The Exercise Motivation Thread - 2015

[AbbysMom]

Here is a new Exercise Motivation thread for a new year! Link to the old thread:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/270303/the-exercise-motivation-thread-2014

Quite a few of us are trying to exercise more to get/ stay healthier. Here's a thread to post what we are doing to keep us motivated and support each other.

WE CAN DO IT!!!!!



All are welcome to join in.

 

[AbbysMom]

My husband bought me a Garmin vivosmart for Christmas. It was back-ordered so I just got it. So far I am questioning the step count. It seems a bit inflated. We'll see how this goes.

 

[jtbo]

Over 2 hours of bicycling on icy roads today, it was really great, even weather was cloudy some big truck in full log load had smoothed the road so I could keep quite good pace.

First hour was quite difficult, felt really tired and barely could keep going, but I forced myself to keep going and second hour was a lot easier already.

 

[jcat]

Ninety minutes of walking this morning - about 20 more than usual due to slush everywhere.

 

[AbbysMom]

I walked 4.5 miles yesterday in fairly cold, windy weather. I really need to dig out all my winter gear. I'm going to ahve to fiddle with my new fitness tracker. I think the step count is a bit inflated. :nod:

 

[jtbo]

I had to visit shop today, we have here something tabloids have labeled as a "storm", in reality that has been mild winds and lot of wet snow, there was about 7cm (bit under 3 inches) of it on top of ice covered roads, good weather to wear fisherman's raingear with ski goggles, I nearly could complete my trip without snow plow cleaning the road, but around 25% to go I saw snow plow closing from behind and I did turn to tiny cattle road to let snow plow pass me.

No sidewalks here, so I ride in car tracks most of the time, it is safer than at deep snow next to tracks, but during the blizzard visibility can sometimes be limited, so I keep headlight and taillight on even during day when riding on such conditions.


Sometimes there is interesting situations, when two large trucks at full pine log load comes from opposite directions and car tracks are too narrowly spaced from them to pass each other, yet alone when I have to fit somewhere on the road.

I have high visibility clothing too, so I'm not overly worried, I just try to know where everyone else is and be prepared to dive into forest next to road if someone loses control when passing.

 

[tammat]

Hi everyone. I haven't been posting but I'm still exercising. I was so fatigued in the lead up to Christmas. I was dreading every workout. I had 3 rest days and this last week I have worked my legs every other day with a rest in between. I'm starting to regain my energy and my love for working out. I've been eating leaner and some of my hard earned muscle is appearing as the fat is disappearing. I owe a lot of credit to my trainer Rohan. He sends me a text every now and then to see how I'm going. I swear he can see into my stomach contents!! He seems to sense consumption of cheese cake!!! Arrrgh!!!

Keep going everybody. We were great in 2014 this year we will be better
Bring it on !!!!!

 

[jtbo]

Today I did about 4 hours of walking, I started carrying firewood at 10am, then started fire in three fireplaces, after that I did plow about 8 inches of snow that had came down since yesterday evening.

Then got cats out after I had opened paths for them and carried more firewood, every now and then put also more wood to fireplaces, some are other side of yard of course.

While waiting for water to heat up, I made new paths to one corner of yard, 60 feet long path and there was more snow as I had not cleared snow there, close to 14 inches, so it was bit more work, also all snow was quite wet.

More than 300 feet of paths in total so it takes always quite bit of time.

Had to also play with cats, they love to chase small snowballs I make and toss to them.

Bit after 3pm I could start making dinner and now I have to go to close chimney from cat's place as fire should be burned and need to prevent heat from escaping.

It is always 60 feet of walking when I visit cat's and carry firewood, food etc. so during the day sometimes I get quite good bit of walking, speed is not very great as often I need to carry something or move snow, but I can feel it in my legs and I think then it counts

 

[Winchester]

2 miles (40 minutes) on the treadmill this morning. 

2.5 miles (48 minutes) walking during lunch. (And I want to tell you, man, it is nasty out there!)

30 minutes of assorted upper body and lower body exercises using 8-pound dumbbells, assorted crunches

 

[Norachan]

Right, I'm in.

I used to take a lot of exercise but lately I've been really lazy, using excuses like "It's too cold" or "The ground is frozen". Got to nip these bad habits in the bud.

All I did today was rake up dead leaves in the garden for about 20 minutes. Found 3 cat collars!

I'll do better tomorrow.

 

[jtbo]

We had nice -20C today, so I did chop firewood for 2 hours, then I start feeling bit too hot and decided to do more tomorrow when it is bit colder.

 

[jtbo]

Add 1 hour of bicycling in -24C temperature to previous, I had out of yeast and took longer route to shop as weather was so nice, then I cycled too fast and got quite hot.

I need to take bicycle into sauna to melt, there was something wrong with gear changing and I suspect there is ice, it has been working poorly since I did ride in deep wet snow, so I need to take it apart and while cold temperatures are not an issue when exercising, bicycle repairing requires warmer temperatures and in sauna I can easily get more heat.

My toilet is kind of outhouse, I did notice today that I need to repair door that is used to empty outhouse as wind was blowing to my bottom and it was not most pleasant at these temperatures.

 

[Norachan]

Add 1 hour of bicycling in -24C temperature to previous, I had out of yeast and took longer route to shop as weather was so nice, then I cycled too fast and got quite hot.

 

Wow, JTbo, you're made out of sterner stuff than I am. -24C! 

It gets down to about -20 here on cold nights, but it's usually just above freezing during the day. Do you get a lot of daylight at this time of year?

Today I managed 90 minutes of yoga in the morning and an hour of walking in the afternoon. It's going to be too icy to run for the next few months, but if i keep power walking up-hill as often as I can it shouldn't be too hard to get back into running in the spring.

 

[jtbo]

Wow, JTbo, you're made out of sterner stuff than I am. -24C! :jaw:

It gets down to about -20 here on cold nights, but it's usually just above freezing during the day. Do you get a lot of daylight at this time of year?

Today I managed 90 minutes of yoga in the morning and an hour of walking in the afternoon. It's going to be too icy to run for the next few months, but if i keep power walking up-hill as often as I can it shouldn't be too hard to get back into running in the spring.

Last night it was down to -31C and today it has not yet been above -25C, I used most of daylight already by carrying wood to furnaces, I need to keep doing that also after the daylight has ended, lot of walking with weights that is, not sure if it counts though

We get now bit over 5 hours of daylight, it is already much better than three weeks ago when it was under 5 hours.

Tiger wanted to go out, so I let him, then he just sat outside the door and lifted his front paws up while stared me like saying "do something about this", he could not take it more than 5 minutes, so it really is very cold temperature out there.

I was hoping to get another bike ride today, but it really was not possible because all my day goes with carrying firewood and feeding fireplaces.

However it was incredible pretty outdoors, sun was so low that I could not see it behind the forest whole day, only that gold color sunlight on snowy treetops.

 

[Winchester]

I could not handle that weather, JTbo, I simply could not deal with it. I could not handle the short days either as I get spastic at this time of the year without the sun and we have longer days than you right now. 5 hours of daylight? No, not going there.

Rick brought me into work this morning as the clipper has hit. They're not calling for much, just a nuisance snow more than anything. 

2.0 miles walking during lunch....in the snow. It was supposed to stop around 11:00; it did not.

 

[jtbo]

I could not handle that weather, JTbo, I simply could not deal with it. I could not handle the short days either as I get spastic at this time of the year without the sun and we have longer days than you right now. 5 hours of daylight? No, not going there.

Rick brought me into work this morning as the clipper has hit. They're not calling for much, just a nuisance snow more than anything. 

Think it like this, when there is enough cold, you can't stay at place, you have to move to keep warm, what a great motivation for exercising that is!

Cat's seem to notice that too, at morning their house is getting cold and they run a lot, but as I heat place up again they climb up to their near ceiling pathway and up into closet near ceiling, then they just sleep there in very warm air surrounding them.

So cold is really great motivator

 

[catlove15]

sounds like the garmin vivofit is a great gift Abbysmom, ! let us know how you like it or if you don't as you go cuz i'm trying to decide between garmin, fitbit and nike ones. positives and negatives on all of them. i'm new to the thread so hi all ! been reading it since i joined here last year and it's motivational, at least i felt great for you guys. now that it's the new year so far i dug out a parking lot for myself on my front lawn rather than my driveway, long story to that, which was a great workout. and it wasn't that cold which helped and the snow wasn't too heavy. 

as far as walking my dogs every day, not yet cuz the weather turned all blizzardy here for a few days so they're still at the kennel where they can get lots of exercise. and when the blizzard gets better, we are going for walks in the snow, whether it's warm or 0 F. at least for a short walk.  

i'm looking to lose a lot of weight. lost about 25 lbs a few years ago and kept it off for a couple of years but then gained it back last year so rather annoyed about that but am starting again. so i'll keep you up to date. so far about 3 lbs since last year. slow is fine as long as i either maintain or go down. 

anyway, i'm babbling. keep up the excellent exercise and motivation guys and may we all lose if we need it and get healthier this year. or maintain. it's all good.

 

 

[Norachan]

Think it like this, when there is enough cold, you can't stay at place, you have to move to keep warm, what a great motivation for exercising that is!

Cat's seem to notice that too, at morning their house is getting cold and they run a lot, but as I heat place up again they climb up to their near ceiling pathway and up into closet near ceiling, then they just sleep there in very warm air surrounding them.

So cold is really great motivator

I guess you burn off a lot of energy just keeping warm at this time of year. I find the cold weather makes me stiffen up, so I'm not as flexible when I'm doing yoga. I still feel a lot better after some exercise though.

Just 1 hour of yoga today, I was too busy for anything else.

 

[Winchester]

2.5 miles on the treadmill this morning

2.5 miles walking outside during lunch

My biggest problem with walking outside is getting all the clothes on to walk. Long underwear, pants, top, scarf, ear muffs, gloves, snow sneakers, Yak Trax, etc. It takes for ever to get dressed for walking and then undressed afterward. And I feel like the Michelin Man's wife when I'm outside with all the clothes. The Yak Trax seems to keep my stride off-balance, especially when walking on pavement. But it's really icy outside right now and you never know when you're going to hit a patch of black ice. The Yak Trax are great for walking on ice and snow. It's just annoying trying to deal with all the clothes. (And that's my whine for the day)

 

[jtbo]

I guess you burn off a lot of energy just keeping warm at this time of year. I find the cold weather makes me stiffen up, so I'm not as flexible when I'm doing yoga. I still feel a lot better after some exercise though.

Just 1 hour of yoga today, I was too busy for anything else.

I feel that stiffening up too, also winter clothing does not help too much, so I pedal at lower cadence, also during winter my speeds with bicycle are a lot less than in summer.


I did 1 hour of moving snow today, so not much of anything, but it does burn more calories than skiing they say. It is not such cold weather anymore, but snowing heavily.