Recently I started exercising again. Over the years I have walked, hiked, snowshoed and danced. I've taken yoga, tai chi and bellydancing classes. But the one I always keep coming back home to, is a little-known 15-minute-a-day aerobic exercise called 'Oxycise'. I can't even remember how I came across it, but one day after we first moved to Utah I found it online, ordered the how-to video and fell in love.
Since starting it up again over a week ago, my stomach is tighter and flatter (a welcome surprise because I was wondering what I was giving birth to), my face is more defined and I am becoming more flexible.
The other benefit I've noticed is more energy and confidence over all, and since beginning I have been doing more and feeling more can-do about life in general. It has lifted me out of the funk-tank I've found myself swimming in since leaving my job last June.
What has freaked the heck out of me is being unable to do the sitting butterfly, a pose I had done with ease before. Middle age? Excessive weight? General out-of-shapeness? Which ever it is, I'm not ready to start heading for the hill just yet, thanks.
So I'm going to keep up with this and slowly move into other things. I really miss the park near our old house, with it's tree-lined walking trails. Miss trekking in snowshoes on the middle school track nearby during winter months. But Oxycise, especially when I keep the sliding glass door to the balcony open for fresh air, is a close-second, and and I don't have to bundle up and drive anywhere to get a workout.
Now how about you? What makes your body/heart/mind smile? What energizes, uplifts and motivates you to keep on going?
I like biking riding... especially now that it is cooler out
ReplyDeleteI will have to check out the Oxycise
I like magic- just simple candle spells and invoking the powers of the universe to help me out. And I'm ignoring the scale now. 'Doing by not doing' ;) but I do need to get out more. I remember the Oxycise; but I liked Richard better :)Do you still have those tapes?
ReplyDeleteShana, a vision of me riding a bike (preferably on some French sun-lit countryside, lol) keeps popping up in my head. I remember how glorious bike-riding was in my youth. The wind in your hair....
ReplyDeleteBlogGirl, having feng-shuid the scale a long time ago, I too am ignoring it. No longer have the Richard Simmons tapes :( but then I spent more time watching him bounce around to his groove than working out with him so it's just as well. Your candles must be AWESOME!
What an odd name! I'm glad it's working so well for you. I've always been a walker, and just a couple of months ago began Bikram Yoga (the kind done in a really hot room).
ReplyDeleteI know, right? But oddly spot-on, since it's all about the breath' the taking in of lots of oxygen, with resistance, so oxygen + exercise= :). Yoga rocks! A favorite routine is the Tibetan Rites, but haven't tried Bikram yet...
ReplyDeleteI have the videos/cassette tapes from forever ago too! I think it is great & it gets us breathing. Oxygen deprivation goodbye :)
ReplyDeleteJodi, I always thought somehow that Oxycise practice gave us an edge with Quantum Touch!
ReplyDeleteI love to walk around my neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI've been swimming, about 4 miles a week. My face seems a little thinner, but nothing more. I like to glide through the water, thinking. Thinking about something I'm writing, a conversation I should have. Then I like on my back and float.
ReplyDeleteThen, I have a beer to wipe out the good I did myself. I need to look into Oxycise.
You made me laugh with your beer crack! Wait, that didn't sound right...Swimming, I'd forgotten to add swimming. I did it a few times this summer for a couple of hours each time, and the only drawback was having to crawl out of the water after being weightless for so long. That's when I realized, woah, put on some pounds have we? But it made me feel good for a week (each swimfest).
ReplyDelete