I’ve posted on my diet and I’ll give an overview here but what about this bag work? What [...]]]> Have you ever wondered what the panacea of fitness was? Well for me it is bag work! I have the three prongs of fitness in balance right now, you know – diet, exercise and my life in balance.

I’ve posted on my diet and I’ll give an overview here but what about this bag work? What if you don’t like bag work; what will be effective for you? How does one get her or her life in balance? What is the meaning of life?

I will answer three out of four questions in this post (the meaning of life might take a book or two) but will open one view of what a bag workout can entail.

Did you notice the guy was trying stuff in his kicking drills? That is what I do when I kick the bag. I might start out with side kick – back knuckle combos and work my way into back leg wheel kick-elbow combos. Whatever I can think of or need to work on is how I arrange the kicking drills.

I have been doing more kicking drills on the bag since I broke my right wrist last a couple of times in the last year. I used to punch too hard on the bag without adequately wrapping my hands so I’ve had to do more kicking drills.

My mountain bike broke an axle a few weeks ago so lately I’ve been doing some walk/jogs and kicking drills mostly. Most people I know have had some martial arts training as a kid or young adult so all one has to do is try to do combinations on the bag with 1/4 or 1/2 power. No need to try and kill the bag but you will get more out of it if you work on stuff while getting a good workout!

What if you were not so exposed to martial arts? I’d suggest you look at the sports or outdoor activities you did do as a youth and try to recapture some of that! Yes everyone liked to do something so if you want to transition to a low to moderate level of fitness into old age – you will have to recapture some of that (and achieve one prong of a healthy lifestyle).

The bag is a perfect workout because one can create the workout depending on the goal. For me I tend to kick and punch the bag for 30 minutes a shot and really focus on keeping my pace steady. If things start getting too easy, I increase the amount of kicks to hands. At the end of the workout I am drenched in sweat and then I start cooling down with stretches.

I use a water filled bag similar to the one in this video because it is cheap and moves around a bit. It is really easy to do drills down the garage floor. I can think of a workout and be doing it in five minutes – as long as it takes me to get into my shorts and sneakers and walk out into the garage. No time wasted driving to my workout area.

One can strike a balance with consistent workouts, moderate calorie diet (read a lifestyle commitment) and if one also focuses on stress reduction – he or she can lose weight and be fit!

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse of how you can help your fitness goals along by making exercise something easy and fun – that you have done in the past! You will find it is easier to commit to a state of well being if you are able to work exercise into your meaning of life (you see – I was able to touch on this).  

This is a tough issue for me to write about because I’ve known girls and women that have to deal with this. I’m told it is a little like being an alcholic because one never quite recovers.

In this post I will recall my observation and intersperse some video on this topic. I don’t really expect [...]]]>  

This is a tough issue for me to write about because I’ve known girls and women that have to deal with this. I’m told it is a little like being an alcholic because one never quite recovers.

In this post I will recall my observation and intersperse some video on this topic. I don’t really expect any solutions to come from this post but I hope that some might be interested in what I’ve seen. Here is an overview video to start.

It was interesting to me to see the girl at the end of the video saying she did not have the energy to get out of bed.

First off let me say that while I’m focusing on gals – guys have eating issues too. I’ve noticed more issues in gals so I’ll focus on issues surrounding them in this post.

Disclaimer – I don’t fully understand the issues as a guy and not feeling the pressure to look a certain way.

What I mean to say is guys are the beasts – and gals are the beauties. At least that is the perception many seem to have. At my heaviest I’ve graced the beach communities with my body wearing swim trunks. While I gave the local walrus’s a run for their money – I did not care and still went body surfing.

I’ve noticed that gals really care how they look. The media seems to focus on how women look to sell magazines, movies, and lodes of snake oil (beauty products).

While I have nothing against anyone wanting to look their best – I question the logic of perpetuating the myth that losing a few pounds to keep up with the Jones will make any difference in social standing or such.

I’ve witnessed gals experience peer pressure to be skinny. Take high-school gals for instance. Can anyone honestly believe that guys like skinny girls over girls with some curves? Well maybe high-school guys (who are not well muscled yet as men are) might at times due to the same social pressure but this is not the real world.

Girls with curves and guys with muscle are the gold standard when one grows up. The reason I’ve mention high-school is the seeds of thought must be partially implanted in school when girls and guys don’t really have any standards. I mean if skinny is good – why not like twiggy? For those of you who have not lived through the 60’s… Twiggy was a sickeningly thin model I believe that was all of the rage for a while – much like the seemingly sickeningly thin models today.

So what I’ve seen is when a girl or woman falls to peer pressure because of unkind words of friends and or family – she really believes that she is fat when in fact she is already under-weight!

There is not amount of logic one can tell the girl or woman at this point because she sees herself as fat!

One sad case was one of my favorite singers off all time, Karen Carpenter. Here is a video of her singing.

Karen Carpenter while one of the golden canaries of all time, had eating disorders that eventually led to her death. Here is an overview of her life in wikipedia.

 As I recall in watching her story – no one was able to convince her that she was beautiful the way she was. She just did not believe anyone. How sad for her, her family, and the world!

While I could go on with many more stories about how people have been messed up by peer pressure, media pressure and such – I would like to focus on way that one might affect a change around you.

Tell the girls and women in your life how beautiful they are – just as they are. No matter if they are over or under weight or just in their ideal healthy weight – let them know they are perfect!

What? Yes unkind words can and do have unwanted effects on people in many cases. It takes a lot of work (if it is even possible) to undo unkind words so making your children, friends and acquaintances know that you see them as beautiful might just counteract some peer or media pressure at a key point!

No matter – you will be seen as a friend and supporter of the person and even if your input is ignored – you may be able to help her someday if she needs a friend!

One point to remember – if you are ever are trying to motivate a person to lose weight to be more healthy – focus more on the healthy life style. Do not talk disparagingly to her about how fat she is as that (negative comments) will stick around for a long time.

Be positive to your friends and family – you have nothing to lose (even if you are not a positive personality) and everything to gain! 

A kind word can go a long way. That is my wisdom (hopefully) for you today. Now go forth and be positive!

Well I have some good news for you about persistence and my progress but first for [...]]]> Do you sometimes have the walking blues? I mean do you put the walking shoes on and head out the door wondering why you are doing this? I mean the progress is slow and exercise is a lot of work!

Well I have some good news for you about persistence and my progress but first for those of you with the blues – here is a song by an artist called Roy Rogers (not the singing cowboy) entitled, “Walking Blues.”

I love the slide guitar! Exercise for weight loss and cardio-vascluar health work. I mean you have to keep up with it. It is easy to get into a plateau when losing weight – making you question your strategy.

What if you plan is not working? Assuming your plan was based on sound science and you are eating less calories than you body needs – you weight loss will still work.

Don’t worry about back sliding so much but when you have wet your whistle (satisfied your craving), jump back on the band wagon and do what you know works. Here is Dr. Oz talking about walking.

Great point about the Amish – a physical labor and no processed foods (my guess) makes for a healthy life style. Walking is a low-impact exercise. I’ve had to use it as one of my main exercises because my knees can only take so much impact while I am still obese.

I have been jogging, hiking up and down hills, walking, and bike riding for my exercise the last couple of week. As one exercise gets hard (or my knees need a break) I switch gears.

I was down to 219 pounds last month. I then gained seven pounds and lost four. A couple of weeks of less exercise and bad eating has been countered by proper diet and exercise. It is kind of funny but if my goal was to gain weight – I’d do that a lot faster!

So if you find your self with the walking blues, don’t indulge yourself too long and get right back on the horse partner!

I have started up my exercise schedule in the last couple of weeks from a few hours a week to about 10 hours [...]]]> I have always endorsed hill running as an easy way to lose weight. The thing I really like as a middle-aged man is I can run slower and get more of a workout!

I have started up my exercise schedule in the last couple of weeks from a few hours a week to about 10 hours a week. Part of this was the realization that I had lost some ground in my weight loss due to a lack or focus. I have since refocused again and I am now splitting up my exercise between mountain biking, bag work, hill running, jogging and some walking.

In this post I’ll talking out the run I love to do a few times a week (and I am about to do after I post this). I’ll intersperse a couple of music videos but first here is a hill running form video.

The route I take is about four miles. it takes about a mile and a half to get to the hill and about a mile back and down. The grade on the part I have been running is about 10% but I like to actually hike a 20% grade (when the grass dies off  so I don’t get too many stickers). Here is one related song my wife practices to (she is a singer).

Now that your blood is pumping (Bruce always does that for me) I’d like to speak of the merits of hill running. My knees are not what they used to be so I really try to run (jog really) slow. I do need the workout so I run hills slowly and get the same workout as if I ran on a flat surface fast. The difference is my knees do not get jarred about much.

Another plus for me is I don’t seem may people on the hilly trails. If I was running on the flat – walkers sometimes pass me

Even though I’m in my fifties – I still do not think of myself as getting older so to have a walker pass me is a blow akin to a vw bug passing me on a highway! Here is a version of a song – running up that hill.

I’m not one of these guys that can just diet and lose weight easily because I like to snack and drink a bit. All of which can add 300 – 400 calories a day. While I could maintain weight snacking and drinking without exercise (if I was fairly good about diet) – I cannot lose weight and snack without exercise.

So what I have been doing is kick up my exercise routine to to the point  that dieting and snacking can co-habitate. As much as I would like to say I love to exercise (and that is true), I actually need to exercise to keep my blood pressure low, weight under control and slowly increase my fitness level (I can can surpass my grandfathers longevity – he lived to be 97)!

So enough said – I have a long run to do before dark. Remember to run to the hills and run up that hill!