Identity Crisis

Who am I?  Am I a walker or a swimmer?  Am I a hot-tub stretcher or a land stretcher?  Do I really enjoy what I am doing or am I just looking for the easier way?  I think my bottom line is that I don't really want to do anything, and nothing is easy.  I want to feel great, just by wishing it so....  I almost want to ask "What is the lesser of all the evils?" but that gives exercise a bad rap - it's not really evil... it's all in the eye of the beholder.

So what's up with this beholder today?  I woke up with a crick in my neck and an aching back, and dreamed all morning of stretching in the hot tub.  Then 11AM rolls around and I'm thinking - but I just did my hair last night - I don't want to have to shower and do my hair this afternoon.  Then I start surfing about hot tubs (thinking wouldn't it be nice to have one on my deck) and came across literature about getting respiratory infections from breathing the vapor of indoor hot tubs.  Wow - I had better not go to the gym today...   (Of course, where I go is super-duper clean and sanitized... but we are talking about the air here...)

But I'm SO stiff so I half-heartedly started doing my stretches in the office -- maybe just to prove to myself that I know how to do them... not necessarily prove that I will do them.  But the clock is ticking and I know I have to do SOMETHING to move my body today.  So I went for my mile walk - I am happy to report that I did it without stopping and resting, and did it in close to a 1/2 hour.  (This brings it to a sad starting point of a 2MPH walk - but I have to take into account where I'm coming from (0MPH walking!) and not where I used to be long long ago - 5MPH walks without breaking a sweat). 

Okay so while I'm walking I'm thinking.  I really do LOVE to walk.  Always has been my most favorite form of exercise - ever.  Then I thought over Sandy's blog (http://washdryandfold.blogspot.com) where she wrote about getting a new bike and finding that A does NOT equal B, meaning that riding outside on a real bike does not even resemble riding indoors on a recumbent bike.  So I'm thinking that if I really want to get back to walking I need to walk outdoors - treadmill and indoor clay-track walking is NOT the same.  It might work for cardio, but they really don't work your body the way outdoor walking does.  I love swimming but it's the same thing - it does not translate to the same fitness that walking does (in my opinion - I have nothing to back this up).  I took it up primarily because it was the only thing left to me before my surgery - I was in so much pain with anything else.  But, if for walking, all I have to do is put on a pair of sneaks and head out the door isn't that so much easier than changing for the pool, getting all wet, then needing another 1/2 hour (at least) before I'm ready to go back to work again?  Okay so walking wins in the EASY category.  The hard part is just DOING it.

But I'm really torn on the hot tub.  It's the same level of difficulty as swimming (the changing, showering, dressing, etc.) but it brings, for me, better results than land stretching.  However, I think that's because I LIKE the hot tub so it's more "fun" to do my stretching in it.  But if I'm going to walk and not swim - what is the point to get wet for just 20 minutes and have all the hassle?

I think it's just like picking a diet.  (And, God help me - I'm back to counting calories... but it's quite an eye opener - I'm using http://www.myfitnesspal.com - and it tracks nutrients as well as calories - there are 530mg in ONE tablespoon of my vinegar and 520mg in two wedges of lite Laughing Cow cheese...a snack bag of Lite Cape Cod chips has only 80!)  You just have to pick one and make up your mind to do it and see it through. 

I don't think there is anything wrong with changing things up but I would like to stick to something long enough to give it a fair try.  Bouncing around (diets or exercise) to find the easiest, least "painful" is going to get me no where.

Here's to walking, land stretching, and calorie counting.... THIS week anyway!

Miriam