Physical Funness for the Motion Starved

Fit more fun into your fitness while exploring the outdoors.

Author Archives: Kelley


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Is it Friday yet?

Geez, I’m not feeling it this week. Not feeling the love! Call me Cranky Kelley. Why? Who the hell knows? I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Everything in my life is moving along smoothly. I have everything and more that should make a person “happy. ” I think the problem is that I need an adventure, some “drama” or some “trouble,” something problematic to talk about. Doing the same wonderful thing day after day does not suit me. I need trouble.

With that I feel that I’ve become boring. I can’t think of anything to talk about that is in the least bit interesting. I have notes on Iron Deficiency and Dry Skin, things that might interest you, but alas…they bore me so I can’t finish them.

When I was young my Dad told me, “ If you don’t bring anything to the party, then you don’t belong there.” Meaning, if you don’t add positively to a situation, then you’re a drip! Another saying I subscribe to is “If you don’t have anything interesting to say, shut the hell up!” That’s how I’ve been feeling the last few days. With that, I shall shut the hell up and offer you a few words that I have stolen from various magazines.

  • Slice a bagel lengthwise into thirds. Keep the ends and toss out the center. You will have the illusion that you’re eating the full bagel, and you’ll save 120 calories.
  • Eat Canadian bacon rather than sausage or regular bacon with your breakfast and you’ll save 100-200 calories.
  • Eat a tablespoon of peanuts and a tablespoon of chocolate chips instead of a pack of Peanut M&M’s and you’ll save 127 calories.

There you go…


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Walk up Wednesday


Walking is one of the quickest ways to blast up to 25% more calories and exercising outside is said to earn you up to 30%. So, ditch the treadmill get some fresh air.

My workout suggestion for today is to go for a power walk around your neighborhood. I’ve got some things for you to do so you don’t get bored and zap even more calories.

Here you go:

Warm up — Swing your arms around, front to back and across your body like you’re a crazy person hugging yourself. Circle your ankles 20 times each direction. Do a few jumping jacks, 25 should do it. This should take about 3 minutes.

The Meat of it — Start by walking at a quick, but comfortable pace that you can hold. (Keep a forward leaning position, it should feel like you have to take a step to keep from falling forward. Abs tight.) Keep walking, when you see a hill or set of public stairs, take the challenge and head up, even if it means you have to change your course. Hold your quick pace! You should be huffing and puffing your way to the top of each hill or set of stairs. If you can hold a conversation, you aren’t working hard enough.  Continue on your walk taking every hill or set of stairs you come upon. Use the down hill portions and flat areas as recovery, to catch your breath but keep a relatively quick pace. For bonus points add some triceps dips, bench push ups and or ab work at the top of each challenge. Just keep thinking of all those M&M’s you are burning off!

An hour of this and you could easily zap 500 calories!

P.s. Adding 3,600 steps to your day can help you lose 15 pounds a year! 3,600 steps equal about 1.5 miles. If you do the workout above correctly you will have covered about 4 miles!

P.s.s. Watch the above video at your own risk, it might make you a little dizzy. I know it’s silly but I think it’s funny.


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Something to think about

Grace — It’s accepting life’s victories with ease—and showing the same style when things get a little bit harder. Grace is making the extra effort, but making it look effortless. It’s a runner’s legs moving through space and a stranger’s unexpected act of kindness. Grace is discipline and generosity, strength and trust. It is the art of living in the moment. Because true grace comes when you listen—and act with your heart.


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Like a dog sits for treats, I exercise for cookies

I made some cookies this weekend. They were “healthy” cookies. Meaning, the original recipe had been revised to cut calories and fat in an effort to make a healthier, more figure friendly treat. The problem I have with these sorts of treats is two-fold. First, I find that people think that because something is low-calorie/fat that makes it okay for them to eat twice as much. Second, in my experience these “healthy” foods usually aren’t as fulfilling as their not so healthy counterparts and not worth a single calorie, certainly not 100 plus.

While I’m very conscious of what I put into my mouth, I’m clearly of the thinking that if you’re going to eat something, it should be the very best of it’s kind available to you. Meaning, it should be fully worth the calories it contains.  With that, I am mindful of the relationship between what goes in my mouth and what has been, or is expected to be immediately burned off.

Example: Yesterday I didn’t do much. I cleaned house, baked cookies, talked on the phone for hours and worked on the computer. Sure, I moved around but I didn’t burn off any extra calories. Due to my low-level of movement I chose to eat foods that reflected how I spent my day.  I had yogurt and fruit for breakfast, a grilled chicken sandwich for lunch with some cherries and a big salad for dinner. For a snack I did treat myself to 3 of those “healthy cookies.” After all, I needed to test them. Today however, I went on a 10-mile trail run and participated in an hour of yoga along with a few other household duties. Due to my extended exercise I allowed myself to eat a little more than yesterday. The AM portion of my meals was pretty much the same as the day before, but for dinner I had a yummy pork chop smothered in a mushroom/onion gravy, mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. For dessert, I shared, homemade strawberry shortcake, with vanilla bean ice cream.

Do you get where I’m coming from? It’s pretty simple. Skip the “healthy” cookies, unless you actually like them. Either way, you gotta burn ‘em off. Don’t forget, always choose foods that are freshly made of natural, organic ingredients rather than ingredients you can’t pronounce. Make your eating experience worth the calories and you’ll eat less and feel better.

It’s called The Common Sense Diet.


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Petite Chunkage

Happy Friday Everyone! This week seems to have flown by. I hope it’s treated you well.

Today, I’d like to send you away for the weekend with a few small chunks, things that have flown my way this week.

A client of mine didn’t understand why she’s felt incredibly hungry this week — Folks, when you work out your body gets hungry! Food is fuel. Your body needs fuel to operate, just like your car. The more you work it, the more it needs. Just watch what you eat. No cheese puffs. If you want it to work, and keep working, you need to feed it.

Nap time — I hate naps. Naps are for kids and usually make me cranky. This week however, I took a nap on three different occasions. I’m still cranky but at least I can stand up and focus my eyes. If your body wants to sleep, let it. When you’re tired is when you are most likely to injure yourself during exercise, or in my case walking down the street. Listen to your body. Do what it says.

If you’re gonna ride a bike, learn to fix a flat and take flat repair gear with you on every ride — If I see one more person standing by the side of the road with their bike turned upside down waiting for someone to come pick them up, I am going to scream. Be smart, be self-sufficient.

Yep, it’s been raining — They’re calling this month Junuary. It’s funny but then it’s not. Remember: Those cold and rainy training days are the days that later pay off and help you reach your goals. Endure!

See you next week. I’m making Cowgirl Cookies this weekend. Will let you know how they turn out.

Be smart…


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Simon Says…We Won!

Team Motion Starved

Yipee! Today we played Simon Says as we traveled along on our Fitness Walk. Team Motion Starved traded commands (via our iPhones) with our friends at The Exercise Space in Seattle. “Simon Says do 20 Jumping Jacks” or, Simon Says… Lunge up hill for one minute.” The commands were doled out about every 5 minutes allowing for lots of time to walk and enjoy the scenery as well as get a little sweat on. Maybe it’s just me but I think these games are super fun. It really doesn’t seem like exercise. Today I wished we had more than an hour to play. I hope the rest of my team felt the same way.

Anyway, Team Motion Starved prevailed today, we had a small but strong group and while our competition was just as worthy they kindly gave us the win as our team had a little easier time completing the tasks.  Next week we’ll be doing another Scavenger Hunt. Scavenger Hunt #2 will involve walking, light toning exercises and hunting for items that are more interpretive than literal. Things like, find something cold, mysterious, twisted, stuff like that.  I’m gonna need to enlist some creative thinkers to help me with this round. Interested?

If you can’t join me on one of my Fitness Walks consider doing your own. Trade commands with a friend who’s walking with you, or on the phone. The scavenger hunt is fun to do either in a group or send the list to a friend far away and have them send you photos of what they find. It’s fun to see what others find.

Lastly, Thank you to my friends from both Team Motion Starved and Team The Exercise Space! Good job tonight! I look forward to next week!

Carry on…


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Workout Wednesday – The Cheek Challenge

Last week I offered you a Plank Challenge. Did any of you do it? I hope so but based on the zero response I don’t have high hopes. Seriously, how much easier can I make this fitness business? There ain’t no magic pill or shot, folks.  You gotta move your body.

How about this – Squeeze your butt cheeks together, that’s super easy! All you gotta do is stand there and squeeze! Do it while you’re washing dishes, making Xerox copies, on Facebook, waiting for the bus, wherever! Squeeze your butt cheeks together like you’re trying to crack open a nut, squeeze really hard, hold for 10 seconds and release. Repeat this exercise 100 times throughout the day. There’s no easier way, it’ll boost your butt, work your abs and burn some cals! Try it! Don’t worry; nobody will know what you’re up to!

P. s. Today is June 1st. That means you have only 21 days to get ready for the first official day of Summer. I’m just sayin’!


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I am one filthy hot mess!

Since I workout outside, there’s never a time when I don’t finish a workout without some sort of chunkage attached to my body in one way or another. Along with the chunkage my clothing is always soaking wet and often salt (from sweat) infused. I look pretty bad sometimes. Today an old Chinese couple seemed very impressed with, or possibly concerned by my appearance as I bounded through my stair climbing/run. I have no idea what they said as they smiled politely and yammered, they had quite a bit to say. It was the hand gesturing that made me come to the conclusion that it was my sweat-covered body and dusting of salt that caught their attention.

My point — No mater who you are, post workout you need to take the time to stretch, eat and clean your body, preferably in that order. You need to stretch out your muscles, feeding them with oxygen rich blood to alleviate soreness, prevent injury and prepare them for future workouts.

Eat as soon as possible after an intense workout — The rule of thumb is to eat a small protein/carb rich meal within one hour of your workout. I eat as soon as I can muster the strength. This window of time is when your body is best suited to replenish what it’s used during your workout, supporting better recovery. Eat real food or suck down a “recovery drink.” I’ve used both, but I prefer real food.

Hit the showers — You stink and there’s fungus growing on those wet cloths and in all your cracks and crevices. The best thing to do is to immediately change out of your wet cloths, stretch and eat. After you’ve eaten, get in the shower and loofah up. Don’t forget to moisturize, all that sweating dries your skin.

After that I usually lay on the floor with my legs up to rest my legs. Do what you like, just make sure to be good to your body and let it recover so it’ll be even stronger for the next workout.

Ooh! Don’t forget to rehydrate with water while you’re doing the above!

P.s. If you liked this post, you may find this earlier MS post interesting.


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Happy Memorial Day

I salute you...

I trust you’ve spent your three-day weekend wisely. Meaning, I hope you’ve taken this time to get some fresh air, exercise, spend time with loved ones and enjoyed some of your favorite indulgences. No matter what they are. That, in my mind is why the Universe (or God if you wish) made three-day weekends, to completely enjoy yourself and re-charge for the next round of full work weeks.

With that, I am taking today off. Be sure I have followed my own advise indulging in bouts of insane stents of outdoor exercise, mowed down on foods that would normally be avoided, spent time with the animals I adore and with friends new and old.

In an effort to be true to this specific holiday I remind us all to take a moment to consider those we have lost and to be thankful for those special folks we have chosen to share our lives with.

Enjoy the day and thanks for checking in.  Know that I truly appreciate your taking the time to read my words…

Kelley


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Every day should be Memorial Day

Here’s the thing – I guy a used to work with for years passed away this week. He was 41. He liked to mountain bike and run and hang out with his friends. Just like the rest of us. He was sweet and friendly and completely “normal” except for the fact that every place he went he had a big yellow lab at his side. His name was Jasen and the lab’s name is Slider.

One day I noticed that Sliders paws were all bandaged up. “What happened to Slider?” I asked Jasen, “Ohhh we went mountain biking and I crashed, tumbled into a ravine (as he exposed his hamburger elbows). Slider had to run over some brush to get to me and he cut up his paws.” OMG I thought, visualizing Slider rushing to Jasen’s aid. In the end both Jasen and Slider healed from those wounds and went back the next weekend for more. They were an inseparable pair that brought smiles to the faces of everyone.

Last Saturday Jasen sat down to watch TV. Nobody knows exactly what happened; hopefully he just went to sleep. I assume Slider was sitting right there next to him.

The point I am trying to make is this… We’ve heard it before and we will continue to hear it but, I will say it again, so bare with me… Life is short. Do what you can to enjoy your time here. We are literally here one minute and gone the next. Be good to everyone in your world, every single day. Show them you care even if it’s in subtle ways. Enjoy every second as thought it may be your last no matter who you are.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend. The perfect time to take this message to heart. With that, I wish you all a 3-Day Weekend full of fun and fitness and lots of laughs. My friend Dawn has sent along this yummy Mango Margarita Recipe to share with you all. Give it a try…it’s healthy, and a fantastic way to celebrate life.

Blend frozen mango chunks, tequila, orange liqueur, and fresh line juice in blender – no simple syrup or sour mix needed.  It is so smooth & creamy, delish!

Thank you for being here. Please go kiss someone you care about.

See you Tuesday…

Note to Jasen: Jasen, you were an absolute sweet heart, and you were adored by so many! I hope you knew that, but I fear you did not. I hope I’ll be seeing you again someday but I assume you’ve gone north and I’m certain to be headed south when my ride is up. Tailwinds to you forever my friend…

Note to Slider: I love you Slidie! Be strong, sweet, sweet dog…