18 Parks in 18 Weeks...

Golf Balls and Beer

I love this story. Is a clever way of helping to reset my focus. (I'd not seen this version with the beers at the end....thanks Amy!)

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the
jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed..

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents.

Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter.

Set your priorities.

The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.

The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.'

The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers with a friend.

Yoga for Insomnia

Its hard to feel rested when

Sunday Spin with Jen J

As I continue my reviews of the group ex classes at the wonderful YMCA where I work, I had the chance to attend Jennifer's Spin Class. Sadly, I only could stay for 40 minutes of the hour class before it was time to leave and attend to my spriritual wellness ;-) but got a great workout and had fun.

She did a great job of warming us up - both of the warm up songs were great. I didn't recognize them but they had nice beats and had a "ride" theme to them. I also liked her emphasis on warming us up in all three positions. She was able to cue on correct position in them (very useful for any new spinners) and continued to cue us on good form throughout the class. (as I say frequently, no sense in sweating off calories if you're stressing your back or knees!)

I got particularly jazzed when I had my first spinning show tunes moment. (I am a show tunes addict... and dream of doing a spin class comprised entirely therefo!) She used Madonna's version of Hello Buenos Aires from the Evita soundtrack that has a great pop latin beat, but that changes tempo you really stay focused. That was followed by the awesome Jai Ho (from the Slumdog Millionairre soundtrack... technically not a showtune, but touched that part of my geeky heart!). Then, for my last song before I had to leave, she brought out The Climb - from Miley Cyrus, which tickled my inner 13 year old.

Yes, I'm easily tickled ;-) In addition to these musical high spots, she also incorporated mellow songs in between the high energy ones, giving the class a nice balance.

I was bummed when I had to leave, but got a great workout and a terrific start to the week.

Jen teaches 3rd Sundays each month, at 9:35 am.

Yoga and TV? An unlikely union... and yet....

While driving Friday, an NPR report caught my attention .....An Australian study showed a connection between TV watching and earlier death (yikes) citing the usual suspects, sedentary lifestyles, cardiovascular disease, etc. but what really caught my attention was their root cause, and the suggestion.

Root cause: (I paraphrase) of issues: muscles not contracting, and therefor atrophying.

Suggestion: Find ways to contract muscles during TV sessions. They suggest moving around (such as a brisk walk around the house during commercials ;-) but I have a better idea.

Given the wiggliness of my children, I rarely relax on the couch when the family is gathered for viewing. (And, to be honest, I like sitting by the fire.) So I have a series of favorite yoga stretches, poses that I regularly do while watching TV.

Now, the classic texts of yoga do say that the purpose of the yoga poses are to build heat to purify the body and still the mind for meditation. But, these same sages say that yoga practices can help us find contentment, even if sitting in cold, muddy water.

Can yoga poses help me find contentment when my football team is losing, or watching Bear Grylls on Discovery Channel (and protect me from early death, as above?)

I have found this to be so. And let me share a few of my favorites, categorized by those you can do anytime (ie, when there is company) and those that look a little strange, but worth doing!

Anytime TV - Yoga Positions/Stretches

1. Butterfly pose. Feet together, knees dropping outward, hands holding onto ankles, sitting tall, hold 8 breaths.

2. Single leg forward fold. Extend one leg forward, keep holding one ankle. Keep eye on screen and lengthen forward over extended leg. Hold eight breaths. Reverse legs, repeat.

3. Shoulder/Chest opener. Sitting cross legged, clasp hands behind tailbone. Extend fists away from bottom, hold for eight breaths, squeezing shoulder blades together, taking gaze to the top of the TV set (or above, if you're not really watching, but just hanging out.)

4. Reverse plank pushups. Extending the legs in front, hands on floor behind bottom, lifing hips up, keeping heart lifted, and doing small, tricep intensive pushups. Do about 20 or so at a time.

5. Seated twist. Sitting cross legged, put right hand on left knee, and put left hand behind tail bone. Sit up tall as you inhale, and exhale twisting to gaze at your left shoulder. Hold for 3 breaths and reverse.

Yoga Poses when its Just Family

1 Cat Cow series. On all fours, inhaling stretching your head and tailbone to the ceiling, letting your bellow drop low, as you exhale, drawing shoulder blades and belly button upward.

2.Downward Facing Dog, to Plank (take a few breaths in each). If you can, add a pushup or two before repeating.

3. Chair pose, with twist. Starting from standing, drop weight into heels and lower hips towards heels, hold in pose for about 4 breaths. Arms can be up by ears, out in front of shoulders, or resting at hips. After a few to the front, finish chair by bringing right elbow to the outside of left knee, bring hands into prayer position in middle of chest, and twist. Repeat to other side.

4. East West Stretch. Start sitting up with feet in front. Bring hands onto ground behind hips. Lift hips off ground, holding body in upward facing plank (pushup postition). After 3 breaths, lower hips, lift hands to sky and reach forard to stretch torso forward to feet for 3 breaths. Repeat several times.

Once you've done these a couple of times, you'll not need to think about them, and you can easily strech and enjoy your programs, family time, and keep your blood flowing!

Let me know if you have other favorites!

Livestrong improved

I recently reviewed this site - which I love. By far the best online calorie/exercise tracking program I've encountered.

Since posting that review, they have fixed one of my complaints - and made the food entry process much more streamlined -- and made it fit better on my smallish computer screen!

The new "Daily Plate" tracker now lets you do all of the entry with virtually no mouse clicks, you are able to tab from entry screen to entry screen. (And the "amount left" of your daily calorie budget has become even bigger and more compelling ;-)

One smallish complaint that I didn't mention in my review (but I have mentioned to them...) they do a great "dare" feature, and I took the Dare to Stretch everyday. But they've never checked in on me, or double dared me... so I stopped entering my results. Either I'm using it wrong, or they don't understand that a good dare needs taunting, well, at least attention to get it done.

But such a small complaint! Such an awesome site.

Cornelius Bol Park - Then and Now

As you may have seen past posts, I have decided to Julie/Julia my way through the group exercise offerings at the wonderful YMCA where I work. (3 down, about 40 or so to go!)

I realize there is something in me that takes both comfort and challenge from a "do list" as I had a very similar urge to systematically do the J/J treatment to "16 Parks Your Family Will Love" in the most recent Bay Area Parent Family Navigator.

Though, for the record, they are missing my 2 favorites, so the mission I am now undertaking is "18 Parks in 18 Weeks".

(For the record, those missing - IMHO - are: Rancho San Antonio for its great biking/hiking trails... and the cute little farm, and Montebello Open Space Preserve hiking trail, accessing it from the trailhead with the most most child-friendly wine tasting room I know.)

Today I took my kids and our new "mit gears" bikes to Cornelius Bol Park in Palo Alto... I couldn't recall if I'd ever been here before, but as soon as I got here... BOOM, memory hit me in rich, full, fragent detail. This was one of the best Mothers Together playgroup parks, with a creek bank they really want you to scramble down. There's a break in the fence that indicates t best spot. My youngest child had a "running away from me" problem, and I loved this stretch of creek with only one exit.

The play area also had the best tire swing of any park I've been to, and I remembered how my kids would swing there for hours.

Well that hasn't changed! Even to boys 4 years bigger than the last time we came, the tire swing delights, with the added bonus of them singing "you spin me right round baby" -- Chipmunks edition of course -- the whole time.

When we did get on our bikes, the path that had seemed so long (out past Gunn High school to Foothill Expressway) and uphill... well, it was just a little 15 minute round trip, and that with lots of scooting off the trail to try all the little dirt path offshoots.

I'd say we were too old for this park, but they played joyfully for two hours (no whining to return home and play the Wii... whoa) while I read, Lamb, one of the funniest books I can recall.

I read for TWO HOURS in a stretch. Yes, I'm shouting for joy, both for this little pleasure, and at the wonder of seeing 4 years having passed, but leaving such crystal clear memories.

More parks to come. (Let me know if you want to join me on these jaunts.)

Real Age - A Favorite for Many Reasons

This website is a favorite, and this morning's e-mail from them reminded me why. This morning's news item about the effectiveness of using podcasts has been one of my "secret weapons". I think they offer excellent suggestions about fitness overall, as well as offering good nutritional advice in actionable, bite size (pun intended) chunks.

In case you've not heard of Real Age before, the gimmick behind the name is that you enter in your lifestyle info (height, wage, age, habits) and they give you your "real age". It's quite compelling. I took the test right after my yoga certification and was thrilled to see my real age lower than my chronological age...) They also give you a pretty concise list of things you can do to improve, beyond the usual lose weight, move more advice. (I need to stop talking on my cell phone while driving and floss more ;-)

This site/service is the brainchild of Dr. O; Friend of Oprah and author of the "You: An Owners Manual" series which I enjoy enough to reserve at the library each time a new one comes out.

Note: I no longer allow myself to buy new health/fitness books on a regular basis - good thing MV and Sunnyvale libraries let me search/reserve... slower than Amazon but much cheaper!

Ahem, back to Real Age. The bi-weekly emails are reliably interesting. This week's newsletter has a tip that I've used for years, and that is the value of podcasts as a way to get your mind refocused on health. Though they don't list any in the article, the comments of the readers are often as good a source as the authors ;-)

So, if you're into this sort of thing, give them a look see!

Body Attack - A Blast from my Past

In my Julie/Julia inspired quest to try all the classes at the wonderful YMCA where I work, today I tried Body Attack - a very peppy aerobic exercise session. (See my review of Body Pump, its more more well-known sibling class.)

Again, I got to enjoy Diana as an instructor, as well as a guest appearance by Laura (usually the instructor for the 6pm class... I rarely get to night classes due to my grade school offspring's schedules, so lucky for me I caught a rare daytime sighting.)

As in Body Pump, the teachers stressed the different levels and options to participate - always offering lower impact levels. I participated at the high impact level, and had a total flashback to my pre-kid, hit the aerobic class after work (in headband and leg warmer ;-) days.

The moves were familiar from those days, but there was a lot of variety - a soccer inspired sequence, a song dedicated to running laps (great to stretch out the back of the ankles/heels... important for keeping healthy!)

My friend Liz and I usually run outdoors at this time slot, so we were extremely pleased that this indoor option gave us the calorie burn we were looking for, along with a good upper body and abs section. The final stretch was also great - and it was really interesting to hear Diana's voice --earlier so energetic and boisterous -go positively yoga-esque as she eased us through a lovely cool down.

Good fun and a great workout.

Spinning With Shawn

Spinning classes at the YMCA are a great way to keep up the calorie burn, endorphins during these dark months, and Shawn’s early Sunday classes really rock. Let me count the ways...

1. As a fellow cycling instructor, I so love Shawn’s emphasis on form. No sense in burning calories if you are stressing your knees or lower back, right? He makes sure the class is set up/riding in good positions for their body and reminds us throughout to concentrate on this.

2. Secondly, you can’t NOT love Shawn’s music. He finds mixes (mashups) that use great, familiar music, but that is at motivating tempos. Last Sunday’s class featured a track with Kelly Clarkson, P!ink, and some hip hop artist that didn’t recognize (not my genre) but that really made it fun to pedal at a 92% heart rate.

3. Finally, he really structures the ride so you are motivated to keep the tempo, do the jumps and hills and (ack) sprints (my nemesis). You really burn calories. Dress for sweat.

One caveat… he only teaches 2^nd and 5^th Sundays at the admittedly early slot of 8:30… and get there well ahead of that earliness, his class sign-up will be full 15 minutes ahead of time!

Livestrong Really Rocks

My father in law mentioned this website/iPhone app to me early in the holiday season, and after a month of using it, I find myself enthralled. A huge fan. Mildly obsessed.

Ahem. So, the website, www.livestrong.com, lets you sign up for free and track calories and exercise. This is not unique… but let me tell you the things I LOVE about it (and then I will share my few disappointments.)

1. The set up. Easy and free to set up, and so far, no overt marketing, spamming. Lets you set your goals for weight loss, maintenance, etc.
2. The database of food and exercises is huge! You enter in any Starbucks, Trader Joe, Quizno, Subway item, and its all there… you just click to add to your “daily plate”. Same thing with exercise. I enter “yoga” and it lets you easily pick from an intensity level, number of minutes etc. and THEN SUBTRACTS THOSE CALORIES from your daily plate. (yes, I’m shouting, its really fun to see those calories disappear.) And the range of exercises is really huge.. I’m not kidding, Milking Cows is included! (both with machines and totally manually.)
3. The Loops. I love to run and cycle outdoors, and the site works with Google Maps to easily let you map a “loop” complete with elevation, calorie count, etc. that you can save, share to facebook, add to your daily plate. You can see other people’s loops, so I now have new ideas for exercising in my neighborhood.

My (few) disappointments.

1. When you home cook, you need to either create recipe and enter nutition info, or manually add all the ingredients (such as turkey, egg, breadcrumbs in a meatloaf.) Though, you can easily “save the meal”, so you only have to do it once.) I think once they get more users doing this, you’ll find more common meals already entered.
2. The food entry process does not work well on a small screen (my lovely Acer Net book screen requires a lot of scrolling around.) Everything is optimized for the iPhone or a big monitor.

Small complaints, really. Net net... I love it. I highly recommend giving it a try if you’ve got any sort of weight loss or fitness goals you’d like support with.

Coaching and Corporate Wellness Programs… Worlds Colliding!

Just reading Welcoa’s report on Coaching as a part of corporate wellness, and gave me some serious flashbacks to my past lives...

I spent 15 years as a senior marketing manager with big tech companies – and heartily concur that without the availability of a coaching presence, many corporate wellness programs go under utilized!

Case in point – Intuit and Intel (my former employers – great companies!) both had great gyms, classes, programs – but with no personal accountability to my wellness vision, I let my health (weight, stress levels) go in the wrong direction.

Coaching (available via the employer – during daytime hours) can help connect the dots and help each person develop the intrinsic motivation to use those resources and be the well, focused PRODUCTIVE employee!

The whole interview is good reading, and available for free (though you do need to give them your email.) Welcoa is one of my key resources for my Corporate Wellness Program design.

Pumping It Up

I am fortunate to be on staff at a GREAT YMCA but after the last staff meeting, it occurred to me that I have taken very few of the group exercise classes offered. What a missed opportunity for me! So I’ve taken a goal to try each one!

Last Friday I was fortunate enough to take Body Pump from Isabelle and Diana. I know weight training is good for you, and I love working out to music, so seemed a good fit. (Thank you Liz for suggesting this – I’m so glad you joined the Y!)

Both teachers were great at letting you know what to expect (how many sets, what moves were coming) and they took turns going throughout the room and correcting form! I love that, both from a safety standpoint, and because I work much harder knowing they are looking around!

I deliberately kept my weights low, since I was inexperienced, but I felt a good endorphin glow afterward… and really felt it the next two days!

Get Busy Living...

…. Or get busy dying.” When Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) utters that in the movie Shawshank Redemption, for me that is the most profound moment in that great film.

I am moved because, though I’m unlikely to be facing actual incarceration, I have felt imprisoned, frustrated by circumstances, and helpless to change things in my life.

Haven’t you?

This character's stoic decision to work on the things he actually could, well, that’s the kind of focus I needed to get going… to look at my life – what I want each day to contain, and what I’d like them to add up.

I value health, relationships, the spiritual – to that end, I’m thankful that my job as a Wellness Coach lets me keep my (slightly obsessive focus) on exercise and good eating. I’m grateful for my family and network of wonderful friends and the gifts the universe gives me each day.

May each day’s schedule reflect time spent building the life you want. Take a few minutes to reflect on that… then get busy living it in this new year.