E is for Exercise

Blogging through the Alphabet is hosted by Marcy from Ben and Me. She is blogging through a letter of the alphabet each week and invited others to join in with her. Visit her blog and read what other bloggers have chosen for the letter E.

Exercise! I have a love/hate relationship with that word. I love how I feel after I exercise, but I hate to get started exercising.

My favorite exercise is walking. I love to walk, especially if I have a buddy. For some reason it is so much harder for me to get out and get going without having someone who is counting on me. Right now I am able to walk twice a week with a buddy, my mother. We live about a half mile apart. She walks down from her house and I walk up from mine, we meet in the middle and then turn around and walk approximately 3 miles in about 45 minutes.  Boy, can we solve the world’s problems during our early morning walks. I love that I can visit with my mom and exercise all at the same time.

I also try to walk at other times than my scheduled walks. We live a little over a mile from our church. So, there are many times I will walk down to choir practice. We go to piano lessons at church and the kids and I have been known to walk (or ride our bikes, but bike riding is not my favorite activity) to piano lessons. Going to church is fairly easy, it is all downhill. Coming home is a bit tougher, since it is all uphill. For choir practice I will usually walk to the church, then catch a ride home with my dad afterwards so I don’t have to walk home in the dark.

I have also recently started an exercise class. I have found that trying to exercise at home just does not work well for me. I always find an excuse to put it off. I never seem to work as hard as if I am in a class. But the dilemma was: Where was I going to find a class? Since Matt is retired Air Force we have free access to a wonderful, huge gym. The problem is the 20 minute drive to get there. I don’t have that kind of time (or gas money). The gyms in town all cost, so not a great option.

Then in the mail I received the city’s monthly City Profile flyer. It talked about exercise and then said that the Senior Citizen Center sponsors many different exercise classes. The next paragraph talked about how if you were under 60 you could attend any of the classes for a small ($20) monthly fee. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. My mother attends a 3x a week exercise class, focusing on strength and flexibility.

So, yes, I am attending a Senior Citizen exercise class at the age of 38. I love it. It is exactly what I need. This class is as easy or as hard as the individual makes it. We start with warm-ups and gentle stretching through Pilates moves. Then we move into upper body strength training with rubber exercise bands. Then we go to lower body strengthening with squats and lunges. Then comes the floor work. We start with work on our legs and move into some pretty intense stomach exercises. We end with more stretching. I feel great after this hour long class. Nobody seems to mind me being there and the best part is the instructor has not made me pay.

It takes a little bit of planning to be able to do this with kids home all day. For my walks, we walk early enough that the kids are still asleep. But for my exercise class, which starts at 8:30am I have assignments I expect them to complete. Ben and Rebekah have to get their math, spelling and piano practice done while I am gone. Sarah just has to work on any of her assignments. They are all supposed to be responsible for themselves. This semester Matthew does not start class early on Mondays or Wednesdays, so he is home during the time I am gone. Having an adult child  is nice for things like this. I can leave for an hour and he can take care of things while I am gone.