Funny for Money"inspired me and my colleague to organize a Fun Day for this worthy cause. It was great to see that 99 % of our staff and clients were wearing Funny for Money. Superheroes, pirates, princesses, Scooby Doos and clowns were favourite characters but also just a hint of red in odd places or a Red Nose Day Sticker demonstrated their support for the day.
In the morning we had a crazy costume parade followed by the final dance with cascading balloons. In the afternoon money, books and cakes changed their owners in our Red Nose Day Bazaar. It was a lovely happy, relaxed day and good for our team community spirit (which is brilliant anyway). The books which didn't sell I took to OXFAM so actually two charities benefited from our efforts. I have no idea how much money we managed to raise but our effective office staff will find it out on Monday.
This video about Charlie's Comic Relief Fail summarises nicely the spirit of the whole thing although his effort went a bit pear shape.
It has been pretty flat in this corner of the the world. Everyday has just flowed as they do; filled with ups and downs and plateaus. Mainly plateaus at the moment. It still has been good; brilliant actually. Every day flat life is good.
I do not read self help books but I do enjoy finding sites where people share they understanding of the treasures in their life.TED is an interesting site Ideas Worth of Spreading. It would be brilliant to participate in one of their conferences! I was having a browse around on TED, as I often do on Saturday or Sunday morning, and I found Neil Pasricha's mini speech The 3 A´s of awesome. His point is that a sense of awareness of the world around us and being authentic leads us to live a life which is awesome. In writing his message sounds silly and a bit patronizing but if you have 18 spare minutes in your life it could be well worth listening to his story.
Apparently Neil's blog "1000 Awesome words"has millions of readers around the world and has won the best blog in the world award. I haven't had a proper look yet but I will later.
Everyday life is fragile as we see when watching TV this week. I will never be as young as I am at the moment. And just for that silly reason my favourite song at the moment, Belle and Sebastian "I Want The World to Stop":
EDIT:
Outi: Welcome to be our reader.
And it is nice to have a reader from France as well.
I love walking. Back in Finland I took regular stick walks (Nordic Walk) around the river Oulu estuary. The river mouth combines many little islands and streams which makes it very pleasant and pretty. The Finns take pride in creating Nordic Walk. I think that it is just one example of Finnish tendency to be super effective and multi-task when ever possible. You can not just take rolling walks around the city or along numerous beautiful walking paths, you need to walk briskly and effectively. An there isn't an easier way to get your hart beat up than using walking sticks, if you do not want to jog or run. Please do not get me wrong, I do love stick walking. It is very nice. Especially if you are in the environment where it is a national hobby, where the infrastructure for nice pedestrian walking paths and effective street lights actually exists and you are not the only person who wants to walk for your health in the streets after 5pm.
I had to change my mindset in England. However much I love stick walking, it is not for me at the moment. I have had to teach myself a concept of leisurely walks. At the moment walking for me means browsing around interesting places and enjoying the beauty of the world. Leisurely walks are a blessing. They allow me to enjoy and be free of the pressure of being effective. This lesson have been very difficult to learn and I am still learning. There is no need to multi-task or even see it all at once. It is the element of excitement and unknown which makes my leisure walks so satisfying. The world around us is truly amazing. And after two or three hours leisurely walks I feel physically tired as well. So it must bring some physical heath benefits on the top of charging my spiritual and emotional batteries. I wouldn't have seen these little gems if I would have walked briskly:
Mat exercise: 15 min average max for 30 min. Just the basics; crunches, squats, glute lifts, blanks, stretches and twists. This needs to be done when the little ones are having their siesta.
My very first spinning marathon was yesterday with 8 enthusiastic ladies from The Long Draw Spinning Quild at Stoke Albany Village Hall. After three hours spinning I had my first hand spun yarn: Five meters and 10 grams! Maybe in the future it wants to turn to be a broach or perhaps I keep it as The Evidence of My Efforts. At this speed it will take 27 more hours to make 100 grams of yarn for a pair of mittens.
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