Physically Fit

January 18: Walking to Möriswil

fitfor15in15 2 Comments

Yesterday’s weather induced cabin fever, so when the sun came out today it was time to make the most of it. Plus I’d promised to make things a bit more interesting, too, and that means getting out of the house!

The walk took us on a snow-covered Wanderweg path to the little village of Möriswil, around the forest and through some empty crop fields, back past my favourite house and garden (apart from ours, of course), then home.

I hope you enjoy the gallery of photos from our 90 minute wander.

January 17: Bad weather + no motivation = 15 minutes again

fitfor15in15 Leave a comment

Beautiful snow and the desire to be lazy kept us indoors today. I printed a handful of pictures for the hanging photo mobile Christmas present from Gabby, read a little bit and watched some episodes of Inspector Montalbano and Grand Designs.

This morning’s meditation was a bit different – because the office was noisy (with whirring computers doing updates), I sat on the bed near the window. After about five minutes, it was impossible to keep my eyes closed, knowing how wonderful it looked outside. So I sat in contemplation, wide-eyed, listening to the music, watching the flakes float steadily down. It was pretty heavenly.

It’s okay to change it up, don’t you think, when something so mesmerising and calming is happening around you?

But yet again, this lazy phase means it’s after 11pm and I still haven’t done my 15 minutes. I need to form a weekend habit to exercise before noon. This is becoming a bit silly.

So excuse me again, while I get stuck into some sit ups and so on …

…

Well, I think that’s going to hurt tomorrow! I thought I’d try for 15 minutes of sit ups … after two minutes of full sit ups, holding the tins, I checked the stopwatch. Then again at three minutes. So I called it quits after five minutes. Then I did eight minutes of leg exercises (four different exercises, for one minute each, lying on my right, then left, side), one minute of bent knee push ups, then one minute of arm exercises with the tins.

I promise I’ll mix it up a bit more in the next few days, for your (and my) sanity!

Speaking of mixing it up, I thought you might like to read some articles I found interesting this past week from a variety of sources – friends posting things on social media, websites I read and so on.

1. Aussie scientists may have a new fat-burning solution

2. Why exercise doesn’t always help you lose weight

3. Optimistic people have healthier hearts

4. Otters derailing conversations – something humorous to break up these health stories!

5. Zero Waste Home’s one year of waste – I read this blog regularly. Bea is an amazing, focussed woman!

Wishing you all a wonderful remainder of the weekend.

January 16: Feeling the pressure

fitfor15in15 Leave a comment

Strange things were afoot today. I met with Pastora and Iva at Kanjana’s house, and all of us were nearly comatose at the lunch table. For a normally rambunctious lot, we had no energy, felt weird and accident prone – so we blamed it on the weather.

I’m no expert on thermometers or barometers, but there was something going on today that threw us all off kilter – kind of like mango season in Australia’s tropics, when everyone goes a little bit kurr-ayyzzzzie. But in our case, we just went zzzzzz.

The morning started fine – I had to check the timer on my phone twice to make sure I hadn’t set the wrong program for the 10 minutes of meditation, because it felt like it was over and done with in five. That was a wonder.

My stretches still twang in all the right places, and I’m positive my elbows are getting closer to the ground. I even buckled my belt one notch tighter, but maybe that’s because my jeans need a wash. And I swear I bounded my way to the bus stop.

Then hours later, we (and I feel like I’m not speaking out of turn by grouping us all in this malarky) were flatter than pancakes. As soon as I came home, I went kurr-ayyzzzzie – in my pyjamas on the couch.

It’s nearly 11pm and I haven’t done my 15 minutes of actual exercise for today. I could cheat and say walking to and from the bus counts, but I consider that to be everyday life stuff. I have this notion in my head that fitfor15in15 has to be at least 15 minutes of specific exercise per day, so excuse me while I keep this blog post open for 15 minutes and get down.

…

So there you have it. The chick pea tins came to my rescue again for a good arm workout as I did a variation of squats and lunges. Then some ab work, such as plank (20 seconds! Hopeless!) and sit ups, plus push ups (still on my knees) and boxing moves. I wonder if this is going to wake me up or if I’ll be out for the count as soon as my head hits the pillow … in, oh, 15 seconds.

Can you remember a time when the weather wreaked havoc on your head, rather than on your house? They say it’s going to snow tomorrow, so maybe that has contributed to a very strange day.

Hope today’s not one of those days for you. I hope it’s wonderful.

January 15: Dance like no one’s watching

fitfor15in15 4 Comments

Yesterday, my friend Jackie suggested I should add “Dance like no one’s watching” into my fitfor15in15 regime. It was such a brilliant idea, I did it today.

But which songs to choose? There’s so many that make me want to dance like a maniac. Half the fun was making the playlist this morning, and putting them in a cool order (and one that would give me a few seconds to catch my breath when needed!) for my workout this afternoon.

Finally, I settled on 10 songs totalling 40 minutes. Dancing (ESPECIALLY when no one is watching) is a serious business. I haven’t danced this hard since Phil and Ellie’s wedding in London on December 21. (She’s touring in the UK this year – go and watch her be funny!) And now that I think of it, maybe that’s where I injured the ball of my left foot?! Hmmm …

With this, as inspiration, out my window …

Sunset in the forest

Sunset in the forest

… I tried to channel Christopher Walken, then put my head down, arms out and bum up, non-stop for 40 minutes.

Here’s my playlist, with YouTube links. I’m not clever enough to embed a playlist for you, sorry. First up is a warm-up song, then eight great tracks, and my fave as the warm down …

Dance with Somebody – Mando Diao

Can We Go Wrong – Hesta Prynn

The Great Escape – We Are Scientists

Punching In a Dream – The Naked and Famous

Jailbreak – AC/DC

Atomic – Blondie

Lonely Boy – The Black Keys … Mum, if you’re going to watch one video, make it this one. I think you’ll like it!

Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

My Delirium – Ladyhawke

Map of the Problematique – Muse

By the time Jailbreak was finished, and what with all my air drumming, I was really sweating and had to fold my shirt up to cool down. Our house is so well heated it felt like a bikram yoga studio. Luckily we live rural and no one walks past our windows, otherwise they would have been treated to the sight of my crème brûlée belly doing it’s own thing as I jumped around.

Leo came home with two songs to go, and promptly went outside to look at something far more attractive …

Sunset on the Alps

Sunset on the Alps

Thanks for a great exercise suggestion, Jac – it’s definitely been one of my most fun workouts and I can’t wait to do it again. By the end, I looked like this …

Dance with nobody: I'm glad I didn't make the playlist any longer!

After dancing with nobody: I’m glad I didn’t make the playlist any longer!

Which songs would you put into your Dance Like No One’s Watching playlist?

Wishing you a wonderful day.

January 14: Weather turns the day upside down

fitfor15in15 1 Comment

Pastora, Iva, Jaime and I planned to do a five-hour walk today along the winding Aare river, from Wohlen bei Bern into the city. The rain gods decided to have a hoedown, or maybe it was a rave, at 5am, and that was the end of that idea.

It rained all morning – the ground was mush, the wind was high, the seas were rough … I made that last one up.

So we turned a day of activity into a day of inactivity. We ate too much, drank a little, talked non-stop and played a board game Iva brought along. Importantly, we laughed a lot. We may not have that satisfied kind of exhaustion we were hoping to have from a long walk, but we achieved it in another form from solid rainy-day fun.

Hence, I’ve just completed 15 minutes of strength exercises before going to bed. My arms and shoulders certainly feel yesterday’s yoga efforts, so I thought I’d try five minutes of stomach crunches (arms behind the ears and elbows out of sight), five minutes of upside down cycling (lying on my back, legs in the air, peddling fast) and then five minutes of squat variations holding my trusty chick pea tins.

Not sure if the cycling achieved as much as the other exercises, other than noticing my noisy knees, but it was good to do something new.

Speaking of new, a friend, Jac, suggested my next exercise challenge should be to dance like no one is watching, and tomorrow I’m going to do just that. I might even tell you my play list.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

January 13: Yoga

fitfor15in15 4 Comments

My friend from German school, Iva, kindly invited me to try out a yoga class at her husband’s fitness, training and wellness centre, which specialises in karate. Her husband, Marko, is a very important Dan in the karate world. Maybe, down the track, I’ll try a karate lesson at Maru Dojo?! I’m open to everything.

Last night’s yoga was a wonderful re-introduction to all the past yoga courses I’ve loved and tried. And ultimately forgotten. Some of the moves feel so convoluted, until you look around and see others doing it with style.

The teacher was lovely, patient, and (importantly for me) had a nice voice – even if I couldn’t understand everything she was saying. She was speaking the Bern dialect of Swiss German (there are also Basel and Zurich dialects). I’ve only learnt High German (spoken and understood in Germany and Austria too) which is what the Swiss read and write in the Swiss German parts of the country. (The other official languages spoken in Switzerland are French, Italian and Romansh – the latter being a very old language spoken in the mountains to the east by a small, but proud, group.)

Oh, I know, it’s darn confusing. Swiss German is officially a spoken language, not a written language. All the written materials are in High German, such as newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and so on. My partner tells a crazy story (for us foreigners) about speaking Swiss German in a meeting at work with colleagues, clients and business associates, then going back to his desk to write them an email … in High German.

The class was a little package of relaxation and energy all rolled into 90 minutes. The time went really fast. The room was just the right size, and the mood was calm. My balance is shot, but it was a great challenge and I look forward to going back again. I joked with Iva I’d like to be able to do the bridge move by December. She agreed – by December 2017!!

Here’s a photo from the yoga section on the Maru Dojo website. This is the room we did our practice (ohhh, fancy terminology and all!) and she was our teacher too.

I slept very well last night and enjoyed my morning routine this morning. Finally – a few good habits!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

On the right path to a good morning routine

fitfor15in15 2 Comments

Plenty of big-name bloggers and health experts talk about the benefits of a regular morning routine. Stick ‘morning routine’ into a search engine and away you go!

Courtney Carver from be more with less steered me towards the idea that being more productive and ‘intentional’ in the mornings would make a massive difference to the day. Because I’m not working over here, it’s been hard to find a motivating reason to get out of bed early. The lure of “just a few more minutes” (especially when it’s cold!) can easily become a few more hours, as I trawl through email, Whatsapp and Viber messages, blogs, books, Facebook, Instagram and the news on my phone. Oh and play card games. How slack is that?

This morning I still read some Facebook posts and email, but when it got to a certain point I knew I’d had enough, because I was looking forward to the meditation and stretching habit I’m trying to form.

The whole morning plan is now becoming clearer to me, and I’m devising a routine that maximises … ummm … my time? My energy? My renewed desire to have everything just so?!

Wake up, enjoy a few minutes of being awake and look out the window, get out of bed, go downstairs and turn on the kettle, go to the loo, when back in the kitchen cut some lemon slices and put them in a mug, come back upstairs and do 10 minutes of meditation on the floor, followed by five minutes of stretching, go back downstairs and pour the boiled water into the mug, bring it back upstairs, and enjoy the warm lemon water while writing/studying/responding to emails etc. This way I’m sitting at my desk waaay earlier in the day, which surely can only mean productivity ensues?!?!

Drinking warm lemon water in the morning is another new habit for 2015 and today was the first time I’ve done it in a long time. If I can follow the plan above Following the plan above will make it second nature before too long. The benefits of warm water with lemon as your first drink of the day have also been touted a gazillion times. Good for your liver and so on.

Meditation this morning felt easier than yesterday – sure I still fiddled and fidgeted and couldn’t get comfortable, cross-legged, for what seemed like ages. Must keep an eye on slouching too – you should sit straight and tall, but I found myself shrinking on occasions. My mind wandered to all sorts of fun and urgent things too, but as soon as I realised that, I refocused on my breath going across my top lip.

Stretching included some new ideas today, and some new goals. Currently, when I sit with spread legs and lean forward holding my elbows, my arms, when at their limit, are between 15-20 centimetres off the floor. My aim is to get my elbows on the floor. Bring it on! This old dog is relearning some old tricks.

The second goal is to be able to keep each shoulder on the floor when I do a horizontal bent-leg twist, you know the one where you bring one knee up and then lower it, bent, across your other leg to the floor, and turn your head in the opposite direction to look at your outstretched hand? Well, my shoulders pop up really high, and when I lie my left knee over my right leg, I can’t even touch the floor with the knee and hand at the same time. It’s either the knee on the floor and the hand in the air, or the hand on the floor and the knee hovering. Bring it on! Another new goal.

Last but not least, the final goal I thought about today, while I was supposed to be focusing on my breath, is how to get the neighbour’s cat out of our roof!!! The damned thing spends a helluvalotta time up there and makes a racket!

Wishing you a great day.

p.s I’m going to a yoga class tonight with my friend Iva. This will be my first group-exercise class this year, and we’ll see how it goes! By the time I get home, I may not be awake enough to write about it, so just letting you know you could receive two emails tomorrow. But rest assured (!) … I am exercising today. fitfor15in15!

January 12: A walk into Wohlen and home again

fitfor15in15 4 Comments

Wohlen bei Bern is a little village about eight kilometres north west from Bern main train station. I’ve been here since December 2011 and love it.

We live between the villages of Wohlen and Möriswil, and it takes 20 minutes to walk from our house, called a Stoeckli, down to the main street, where the buses go every 30 minutes into the city.

Today’s exercise involved dropping a letter off to the council offices, so instead of doing it tomorrow, when I will be catching the bus into town to meet a friend, Sandra, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take some photos and show you the area where we live.

With my walking boots on, I followed the Wanderweg (walking) path through some farming fields and down to the council office, and then back a different way via our favourite local restaurant.

I hope you enjoy this gallery of photos from our little village.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

Starting a new habit – morning meditation and stretching

fitfor15in15 1 Comment
The sunrise this morning, from our bedroom window

The sunrise this morning, from our bedroom window

It’s been a while coming, but I didn’t want to start doing everything at once and feel overwhelmed. So a series of new habits are being introduced over time.

Two new habits (I’ve planned for about six) will start today. Morning meditation and stretching, and study (more on the second one in a future post).

If you need meditation or general health apps for your phone, you could have a look at this story from Sarah Wilson’s “I Quit Sugar” website. Body and Soul is also a great source of information too.

I already have a couple of free meditation apps on my phone, from previous attempts to be mentally fit. (Are you seeing a recurring theme here? I am! I’ve sourced so many things – apps, gear, blogs, books etc – in order to get fit, in all meanings of the word, but have been too slack to act on them long enough to form a habit.) There are loads of meditation apps around – see which one or ones work for you.

I’m pretty fussy when it comes to listening to other people talk, especially when they’re trying to make you relaxed. I suffer from Misophonia – literally meaning a hatred of noise (more on that in a future post too, promise) and suffer extreme reactions if people make ‘unnecessary’ noises such as lip smacking, loud inhalations of breath, or you can hear saliva in their mouth.

But my most severe reactions come when people speak with a very trill, high pitched, sickly sweet, exaggerated ‘s’. I’ve noticed when these relaxation/meditation voices want to make you feel relaxxxxxxxed, often they make the ‘s’ sound last longer than normal (for example “let go of your thoughtsssssssssssssss, think of peacccccccccccccccce, close your eyessssssssssss”) and when that s sound is very high and hissy like a snake, my immediate reaction is to want to smash the phone and then punch the perpetrator in the face. Ten deep breaths (not breathssssss) and relax (not relaxxxxxxxxx) … Ha ha, yeah, I can make a joke about it here, but for me, honestly, it’s not a bloody joke!

Anyway … back to the task at hand …

Meditation. It’s hard! The mind wanders but that’s all part of the plan – to bring your thinking back to focusing on your breath. I try to focus on my nose and top lip, where I can feel my breaths going in and out.

The meditation app timer was set for 10 minutes (normally the apps give you options of say five, 10, 15, 20 minutes etc), the music or natural sound options were pleasant and I chose a track, the guide voice was turned off, I got into a comfortable position on the floor (which quickly became uncomfortable) and off I went.

A few minutes in, I started thinking about my friends in Adelaide, then I noticed my hair was tickling my neck. Focus, focus … After six minutes, I couldn’t cope with my hair any more and tied it back with the band on my wrist. Much better. Made it to the end! Then I switched to the five minute meditation and did leg stretches on the floor. Wow, my hammies are tight!

Doing this 15-minute routine really got me into ‘wake up’ mode and hopefully will set the scene for a productive day. Well, it’s worked so far – it’s 8.46am and I’ve already written a post.

Do you think you could set your alarm 15 minutes earlier tomorrow for some meditation and stretching, before you have a shower? You don’t even need an app or music – set a timer for 10 minutes and sit still. Then set the timer for five minutes and try to touch your toes with straight and spread legs. No fast movements, it’s all very calm, and hopefully you’ll be feeling abuzz with added energy and clarity.

I’m really looking forward to making this part of my morning routine. Want to join me?

Wishing you a great day.

January 11: 15 minutes after half a bottle of wine

fitfor15in15 3 Comments

Is it wrong to exercise after drinking half a bottle of red? Most likely.

I finished my last glass about an hour ago. The exercise mantra has been hanging over my head all day, and it’s Sunday, “the day of rest”, but because I only need to find 15 minutes each day, I’ve been putting the whole thing off until the last minute, knowing it can be done.

The idea behind fitfor15in15 is doing a minimum of 15 minutes exercise per day in 2015. Today I did 15 minutes. Yesterday I did 30, which included a few minutes for falling over. Hey, I’m building a habit here – there’s bound to be ups and downs!!

But I know I CAN DO 15 MINUTES EVERY DAY, eeeasy, even after a few wines (sorry exercise Gods!). And it was all made up in my head. I grabbed my trusty chickpea tins, found a space, didn’t bother turning the radio on, and I worked out for 15 minutes using the timer on my phone.

There were squats with boxing punches and attempted planks (didn’t even last 15 seconds, my stomach muscles are still so sore from three days ago) and sit ups (I’ve realised sit ups with your hands on your head beside your ears are much harder than sit ups with your hands in front of you. Aha! I can do a sit up!) and squats with a dip and a twist, and arm raises and … and … basically I looked like a nob.

It was probably like a Jane Fonda workout from the 80s, minus the leg warmers. I even bothered to take a photo. Because you love a riveting photo, right?

Bicycle leg movements with opposing elbows. Riveting ...

Bicycle leg movements with opposing elbows. Riveting …

The left knee is going green thanks to yesterday’s bruising, so I did, like, two push ups, but I’m nowhere near as worried about that injury as I am about the damn left ball of my foot. Why does everything on the left side hurt? Am I a leftie? You should hear my left shoulder crunch when I lift that tin!

Like all hypochondriacs, I’ve done some self-medicated googling and think I have Metatarsalgia, thanks to wearing my furry snow boots after Christmas. Hopefully Metatarwhatsamathingy sounds worse than it is. It feels like needles are going into the bones when I walk, especially near the third toe on my left foot. But I won’t go on *yawn*. Fingers crossed it goes away soon.

C’mon, if I can find 15 minutes to make the thighs burn on an unmotivated day like today, you can find 15 minutes too, yeah!? (I’m so glad I did – I feel even more light-headed now!)

For some better motivation talk, how about you read this article instead …

Wishing you a great day.

And lay off the vino 🙂