Move It Mama Monday - Down Time

Well, it's Monday again, and I must report I didn't exercise yesterday or today. I did pull 2 1/2 hours in the dojo on Thursday, and another 1 1/2 hours in the dojo on Saturday. I also managed to get in a swim last week, and a few workouts with EA Sports Active. Yes, I was going good. I could feel myself getting stronger, moving better. My weight keeps fluctuating between 148-151, and I'm to the point where I think no amount of exercise and diet is ever going to shift those last 10 pounds I want to lose, but as long as I'm exercising and getting plenty of fruits and vegetables and drinking water, who gives a damn? I mean, seriously, I got lingerie for my wedding anniversary last week, and it looked very nice on me. And the dress I wore on my honeymoon 16 years ago fits just fine, even if I am 16 pounds heavier than I was back then, so what am I bitching about? The only one who has a problem with my weight is Wii Fit, and if he gets uppity with me again, I'm gonna smack his little plastic ass across the living room. So there.

But anyway, I had a great week exercise-wise last week, and then I hit yesterday and today and didn't get a workout in at all. Yesterday was Father's Day, so I spent most of the day with family, either cooking special meals or having fun at the beach. I did do some splashing in the waves, but not what I would call exercise. Even so, a day at the beach left me completely whipped, and I was out like a light when I got home. Then today, Princess' summer camp kicked off, as well as her swimming lessons, so the bulk of today was spent ferrying her around and then waiting while she did her thing. Pixie and I walked around the Virginia Living Museum for 3 hours this morning, and then parked our butts on the bleachers at the pool, waiting for Princess. Again, not a lot of activity, but exhausting all the same.

So I've had a couple days off from exercise. I plan to get back on the wagon tomorrow morning and squeeze in a workout before whisking Princess to a day of camp and swimming again. The best I can hope for is 25 minutes on EA Sports Active or Wii Fit, because once we're done with camp and swimming, I'm going to be too tired again to make myself work out.

I'm not going to beat myself up over the down time though. It happens, especially when you've got kids. I do the best I can to make it easy for myself to exercise, but I also know that past a certain hour of the day, I'm not up to doing a damn thing. This is the reason why I don't go to evening karate classes anymore. I just can't summon up the energy to go. I'll do anything you want before 4PM, but after that? Nada, zip, bupkis. This mama is too worn out to care.

If you'd care to comment, let me know how often you go through down periods, and how you feel about them. Guilty? Don't care? Think you need the break? And how long do you let a down period last? I'm putting an end to this one tomorrow morning.

I hope.

Move It Mama Monday! My Daughters, The Athletes

I had a big surprise last week. Princess' gym teacher called me at home to invite me to an awards ceremony. Apparently my girl had been named one of two top kindergarten students in P.E. for the year. Needless to say, I'm chuffed. Aside from one sparring trophy, this is the first award Princess has ever received that wasn't an "everybody gets one" deal. Meaning she actually had to earn this award. And she earned it, according to her gym teacher, by being attentive, helpful, polite, always prepared for class (i.e. we always make her wear sneakers to school), and by basically running the pants off of everybody else in school. She's a regular Flashy Fast Foot, I'm told, my freakishly tall daughter who can race like the wind.

Pixie is just as active as Princess. She loves to run races, and climbs all over everything. Princess' karate instructor has already noticed that Pixie is very "physical" and can't wait to see what she's like when she starts taking karate classes. Yep, I've got two little athletes on my hands.

And I have no idea where they get it from.

**I** was never an athlete. Growing up, I hated recess because I couldn't run fast enough to play tag, and I sucked at jumping rope. I was the proverbial kid who was picked last for dodge ball teams, and I had such poor hand-eye coordination I couldn't even hit the ball in T-ball. My dislike of recess turned to full-blown loathing by the time I hit middle school and I had to wear a butt-ugly gym suit to do even worse tasks like volley ball and soccer. Then every spring semester, we had to take the same stupid physical fitness test, consisting of such torments as the flex arm hang and the shuttle run. I was always guaranteed to get the worst score in the class. I just sucked at athletics.

Naturally, my father decided I would excel in ROTC. Should I even get into how miserable that was? During the four years I struggled through college, I spent more time puking up my guts before 8 AM than most people will do all their lives. I ran miles across the campus during company runs, got crushed in team sports pile ups, and left my lungs and stomach somewhere in Lane Stadium while running sets of stadium steps. My push ups were a true testament to the law of gravity (i.e. gravity sucks and thus so did my push ups). To this day, I have no idea how I got my commission in the Army Reserves.

Some time after college though, things changed. I was no longer subjected to the tyranny of drill instructors and gym teachers. It was finally up to me and me alone to make sure I exercised. And to my amazement, I did. Two years after I finished ROTC, I was once again running across the campus of Virginia Tech, but this time eating up the miles instead of puking up my guts. I started weight lifting too. When I got married, Michael and I got memberships to a gym and worked out three or more evenings a week. Then I took at job at a nearby Air Force base, and made regular use of their gym and running trails. When I finally quit the day job, Michale and I signed up for karate classes, and spent five days a week at the dojo. I used to spend my mornings running a couple of miles through the neighborhood, stop at a local gym to lift, and then walk next door to the dojo to practice karate for half an hour before walking back home.

Having kids slowed me, obviously. My knees have never fully recovered from pregnancy, and a couple of sparring injuries put an end to my running days. But I found alternative activities - swimming, walking, yoga, Wii Fit. I still go to karate, and am hopeful I can get back to a regular schedule of 2-3 classes a week. I am a black belt, after all. I need to keep training.

I've been thinking about this summer, how I'm going to keep the kids and myself happily employed and active. Both girls are eager to hit every playground in the area this summer. We'll do it too. Playgrounds, gardening, swimming, karate... we'll have plenty to do this summer, me and my athlete daughters.