Get On Up

I’m declaring this month Fit February. Considering there are only two more days left before March begins, you could say I’ve missed the mark a bit. But in reality, my timing is ideal because I feel most women miss the mark when it comes to taking care of themselves.

Before I had kids I made exercise a priority. I did so because I watched my own father die slowly at the age of 66. Considering I’m almost two decades away from where he was when he passed away, his young age is rather shocking to me now. My dad rarely (if ever) exercised, he ate poorly and was about 40 pounds overweight. He enjoyed an occasional cigar and a few fingers of fine liquor, but neither to excess. As he grew older he could chalk up another disease to his already dangerous repertoire, each one more dire than the next.

I get angry when I think about my dad because he robbed my kids and me of several enjoyable years. If he had only listened to my brother – a physician, who urged dad to exercise, eat healthfully and take care of himself – he could have (perhaps), lived a much longer life.

Moms and dads, I know you care enough about your kids not to be where my father ended up. And research shows we only need a few minutes of brisk exercise a day to keep us healthy. That means just taking two 10-minutes walks around the block with the kids, going to the mall and strolling inside during the winter or doing something I have recently discovered: getting addicted to FitTV.

For those of you unfamiliar with this channel, it is an offshoot of the Discovery Channel and features show after show of exercise classes. Remember those worn-out VHS tapes you used in the 80s and 90s? No need to be bored with those now. FitTV has a myriad of "classes" to choose from, including body sculpting and even Namaste Yoga.

I hurt my foot a few weeks ago (I also find I’m adding another malady to my already tired body as I get older) and the exercise class I normally do on Wednesdays is now out of the question. Yesterday morning, however, I decided to work out at home. I turned on the television and found a couple of shows that really got my blood pumping and heart beating.

There is a downside, however, to these programs. They have commercial breaks in between and I was forced to do the same move for several minutes until the show returned. But if you have a digital video recorder, as I do, you can tape these shows and view them on your own time. I decided to tape several of the shows and when I needed to do some at-home exercise, I could fast-forward through the commercials and do a couple of the shows. The result would be a great workout without the travel time, which would give me more “me” time as well. (By the way, our satellite dish company, DIRECTV, gave us DVRs for free just for signing up for a two-year contract. I had friends of mine call their cable and satellite companies to ask for similar giveaways and guess what? They got them for free as well just for being a loyal customer. Try it!)

If my foot didn’t hurt so badly, I’d jump up and down at my new discovery.

So come on, ladies and gents - you have less than four months before swimsuit season begins. Get into shape and feel good about yourselves. And make sure to send in comments and let me know how you're doing because I need some encouragement myself.

Photo by Craig Jewell, courtesy of stock.xchng