I missed my Weight Watcher's meeting yesterday as my hubs needed to take my car instead of his sportier version to a tank farm with all the gravel and dust . . . and yet, he complains that I don't wash my car enough . . . hmmm. . .
While on my regular four-mile walk yesterday, I realized I could have WALKED to my meeting as it's two miles away. The only problem with walking is the first mile a is two-lane road with no shoulder, no foot path and a steep decline into a drainage ditch. The second mile is along a sidewalk next to a busy six-lane road, which does double duty as a state highway.
Walking in this area is not on my list of things to do, though it is doable.
That said, I'm going to take a tangent about housecleaning. Trust me, I will make a full circle back to the topic of walking, also known as exercise.
Last week, I interviewed Merry Maids for my mom. She's finally admitting that she can't keep her house as clean as she would like, or like she used to. Remember, the woman is 91 years old. Her spinal stenosis was causing some leg issues and she'd received a epidural cortisone shot a few months ago--which is working nicely--plus she was recently told that she is legally blind in one eye due to years of macular degeneration.
Age happens.
Not too surprising she can't see enough to keep the house clean.
Besides cleaning house isn't something a 90+ year old should have to worry about. And no, I'm not cleaning her house, I have my own house to clean, thank you very much.
Merry Maids is a bit on the pricy side, but this will be a busy year for her as many of my brothers and one of my sisters will be visiting, so we signed them up for an every other week cleaning. The nice thing about Merry Maids is that there is no contract, cancel at any time. And Mom can do the spot cleaning the rest of the time.
As I chatted with my bro about this, he wondered if we could change the every other week cleaning (yes, we can). But then we got into a discussion of how often we clean, and he admitted that they only cleaned their house three days prior to Thanksgiving when the family converges on their house.
Really? I never realized this as we've stopped by to drop something off and found their house was tidy, but I didn't do the white glove treatment to verify.
Which brings me back to how often we clean--EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. And we clean the house the day before we go on vacation, so we have a clean house to come home to .. . plus we have a dog. The house will be dusty and dog-furry even if we didn't clean prior to vacation! We clean the house top to bottom, plus we sometimes get sidetracked. . . this week I dusted the downstairs window blinds. Man, those things were filthy! Now, I need to clean the windows, too!
As I'm writing this the sun is coming through the window and onto my formal dining table--which has a layer of dust on it--I just cleaned this table FOUR DAYS AGO! Can you imagine how much dust would accumulate in a month?? *shuddering at the thought*
Though my bro said they only clean once a year, I bet you money they spot clean all the time.
And then on my writer's loop, the topic came up here. One writer friend said it had been years since they did a top to bottom clean. And another friend commented the same thing--that some rooms hadn't been touched in a year.
Wow. I never thought I'd be one of the weird ones who cleans house weekly.
And now, we travel to the backyard. If you've seen my pictures (sorry, can't find any current ones), you notice how neat and tidy our yard looks. The last couple of days, the hubs and I have been trimming, weeding and turning the mulch in the garden beds, resulting in two huge bags of green waste (no, I don't have or want a mulch pile), and the yard is only half done. This process needs to be done a couple times a year to keep the perennials under control.
So why am I telling you to clean your house and work in your garden?
Because you can earn Weight Watcher's ACTIVITY POINTS!
Look, you don't have to go to the gym, walk on a treadmill, or attend a Pilates class to get some exercise. Keep moving. Do a little cleaning. Weed the garden. Trim the plants. Pick up the dog poo. Every little bit DOES count!
Get moving, people!
Later, Peeps!
Showing posts with label Activity points. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Activity points. Show all posts
3/27/13
Weighty Wednesday -- So . . . How many Activity points does Skiing generate?
Not very many, especially when you think about how your muscles are screaming in pain as you swoosh your way through deep piles of snow, or pole your way across an uphill section to another run.
On Monday and Tuesday of spring break, I wore my WW ActiveLink . . . I also wore it in the car as we drove to Colorado and managed to score one point! But while skiing, I only earned 2 activity points.
Whaaaat? *said like a 'Despicable Me' minion*
I literally worked my bum off and my thighs were burning in pain along with the serious tricep workout I got while poling. So what gives?
The ski lifts, baby. The ski lifts were the kicker.
I might have been working hard while skiing down those steep blue and black slopes, but I was also sitting on a ski lift from 5-12 minutes between runs. This is the valuable information that you can get from the WW ActiveLink or any other monitoring device. When I plugged it in and it calculated the points, it also shows how much activity you accrued in shorter increments--and no, I don't think shivering on the ski lifts helped me earn any points. :-(
Good to know, right?
Though I didn't earn as many activity points as I thought I would, I also learned that any amount of poling will work your triceps and lats very efficiently.
Think about it: you have to propel your body weight up an incline using only two poles, while on a pair of skies . . . sometimes directly into the 30 mph wind. Yes, this was rough.
Why couldn't it have been a tail wind??
Who knows? Life works in mysterious ways.
As I mentioned there are numerous flat areas in a ski resort: the area where numerous lifts dump you off, the area in front of the on-mountain food places, the area where numerous runs merge into one run taking you to the next mountain, or a catwalk that zigzags across the steeper runs that your daughter wants to ski because they're 'fun'.
No matter where you are, you will find areas on a downhill mountain where you have to pole your way across an expanse. This is where I discovered my friends--pecs, lats and triceps. They were sad that I hadn't spent much time time with them in the past, and made themselves known that they were on the slopes to party hard.
They joined my friends, the quads and hams . . .
I might not have earned many activity points, but I had fun and managed to work some muscles that normally didn't get much toning on my walks.
I love skiing.
But I love skiing more when I can wear sunglasses, but I can't complain because I had my buddies, quads, hams, pecs, lats, and triceps joining me on the trip.
Later, Peeps!
On Monday and Tuesday of spring break, I wore my WW ActiveLink . . . I also wore it in the car as we drove to Colorado and managed to score one point! But while skiing, I only earned 2 activity points.
Whaaaat? *said like a 'Despicable Me' minion*
I literally worked my bum off and my thighs were burning in pain along with the serious tricep workout I got while poling. So what gives?
The ski lifts, baby. The ski lifts were the kicker.
I might have been working hard while skiing down those steep blue and black slopes, but I was also sitting on a ski lift from 5-12 minutes between runs. This is the valuable information that you can get from the WW ActiveLink or any other monitoring device. When I plugged it in and it calculated the points, it also shows how much activity you accrued in shorter increments--and no, I don't think shivering on the ski lifts helped me earn any points. :-(
Good to know, right?
Though I didn't earn as many activity points as I thought I would, I also learned that any amount of poling will work your triceps and lats very efficiently.
Think about it: you have to propel your body weight up an incline using only two poles, while on a pair of skies . . . sometimes directly into the 30 mph wind. Yes, this was rough.
Why couldn't it have been a tail wind??
Who knows? Life works in mysterious ways.
As I mentioned there are numerous flat areas in a ski resort: the area where numerous lifts dump you off, the area in front of the on-mountain food places, the area where numerous runs merge into one run taking you to the next mountain, or a catwalk that zigzags across the steeper runs that your daughter wants to ski because they're 'fun'.
No matter where you are, you will find areas on a downhill mountain where you have to pole your way across an expanse. This is where I discovered my friends--pecs, lats and triceps. They were sad that I hadn't spent much time time with them in the past, and made themselves known that they were on the slopes to party hard.
They joined my friends, the quads and hams . . .
I might not have earned many activity points, but I had fun and managed to work some muscles that normally didn't get much toning on my walks.
I love skiing.
But I love skiing more when I can wear sunglasses, but I can't complain because I had my buddies, quads, hams, pecs, lats, and triceps joining me on the trip.
Later, Peeps!
9/19/12
Weighty Wednesday -- Activelink
I was going to write different post, but I thought this one was more current.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Weight Watcher's Activelink. This is a handy-dandy little USB that also contains an accelerometer chip that gauges all the movement you make throughout the day.
The old calculation method had its flaws. For example, walking. We all know that I enjoy walking. Well, the calculation measured any pace between 3.0-5.0 mph the same. So if you are a fast walker (me) you are sort of penalized.
So the Activelink measures everyone individually.
You can clip it to a bra or shirt near your heart, or hang it on a lanyard, or clip it at your waist. You just have to tell the system which one you choose because it calculates it differently. It also takes into account your weight, age, sex and height to calculate activity points.
Then the 8 day assessment begins.
And no, it won't tell you how you're doing during this assessment, but you can get a general idea when you plug it in at the end of the day.
The purpose of this gadget it to stimulate you into moving during the low parts of your day, to get off your bum and walk around.
After my assessment, it allowed me to see my activity points. One day I actually logged in 17 activity points! That was a day that I walked almost 10 miles, 4 in the AM and 5.5 in the PM. This number was nowhere near the calculated values would have been!
Do I expect this to be the norm?
NO. For one, I'm not going to be walking twice a day when winter comes. It'll be too dark. I'll find something else to do.
But I do know that I can easily earn 6 activity points with my AM walkies and a little activity throughout the day.
Activelink also provides you with a challenge to consistently reach a certain level daily. It originally set it at 12, but I changed it to 10, which is still a challenge on the days I don't walk twice a day.
On Sunday, I was truly lazy and didn't walk. I almost didn't even meet my baseline criteria for health! And I certainly didn't earn any activity points!
It does cost a little every month to monitor the Activelink, but I think it's worth it if it gets me out of the desk chair a little more often.
Later, Peeps!
A couple of weeks ago I purchased a Weight Watcher's Activelink. This is a handy-dandy little USB that also contains an accelerometer chip that gauges all the movement you make throughout the day.
The old calculation method had its flaws. For example, walking. We all know that I enjoy walking. Well, the calculation measured any pace between 3.0-5.0 mph the same. So if you are a fast walker (me) you are sort of penalized.
So the Activelink measures everyone individually.
You can clip it to a bra or shirt near your heart, or hang it on a lanyard, or clip it at your waist. You just have to tell the system which one you choose because it calculates it differently. It also takes into account your weight, age, sex and height to calculate activity points.
Then the 8 day assessment begins.
And no, it won't tell you how you're doing during this assessment, but you can get a general idea when you plug it in at the end of the day.
The purpose of this gadget it to stimulate you into moving during the low parts of your day, to get off your bum and walk around.
After my assessment, it allowed me to see my activity points. One day I actually logged in 17 activity points! That was a day that I walked almost 10 miles, 4 in the AM and 5.5 in the PM. This number was nowhere near the calculated values would have been!
Do I expect this to be the norm?
NO. For one, I'm not going to be walking twice a day when winter comes. It'll be too dark. I'll find something else to do.
But I do know that I can easily earn 6 activity points with my AM walkies and a little activity throughout the day.
Activelink also provides you with a challenge to consistently reach a certain level daily. It originally set it at 12, but I changed it to 10, which is still a challenge on the days I don't walk twice a day.
On Sunday, I was truly lazy and didn't walk. I almost didn't even meet my baseline criteria for health! And I certainly didn't earn any activity points!
It does cost a little every month to monitor the Activelink, but I think it's worth it if it gets me out of the desk chair a little more often.
Later, Peeps!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)