Wednesday, October 5, 2011

WLB - It's a love-hate relationship

As I mentioned, I don't have a lot of "free" time to go out and exercise....which means the most obvious choice to get me moving would be fitness DVDs.


Fitness DVDs and I have a love - hate relationship. I love that I can exercise in the living room while the kids play in their rooms, or after they go to bed, without having to worry about leaving the house....but I HATE the monotony of standing in the middle of the room, knowing that for the next 30- 60 minutes I am going to be staring at the TV and hoping my husband doesn't magically appear and see how ridiculous I look trying to Cardio Dance like Maxim or get down with Billy Blanks.

I have a few fitness DVDs, but none of them have really gotten me excited enough to forget about the fact that I am standing in my living room because I can't go outside and exercise. If you're asking why I can't just throw everyone in a jogger and go for a walk...first of all, I don't have a triple jogger - and even if there was one that was capable of holding all three kids and priced under a million dollars, I would still have to push almost 90 pounds of kid PLUS whatever the stroller weighs. Yes, great for your arms and back, but it ruins your posture trying to push a heavy stroller up and down the hills here.
Oh wait, what's that you say?? Just put the baby in a stroller and let the rest walk?? Yes, that's great in theory, until you've tried to go on a walk with a 2-1/2 year old testosterone fueled boy. It's a constant battle of "stay away from the street" and "No, don't pick that up" and my personal un-favorite "stop walking directly in front of the stroller, I don't want to mow you over." And besides all that, the kids give up around 1.5 miles...which isn't nearly as far as I like to walk. I have found a lake near us that is PERFECT for walking around with free-running children, and on days when we have the time I will take them down there and push the baby in the stroller and let them walk, but it's a little bit of a drive and it just depends on the day and what we have planned...it has also been WAY too hot for the kids to be out walking that much. Once the weather cools down we will be spending much more time walking around the lake!! We learned about it through an awesome program we are participating in called the 100 Mile Club - and I will talk about that later in another post.
A little tip - did you know that most Cable TV providers have a free On-Demand section with shows that you can watch anytime?? Well, we have AT&T UVerse and there is an entire free fitness video section we have access to....They still fall under the fitness DVD category as far as I'm concerned, but for those who like the fitness DVDs, check with your cable provider to see if you get them....they are convenient and FREE!!

So, to the point of this post....last night I had just put our baby to bed and it was 11pm (an early night...which is sad since I get up to work at 5am most mornings) and I remembered that I had recorded a yoga workout program from a college channel the other day...I know it's crazy, but I decided to put on my PJs and do some Yoga. Surprisingly, this didn't feel like the other DVD - type workouts I've done. I really enjoyed it, they have examples for all fitness levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) and I loved the opportunity to really enjoy the quiet in my house while everyone was asleep and just be with my thoughts. I LOVED the workout and went on to record on our DVR another week's worth of the show, which actually has a different type of workout every day!!
The show is called Total Body Workout and it is on BYU TV. Below is the link to the show's website and I just discovered that you can even watch the episodes on your computer...so you don't have to wait for one to record AND you can pick which one you want!!

Total Body Workout Webpage

I will definitely be DVR-ing more of these shows and trying to fit them in when I have some spare time. I really enjoy the format and am looking forward to burning some more calories through exercise!!

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