Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Walking take 6
Who: Radagast and SO
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Still a bit sore from hovering over the jigsaw puzzle (which we've now completed).
Radagast's totals: 12/150, $52.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 10/150, $45.00
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Still a bit sore from hovering over the jigsaw puzzle (which we've now completed).
Radagast's totals: 12/150, $52.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 10/150, $45.00
Labels: walking
Monday, January 30, 2006
Walking take 5
Who: Radagast and SO
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Radagast and SO's shoulders and legs are sore from working on a jigsaw puzzle over the weekend.
Radagast's totals: 11/150, $47.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 9/150, $40.00
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Radagast and SO's shoulders and legs are sore from working on a jigsaw puzzle over the weekend.
Radagast's totals: 11/150, $47.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 9/150, $40.00
Labels: walking
Friday, January 27, 2006
Walking take 4
Who: Radagast and SO
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Radagast's legs and shoulders are still sore.
Radagast's totals: 10/150, $42.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 8/150, $35.00
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Radagast's legs and shoulders are still sore.
Radagast's totals: 10/150, $42.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 8/150, $35.00
Labels: walking
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Walking take 3
Who: Radagast and SO
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Radagast's legs, back, and shoulders are sore from gardening.
Radagast's totals: 9/150, $37.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 7/150, $30.00
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Soreness report: Radagast's legs, back, and shoulders are sore from gardening.
Radagast's totals: 9/150, $37.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 7/150, $30.00
Labels: walking
Gardening take 5
Who: Radagast
Exercise type: Weeding and string trimming
Duration: ~50 minutes
Radagast's totals: 8/150, $32.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Exercise type: Weeding and string trimming
Duration: ~50 minutes
Radagast's totals: 8/150, $32.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Labels: house
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Gardening take 4
Who: Radagast
Exercise type: Watering, weeding, and deadheading
Duration: ~1.5 hours
Notes: Yesterday morning I was in upstate New York and the temperature was below freezing; today I was weeding my yard in sunny 70+F-degree weather. I love Southern California.
Radagast's totals: 7/150, $30.00
Radagast's SO's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Exercise type: Watering, weeding, and deadheading
Duration: ~1.5 hours
Notes: Yesterday morning I was in upstate New York and the temperature was below freezing; today I was weeding my yard in sunny 70+F-degree weather. I love Southern California.
Radagast's totals: 7/150, $30.00
Radagast's SO's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Labels: house
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Cleaning house take 2
Who: Radagast and SO (and Radagast's SO's parents)
Exercise type: Cleaning out Radagast's SO's grandparents' house.
Details: Sorting through decades' worth of possessions, including lugging heavy items up and down stairs.
Duration: ~5 hours
Notes: A reminder: for the sake of your relatives, please clean out your house before you leave it.
Soreness report: Radagast and SO are still moderately sore the day after.
Radagast's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Radagast's SO's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Exercise type: Cleaning out Radagast's SO's grandparents' house.
Details: Sorting through decades' worth of possessions, including lugging heavy items up and down stairs.
Duration: ~5 hours
Notes: A reminder: for the sake of your relatives, please clean out your house before you leave it.
Soreness report: Radagast and SO are still moderately sore the day after.
Radagast's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Radagast's SO's totals: 6/150, $25.00
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Cleaning house take 1
Who: Radagast and SO (and Radagast's SO's parents)
Exercise type: Cleaning out Radagast's SO's grandparents' house.
Details: Sorting through decades' worth of possessions.
Duration: ~5 hours
Notes: For the sake of your relatives, please clean out your house before you leave it. Regarding the reward, we spent most of our time sorting through stuff in one room; if we'd done more lifting and carrying we would have given ourselves $5.
Soreness report: Radagast and SO are both moderately sore the day after, though some of that may be from the yoga tapes.
Radagast's totals: 5/150, $20.00
Radagast's SO's totals: 5/150, $20.00
Exercise type: Cleaning out Radagast's SO's grandparents' house.
Details: Sorting through decades' worth of possessions.
Duration: ~5 hours
Notes: For the sake of your relatives, please clean out your house before you leave it. Regarding the reward, we spent most of our time sorting through stuff in one room; if we'd done more lifting and carrying we would have given ourselves $5.
Soreness report: Radagast and SO are both moderately sore the day after, though some of that may be from the yoga tapes.
Radagast's totals: 5/150, $20.00
Radagast's SO's totals: 5/150, $20.00
Monday, January 16, 2006
Back Care Yoga for Beginners take 1
Who: Radagast, Radagast's SO, and Radagast's SO's mom
Exercise type: Back Care Yoga for Beginners with Rodney Yee
Portions of tape: entire tape
Duration: ~20 minutes
Notes: A good mild workout focusing on the back; it requires both a chair and a yoga strap. The cueing is excellent (as is typical with Rodney Yee videos). The chair is used to modify typical yoga poses (e.g., triangle, downward dog) to make them easier to do; Radagast's SO's mom had little trouble doing any of them. Most of the poses did not require a lot of exertion, and those that did were not held for long. This seems like a good quick workout for beginners (though since we haven't done it long-term we're not sure how effective it is at strengthening the back). This is also one of few yoga videos we've done that wouldn't be substantially helped by doing Yoga for Beginners beforehand.
Soreness report: Both Radagast and SO's shoulders and sides are sore from yesterday's Gentle Yoga tape.
Radagast's totals: 4/150, $17.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 4/150, $17.50
Exercise type: Back Care Yoga for Beginners with Rodney Yee
Portions of tape: entire tape
Duration: ~20 minutes
Notes: A good mild workout focusing on the back; it requires both a chair and a yoga strap. The cueing is excellent (as is typical with Rodney Yee videos). The chair is used to modify typical yoga poses (e.g., triangle, downward dog) to make them easier to do; Radagast's SO's mom had little trouble doing any of them. Most of the poses did not require a lot of exertion, and those that did were not held for long. This seems like a good quick workout for beginners (though since we haven't done it long-term we're not sure how effective it is at strengthening the back). This is also one of few yoga videos we've done that wouldn't be substantially helped by doing Yoga for Beginners beforehand.
Soreness report: Both Radagast and SO's shoulders and sides are sore from yesterday's Gentle Yoga tape.
Radagast's totals: 4/150, $17.50
Radagast's SO's totals: 4/150, $17.50
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Gentle Yoga for Beginners take 1
Who: Radagast, Radagast's SO, and Radagast's SO's mom
Exercise type: Gentle Yoga for Beginners video
Portions of tape: entire tape
Duration: ~30 minutes
Notes: This video was not nearly as gentle as we expected based on the title; some of the positions were relatively stressful, and the video shifted between positions quickly (my SO's mom had a lot of trouble keeping up). Both A.M. Yoga and P.M. Yoga seem like much gentler yoga videos. The cueing wasn't ideal (though with a few watchings it would be fine), especially because it was often off a few seconds from what Suzanne Deason was doing on-screen. Overall this seemed like a quite decent yoga workout, especially for the less fit; we weren't huffing and puffing as we were with Yoga for Strength, but it did get our heart rates up and stressed our muscles. As with most of these yoga videos, doing Yoga for Beginners is a recommended prerequisite.
Soreness report: Radagast's back is a bit sore, but probably not as a result of this video.
Radagast's totals: 3/150, $15
Radagast's SO's totals: 3/150, $15
Exercise type: Gentle Yoga for Beginners video
Portions of tape: entire tape
Duration: ~30 minutes
Notes: This video was not nearly as gentle as we expected based on the title; some of the positions were relatively stressful, and the video shifted between positions quickly (my SO's mom had a lot of trouble keeping up). Both A.M. Yoga and P.M. Yoga seem like much gentler yoga videos. The cueing wasn't ideal (though with a few watchings it would be fine), especially because it was often off a few seconds from what Suzanne Deason was doing on-screen. Overall this seemed like a quite decent yoga workout, especially for the less fit; we weren't huffing and puffing as we were with Yoga for Strength, but it did get our heart rates up and stressed our muscles. As with most of these yoga videos, doing Yoga for Beginners is a recommended prerequisite.
Soreness report: Radagast's back is a bit sore, but probably not as a result of this video.
Radagast's totals: 3/150, $15
Radagast's SO's totals: 3/150, $15
Accounting so far
Since my SO and I have done a few bouts of exercise this year already, here are our year-to-date totals for our latest motivation strategy:
Radagast's totals: 2/150, $10
Radagast's SO's totals: 2/150, $10
Radagast's totals: 2/150, $10
Radagast's SO's totals: 2/150, $10
Labels: goals
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
A new motivation scheme
If there were any regular readers of this blog, they would have noticed that my SO and I have not been exercising regularly (and have been failing to meet our goals). Neither of us is terribly happy about this, but the inertia of not exercising has proven to be great.
So, we've decided that setting a new long-term goal and developing a new motivation system might help. Here's our new plan:
1) We now have only one long-term goal: to exercise at least 150 times this year.
2) To help motivate us to reach this goal (and encourage us to go beyond it), we're going to give ourselves monetary rewards for exercising.
Here are the details of our plan (yes, we've made rules ... we're geeks; what do you expect?)
1) Exercise at least 150 times this year
This goal is intended to encourage us to be more active, and thus any style of exercise that lasts for a decent duration will count towards the total. Our initial thoughts are that any of our exercise videos, or any other physical activity that lasts a decent while, will count towards the total. The idea here is to encourage us to be physically active, not to get us to look like gym bunnies (we're trying to be realistic here).
2) Rewards for exercising
For every time that one of us does serious exercise (>30 minutes in a day, at least moderate intensity), we will allocate $5 to an account that the exerciser can use to purchase a reward. Short or light-intensity exercise bouts (e.g., A.M. Yoga, Pure and Simple Stretch) will add $2.50 to the account. Here are some examples:
$5 exercise:
Additionally, one of the contributing factors to us getting off track was that we stopped posting some of our exercise to the blog, primarily because the exercise (walking 40+ minutes) wasn't especially intense (see this post for more). This ended up causing us to lose track of whether we were meeting our goals. So, from now on we'll post all of our goal-related exercise to the blog, regardless of how puny it may seem.
And, once again, we invite all of our (nonexistent) readers to help us out by bugging us whenever we fall off the wagon. We heard from only one person when we stopped exercising last fall, and they didn't even bug us much ... we know you can do better!
So, we've decided that setting a new long-term goal and developing a new motivation system might help. Here's our new plan:
1) We now have only one long-term goal: to exercise at least 150 times this year.
2) To help motivate us to reach this goal (and encourage us to go beyond it), we're going to give ourselves monetary rewards for exercising.
Here are the details of our plan (yes, we've made rules ... we're geeks; what do you expect?)
1) Exercise at least 150 times this year
This goal is intended to encourage us to be more active, and thus any style of exercise that lasts for a decent duration will count towards the total. Our initial thoughts are that any of our exercise videos, or any other physical activity that lasts a decent while, will count towards the total. The idea here is to encourage us to be physically active, not to get us to look like gym bunnies (we're trying to be realistic here).
2) Rewards for exercising
For every time that one of us does serious exercise (>30 minutes in a day, at least moderate intensity), we will allocate $5 to an account that the exerciser can use to purchase a reward. Short or light-intensity exercise bouts (e.g., A.M. Yoga, Pure and Simple Stretch) will add $2.50 to the account. Here are some examples:
$5 exercise:
- Walking for 40+ minutes
- Gardening for 60+ minutes
- Body Basics
- Fat Burning Workout
- Yoga for Strength
- Yoga for Beginners
- Walking to the grocery store (and lugging back groceries)
- Gardening for 30-59 minutes
- A.M. Yoga
- P.M. Yoga
- Pure and Simple Stretch
Additionally, one of the contributing factors to us getting off track was that we stopped posting some of our exercise to the blog, primarily because the exercise (walking 40+ minutes) wasn't especially intense (see this post for more). This ended up causing us to lose track of whether we were meeting our goals. So, from now on we'll post all of our goal-related exercise to the blog, regardless of how puny it may seem.
And, once again, we invite all of our (nonexistent) readers to help us out by bugging us whenever we fall off the wagon. We heard from only one person when we stopped exercising last fall, and they didn't even bug us much ... we know you can do better!
Labels: goals
Walking take 2
Who: Radagast and SO
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Notes: None.
Soreness report: None.
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Notes: None.
Soreness report: None.
Labels: walking
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Walking take 1
Who: Radagast and SO
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Notes: Pondered possible exercise motivation strategies on the walk ... more to come at some point in the future.
Soreness report: None.
Exercise type: Walking
Duration: ~40 minutes
Notes: Pondered possible exercise motivation strategies on the walk ... more to come at some point in the future.
Soreness report: None.
Labels: walking
