How I Overcame Lazy This Week

Ummm, I didn’t.  I’m going to put a positive spin on this week and refer to it as a “rest week.”  Well, okay, I did manage to get in my longest run to date:  TEN miles, baby! But that’s been about it as far as workouts. 

Here’s what’s been going on:  K, my trusty workout partner, hit a tree stump snowboarding last week and cracked a couple ribs and then the genius thought it was a good idea to try ice skating like he did in his hockey days… on figure skates.  Yeah, the result was another fall, this time dislocating his shoulder and bruising his hip.  Poor thing.  So his vim and vigor is a bit reduced lately.  (But I have to add that he doesn’t give up easily – he went on his 10 miler this week also).



Yes, that's a leopard Snuggy, and I love it!



Then there’s my issues:  A slight toothache combined with a stiff neck that’s been killing me for days has resulted in a few unpleasant headaches.  As many know, a pain in the neck and an aching jaw are not the makings good nighttime sleeping conditions.  This has necessitated a few naps with the girls for me this week, which then cuts into my daily productivity, resulting in diminished chances for a workout.

I know, I know:  somebody call the waaaaambulance, right?  I realize things could be A LOT worse, but being that they could also be better, I feel I have the right to complain and use these challenges as… well, not excuses so much as… reasons my workouts were on hiatus this week. 

But by calling it a rest week, I’m avoiding the disappointment and self-sabotage that can come when I’m not performing up to par, which then feeds the fire of negativity and makes me less motivated to put any effort into correcting it.

Rest is good.  It feels good, our bodies definitely need it and it recharges us mentally and physically.  We just need to make sure we know the difference between rest and laziness, which is really what I’m doing with this post:  I’m calling myself out so this rest week doesn’t turn into a rest month.  To this end, I’ve got a multi-faceted plan for next week.  It involves making sure I get better and more sleep and that I know my basic schedule for next week and actually plan my workouts into it instead of just hoping they happen.

I don’t like to count chickens before they hatch, but I have a feeling that my next “overcoming laziness” post is gonna be a good one! 

How I Overcame Laziness This... Decade.



It'll be 11 years on May 5!



I married this guy.

I think K must be going through some sort of pre-mid-life thing.  We're only 37 (don't you have to be in your 40s to be considered at mid-life?) and I can't really say it's a crisis since it's been mostly a good thing.  But he's been fitness-ly nutty lately.  Instead of validating his youth and virility by buying a zippy red sports car or having an affair, (neither of which he could afford!) he's been ensuring that when he isn't working hard, he's playing hard!

In just this new year alone, our weeks have been PACKED with skiing, target shooting, pony riding, Red Rock Canyon hiking, swimming, bike rides, long outdoor runs, sledding, snowshoeing, and then just our boring ol' home-based workouts.

After he suggested an impromptu camping trip on the beach 4 hours away this week, I just had to tell him that I needed the week off.  Sometimes you just need to be responsible and get things done; y'know what I mean?  And although I really enjoy doing all these kinds of things, I am a natural homebody.  I love our adventures, but I don't need them ALL THE TIME in order to feel fulfilled.  But K seems to, expecially lately.  Whew!

I'm not complaining - it's been fantastic for us because it keeps us from being lazy.  Throughout our almost 11 years of marriage, we've definitely had our fitness ups and downs.  Sometimes I'm the motivator, sometimes he is; so, ultimately, we make a great team.

To celebrate our upcoming anniversary, we recently decided we're going to run a 1/2 marathon together.  I consider this a "high" for us because it's way better than our "low" of a couple of years ago when I insisted we go to Carl's Jr. so I could have the Western Bacon Burger that I was really craving.  I think I was pregnant at the time.

So here's some advice:  get someone in your life who motivates you to be your best self... and/or become that type of a person for someone else.

I wonder what we'll be doing for our 25th.

How My Neighbor Overcame Lazy Last Night

This is a picture of my neighbor, Pamela’s house.  I didn’t have the opportunity to snap a picture of her for this blog and she doesn’t even know I’m writing about her but I’m gonna anyway. 

Pamela’s fairly new to our neighborhood and I don’t know her all that well.  But she’s always cheerful and friendly and wonderful to my girls every time we see her.  I don’t get the impression that she’s a regular exerciser but I was impressed by her “unlaziness” last night. 

I was out on a neighborhood jog and, as I rounded the corner, saw a car parked on the street up ahead with a person on the sidewalk by it, kinda gyrating around.  I thought to myself, "great, I gotta swing wide to avoid this derelict", with the follow-up thought, "there goes the neighborhood."  But as I approached, I realized it was Pamela boogie-ing down as her car radio blasted.  She’d let her dog out to do his “business” at the little neighborhood park and, while she waited, she was getting her groove on!  As I got closer, I yelled out, “Nice moves, lady!”  Once she registered that I was neither a mugger nor a rapist, (and no, she wasn’t wary becuase I’m tall, have a prominent adam’s apple and kind of a deep voice – it was dark, ok!) she replied, “Hey, you’re getting your exercise and I’m getting mine!”

I have to say her workout looked a lot more fun than mine at that moment.  Good job, Pamela.  You overcame Laziness today!

I'm Lazy and I'm Proud!

K says I ramble too much on this blog.  He says I talk too much about how lazy I am and that I’m too “proud” of being lazy and that isn’t helpful to myself nor anyone else.  He says I should focus more on how I OVERCOME my laziness.  And I must say, he’s got a point.

I wouldn’t say I’m proud of being lazy.  In my blogs, I’m just acknowledging that I have strong slothful and gluttonous tendencies and then proceed to blather on and lament that I’m such a victim to the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics’ concept that “as usable energy is irretrievably lost, disorganization, randomness and chaos [and laziness and gluttony] increase.”

So I’m going to regularly feature how I overcome “lazy” in my life and hope to hear from others via comments, facebook, email, old-fashioned conversations and the like, how they’re overcoming laziness in their lives as well.

So here’s my first installment of HOW I OVERCAME LAZY THIS WEEK:



Off on our cookie run, literally!



After 3 rest days in a row, (which for me is 2 too many!) Monday was rolling around and another rest day was looking mighty appealing.  I missed my morning opportunity for a workout (too many chores around the house!) and evening was closing in fast so chances for an outdoor workout were quickly diminishing.  With it being the last day of the month, I realized that I needed to drop some cookies off to a friend (you know what I’m talking about fellow Visiting Teachers!).  However, I didn’t have the car to perform said task.

You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?  The weather was beautiful, the sun hadn’t set just yet, my friend’s house is a mere mile away….  So I had R hop on her bike, plunked Z into the stroller and off we went.  Sure, I probably grossed my friend out by showing up panting and sweaty on her doorstep (sorry, Alisa!) and it certainly wasn’t a killer workout, but I overcame you, Laziness!  Neener, neener, neener!

If I Were A Rich Girl...



Off to my first run!



I wish I could be lazier, but I just don’t have it in the budget.  There’s a myth out there that being active and leading a healthy lifestyle is too expensive to do.  And sometimes I catch myself falling into that mind-set as well like when I need to buy yet another pair of shoes, or feel that I NEED the latest cool fitness gadget.  And I do acknowledge that, of course, there is a certain amount of spending that is required on basic equipment, but, trust me folks, my family is definitely NOT rollin’ in the dough (quite the opposite!) and we manage to stay pretty darn healthy and active; and we find ways to do fun things!



Our little snow bunny! 
She's almost better than me already!
(Though, that's not sayin' much!)



For example, this past week we went on a ski vacation!  Isn’t that what rich people do?  Rich people and us, when we get free ski tickets!  Here’s how we did it:  In the fall, we went to a ski movie for $15/ticket, got to see a cool movie, won free ski goggles, and got 2 free ski tickets to Eagle Point Ski Resort in Beaver, UT (usually $45).  Plus, we entered a drawing and won five more free tickets!  We found a reasonable hotel to stay in for a few nights and crammed our own skis and board – which are old but work just fine (plus we never have to worry about them getting stolen!) – and our own pantry staples into our small, crappy Jeep (but we do love you Jeepie – please keep running!) to drive 4 hours to a resort that, while not top-of-the-field, was just fine – in fact, great – for our whole family to enjoy.



All smiles after a fun day on the slopes.
Worn-out and ready to hit the ... pool!



No, it wasn’t the celebrity-type ski vacation that involves flying to Aspen, staying in a 4-star hotel with room service and spa treatments and springing for heli-skiing lessons.  Ours was a budget-friendly, awesome adventure that we enjoyed immensely. 

I’m always wishing I could buy more fitness equipment.  Over the years, we've slowly added to our home fitness arsenal, but I always want more, more. more!  (Just for the record: although I like "things," I am of the mindset that you only need your own body weight and a maybe couple pairs of dumbbells to get a killer workout - I do it all the time!).  To save money on the ones we do have, I’ve just had to be patient and wait for sales or lucky opportunities.  I scored an awesome barely-used True treadmill when someone needed to sell it cheaply because they were moving.  They even threw in a really nice set of  dumbbells with it for free!  Our bikes and elliptical machine were given to us for free by family members who weren’t using them.  We waited for deals on a heavy bag and a Bosu and over the years have managed to put together a pretty good home-gym!  That has saved us from spending money on a gym membership.  I’m a personal trainer who feels like I’m in the best shape of my life yet I haven’t worked out in a gym in over two years!  (That’ll be a blog post for the near future).  We buy season passes to the community pool and to Red Rock Canyon and definitely get our money’s worth out of those because we go to both places so often.



Z didn't get to ski this year but LOVED the warm
indoor pool and hot tub.



So, yes, you do have to spend some money on living a healthy, active lifestyle, but I think a person spends more on lazy luxury pursuits such as eating out often, sedentary entertainment (movies, video games, etc), seldom-used gadgets that promise quick fixes and the like.

And I’m not knocking the good life – trust me, I’m lazy whenever I can be! – but I’m of the opinion that I’ve got the better life with my healthy, happy and fun family!

Fake It Till you Make It

I’m feel I’m still a newbie when it comes to blogging and facebooking, but I am starting to  see that a somewhat distorted view of people can come across in these social media formats.  I get the feeling some people think that all I ever focus on is my workouts or my fitness status and that I think other people are losers if they aren’t as focused as I am on all that stuff.  Or I feel that others might feel sorry for me that I don’t realize there’s more to life than exercise and eating right. 



Yet another outing to Red Rock to discover new caves.
This was, of course, after a 6-mile run.
Sooooo routine.  Yawn.



To anyone out there that thinks that, I say, “Ha!  Spend a day with me and you’ll see why I named my blog “The Lazy Personal Trainer.”  I have intended to use the blog to document the ups and downs of the fitness side of my life.  And while I have talked about many of my inconsistencies and failures at trying to live a healthy lifestyle, I find that I do tend to focus on events that make me come across as more successful, more dedicated, and just more awesome than I really am.  I mean, I’d much rather post how fantastic I felt that I was able to take my planned workout in the garage out to do an improvised sidewalk workout of burpees, pushups and curb plyo jumping so that R could ride her scooter in the Cul-de-sac (true story from today!) than how lazy I often am in the morning by forcing the girls to eat bananas in bed and watch a DVD – just so I can get a few more minutes of sleep after having stayed up too late…again – until they are begging me to toast them a waffle (sadly, another true story from today...and yesterday).

K’s facebooking about our fun family adventures makes us come across as the funnest, coolest family out there.  And while I acknowledge we are a pretty darn amazing unit, you might not be so impressed if you knew how much we annoy each other on a daily (hourly) basis or how the laundry/household clutter builds up in between our fantastic excursions.



Another all-too-common scene around the house.
Hey - they're clean.  Just gotta fold 'em.



But I’m starting to see this modern social networking stuff as a powerful form of positive self-talk.  I find that if I frequently share the positive things that I am doing, it feeds the fire to do even more cool things so that I can keep the impression alive – to myself and others – that I am way more on top of things than I really am.  Although a few people have good-naturedly expressed their annoyance at K’s frequent posts about his workouts (telling him to chill out a bit and take a nap every now and then) even more folks have expressed how our family activities have motivated them to do more fun and active things within their own families!

So, although I will still inject plenty of doses of reality by copping to my lazy bone, I’m gonna keep trying to convince myself and others that my life is one fantastic ride.  Because it often is!

This is where the relevance of one of my favorite quotes lately comes in – and it applies to any aspect of our lives:  “Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.”  –Leonard Cohen

And maybe the popular phrase, “Fake it till you make it,” can also be applied!

Doggonit, People Like Me



"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and
doggonit, people like me."
- Stuart Smalley



I’ve been tapping into the power of mantras lately.  Ever since I got a boost from a quote I had posted at the right place at the right time, (see previous post “Do It Anyway”) I’ve been reminded how powerful a few phrases - or even just a few words - can be.

So I’ve issued the challenge to my family to choose the inspirational quote or mantra that will help them keep steadily moving toward their health goals.  I told them to print it out, post it somewhere prominent and recite it verbally at least once daily this month.  (Hence the Stuart Smalley reference – as goofy as that guy was, he was on to something!)



Just a small part of my vision board.  There's more
on the other wall above the toilet paper roll.



I’ve had a hard time choosing my current favorite because there are so many that inspire me.  In fact, I have what mizfitonline (a blog I’ve been enjoying lately) refers to as a “vision board”.  It’s a collection of pictures and quotes and phrases that I find motivating and inspirational that I’ve posted somewhere where I will see them often.  Yep, as some of you know, for me that’s the bathroom.  By the toilet.  I’ve been doing it for years and I have to say I’ve really found it helpful many times.



So I’ve narrowed it down to the two that are most meaningful to me right now:  “Do It Anyway” and “It’s about progress, not perfection.”



My daily mantras on the mirror, along with K's inspirational quote.
Plus my monthly exercise log!
Pretty soon I won't be able to see myself.



However, I can’t help but add a few more that have struck a chord in me lately:

“Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act."  –Leonard Cohen

“Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing.  You have to make the mind run the body.  Never let the body tell the mind what to do.  The body will always give up.  It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night.  But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired.” – George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

“Putting on your workout clothes burns half the calories.” - Trainermomma (another blog I’ve been enjoying).

"NO EXCUSES!"

I’m sure I’ll be sharing more as they inspire me… and I encourage everybody else to do the same!