Bowling as Exercise

Bowling is fun. And it counts as exercise as long as it's not accompanied with tons of fried food and booze.

According to the fitness tracker on Sparkpeople, an hour of bowling burns 346. An hour and a half supposedly burns around 518 of them. While I don't know if it burns quite that much, I do know I sweat just from the three games I have to bowl each week for league. Not sure if it's 500 calories worth of sweating but some calories are being burned at least.

The good part is, I get to do this exercise once a week and it's one I enjoy. I have been bowling since I was little. The first year I bowled in a league I was 5 years old. Bowled in leagues all the way up till college, which included a few years of high school where I was in regular league and travel league. Received a small scholarship from winning a Coca-Cola sponsored tournament. Freshman year of college I bowled in a women's league and second year, when I transferred to Utah, I bowled on a competitive college team. One of my bowling balls I received for free from Storm because I was on the college team.

I took a break from bowling after I hurt my back during summer league at home. And that injury is part of the reason I have arthritis now. So, I took a break but now I'm back to bowling and very happy about it. Even when I hurt bowling, I love it.

It's always good to do something you love.


How about You: Do you bowl?

28 days of fitness

This is my new fitness goal. The walk every day hasn't worked out recently, so I'm going to mix it up and just try to do some type of fitness every day for 28 days. After that I may try 100 days.

Actually, I was going to do a 21 day fitness goal because someone else mentioned doing 21 days to create a habit. But I thought about how February is a short month and figured why not try for the whole month. Plus 4 days are a give since I bowl in a league once a week and that counts as exercise.

I will post at least 2 days a week during this month to tell the types of exercises I do for the challenge.


And here is day 1.

My Secial K Challenge Attempt

I call this an attempt because I didn't quite make the full two weeks. While some of the special k items are rather tasty, it gets boring fast. I'm not a big fan of cereal, so I went from never eating cereal to eating cereal and cereal bars every day.

Another problem I had is the protein shakes made me sick. Since I have issues with dairy and liquid dairy is the worse, I only drank two before I decided not to bother with them anymore.

During the first week I did lose about 2lbs. But going off the program early at the end might have hindered the chance for any more. It's good that the program isn't much longer than a week but really, I wasn't able to do much more than one.

It's a good, short term attempt and a way to jolt the bad eating habits but not something to do for a long time. It can be successful but remember, doing this challenge and then going back to the old eating habits isn't going to help because even if you lose 6lbs in the two weeks, it is easy to gain them back without making a change to healthy eating.

Special K Challenge

This is about the challenge in general. The full review of it will come Friday.



http://www.specialk.com/

The Challenge

2 Weeks - 2 special k meals - 2 special k snacks - 1 on your own meal - fruits/veggies

That is the basics of the challenge. The special k meals are either a bowl of cereal, a protein meal replacement bar or a protein meal replacement shake. The snacks include cereal bars, other snack bars, crackers and they even have chips now. The meal on the own is one they make recommendations for but healthy choices can be made that don't follow the meals recommended by the program. With the right extra meal along with the allowance of fruit and vegetables (allowed to have as many as want/can) this should lead to 1200-1400 calories for a single day.


The Promise

Lose 6lbs or a pant size after the 2 weeks.


Other

There is a page on facebook, for social input and help through the challenge. Also, there are sources for meal ideas and fitness tips in order to help with the program. The web site has a few options for which program to follow and the meal plans can be edited in order to pick the snacks and meals desire (or to pick the ones available in your area because the site has them all but not every store will sell all their products.) The Challenge is a short term option, and one must forget that but for a short term jolt in the rut of unhealthy choices, it may be what some people need.


Next post... my review of how the special k challenge went for me.

Weekly Weigh on Wednesday

(Image source: http://www.canklesandcarrots.com)

Okay, this number is from Saturday. Since the new year started on a Saturday and I'm doing challenges on sparkpeople, I am weighing in right now on that day but I'm going to start posting on wednesdays still.

On Jan. 1, 2011 I weighed 237. Before the holidays I was at 233, so that means there was a gain during the holidays.

Today's weight in = 233.

Lost the weight from the holiday gain at least. And 4lbs in one week is great considering the attempts I did in 2010 that involved tons of exercise had no progress. This does help motivate things because even though I know the numbers shouldn't be the focus, it's encouraging at this size to see them move down.

Me and Schedules

Yeah, if you read this blog then you might have noticed that I'm not very good at keeping to a blogging schedule yet. I like schedules and do really well once I get used to them but it's about finding the right schedule for me.

Since this blog is still in the infancy stage as far as posts and followers are concerned, I'm going to ditch the schedule posted earlier.

New goal is to post 1-2 times per week about anything. Next post will be wednesday for a weigh in update.

:-D

Motivation

What is motivation? Motivation is something that often gets talked about when working towards a weight loss goal. Especially around January when people start making resolutions, which often include health and weight loss goals. But what is the real motivation behind the goals/resolutions? What is needed for the change in fitness and nutrition to occur? What reasons are there for change? Will the movement keep going (as persistence is key in success)? So many questions and all around finding a motivation for change. But what is motivation exactly and what motivates you? What goals and rewards help in the struggles of maintaining motivation?

Motivation: The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. This is a general definition from a dictionary.

In weight loss, motivation is the reason or reasons for changing behaviors to lose weight. Often times the motivation to lose weight is health factors, wanting to avoid health risks linked to obesity, but it can also be personal motivations like weddings and high school reunions. There are many different motivations available and it's usually a personal one for each person though some people will have similar reasons. But that's the basics of it. Motivation is a reason to do something.

One method is known as the carrot and stick. It's used in simple things like training pets to large organizations and even international affairs. The method has some variety as some people go with just the carrot while others go with just a stick. Just a carrot (reward) or just a stick (punishment), each have times when they work but the carrot and stick approach combines both as there is a reward in front and a threatening reality behind to get someone moving. Or the stick can hold the carrot, lol.

(image link: http://www.hyperthinker.eu/2009/10/08/a-12-step-hypothesis/)

That is one way to look at it, at least. However, I prefer just to have the goal and visual approach when it comes to finding motivation. I view motivation as the reasons that help drive me to keep going even when times get hard and success doesn't seem to exist. Motivation is what helps persistence exist. There are many different kinds of motivations. So, to end this post I'm going to list a bunch of motivations and some will be my own and some won't. We'll say which ones are mine later, maybe. Or you can guess and see if anyone gets them right.


List of motivations for losing weight/getting fit:

Medical Professional Advice
Prevent Diabetes
Other Disease Prevention
Take Less Medication
Look Better Naked
Gain Confidence
Sky Dive
Marathon/Triathlon Participation
Weddings
School Reunions
Job/Career
Vacation
Perform on Stage
Fit Before Pregnancy
For Family
For Self
Wear a Two-Piece/Swimsuit
Enjoying Life
Ride Horses
BMI
and many more...


What are your motivations?