As I sit this morning trying to organize my thoughts (not an easy task for a self proclaimed ADD kid trapped in a grown up body), I'm comforted by the fact this blog emphasizes random musings not well organized. Thus I can share these thoughts and hope enough of you are ADD enough to follow them!
For most of my childhood and adult life I've been a very active person. I was never a "jock" but one who enjoyed (and still enjoy) all sorts of activities....riding a bike, rollerskating, skateboarding, water skiing, snow skiing, camping/hiking, running (not that fast) and so on. After a long and ugly divorce ending in 2004 my "give a darn" got broken. Emotionally, spiritually, financially and soon physically I was at an all time low. Slowly I realized the world was not stopping to mourn with me and continued to go on at it's maddening pace while I was stuck in slow motion. Prior to that even with my busy lifestyle I had kept up a regular exercise regimen primarily using a Nordic Track Skier (still available for sale and hands down my favorite piece of exercise equipment. Here's a link: http://www.nordictrack.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category_-1_10301_12401_19554_Y )
20 minutes a day 3-4 days a week and eating a reasonable diet. However, after the blow in my personal life, I feel into the rut of surviving the daily grind...shame on me! The point is this, we all have had or will have stressful devestating events in our lives, but there is no good reason to allow them to keep us down. Hopefully as time and space allow, I will share how things have gotten so much better.
Now back to "keep it simple": There are a ton of exercise and diet plans out there...some of them are actually pretty decent. I get nauseated at all of the infomercials I see for something like an Ab Blaster Max or Fat Zapper Plus showing pictures of people who are the one in 10,000 that have actually succeeded with the machine, plan, video.... Over the years I've read the packages for the dietary supplements, video exercise plans, and machines of torture 99% of which have buried in the information something to the effect of "success with this is best when used in conjunction with a healthy calorie controlled diet and regular exercise regimen". In otherwords, they could sell you a multivitamin and a couple of rubber bands which when coupled with eating right and exercising will.....(drum roll please) lead to weight control and improved physical condition. If you are one of the millions feeling bad about your weight and or physicial condition watching one of these commercials and thinking about ordering product/plan X.....DON'T!!! Try first for 30 days marching in place in the living room or some other simple mundane physical activity for 20 minutes at a time 3-5 days/week. If you cannot or will not do that, I promise you won't do it with the "magical" stuff you are seeing advertised. If you are willing to do the mundane stuff for a month, then consider buying one of these other things as a reward to yourself. The bottom line though comes back down to personal discipline....ouch! there's that word again. Start small say 5-10 minutes/day for 3-5 days per week and build from there. If you can establish a habit of exercising regularly for short periods of time, it will be much easier to build up to longer periods of 30-60 minutes. Just something to think about.
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