Physical Funness for the Motion Starved

Fit more fun into your fitness while exploring the outdoors.

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Don’t groundhog yourself!

Punxsutawney Phil

Groundhog day is celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it’s cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day then spring will come early. If it’s sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.

Is it me or does that make absolutely no sense? Read it again and think about it. I got the paragraph from Wikipedia. They know their shit, but it’s the logic that has me confused.

From what I can tell there are a few groundhogs around the country that have been coaxed into predicting the weather. There’s Jimmy the groundhog, Wartian Willy the groundhog, Staten Island Chuck and the most famous, Punxsutawney Phil. PP lives in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and does his work there. Being a person that hates the idea of caged animals I don’t much care for this practice especially after seeing photos of these critters. While they all look well-groomed and “healthy” they’re all extremely chubby and perhaps (although I’m not an animal fat specialist) very over weight. I fear they all could use a bit of exercise and some diversity in their daily routines.

That brings me to the Movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Remember that? Bill plays a TV reporter who finds himself repeating the exact same day over and over again. After indulging in hedonism and numerous suicide attempts, he begins to re-examine his life and priorities and eventually realizes he’d be wise to take advantage of the situation and break out of his patterns. Once he makes some changes to the cycle, his life improves and all is well. Storybook ending so to speak.

Unfortunately Punxsutawney Phil probably doesn’t have the option to change his ways to better his life and health but you and I do. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; change it up, mix it up, challenge yourself, excite yourself and you’ll become a more rounded athlete, happier, flexible, interesting person. Doing the same thing over and over again makes you good at one thing and teaches your body and mind to move only in that one direction, and eventually it will fight back.

Lets start with this: today brush your teeth, your hair and open doors with the opposite hand you normally do.  Just try it!

Happy Groundhog Day!


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Morning people

Morning stretch

Most mornings I wake up at 5:30 am and trudge around making coffee and getting ready to go out into the freezing cold where I command people to do things they usually don’t want to do. That’s my job these days. I’m a trainer. I love this job although I’m not used to thinking of myself in this manner just yet. Regardless, it was early on the morning of Friday, January 27th 2012 that I realized just how special it is to be up and out, starting your day while most of The City is still snug in their beds.

I think we all know that it’s difficult to cultivate and maintain the self-control and motivation necessary to regularly hoist ourselves out of a warm cocoon and heave our bodies into a state of ferocious discomfort, in the name of physical fitness. I will say this though; it’s well worth the effort. There is truly something special about watching the fog pull back from the shore or watching the sunrise, realizing that the clouds are sometimes orange, pink or purple early in the day.  Sometimes you hear owls and see wild critters, on a very special day you might see a bunny or three darting across your path. These are things you can’t begin comprehend until you experience them yourself.

So, the next time you’re laying in your warm bed trying to force your leg over the edge and toss the covers off, remember, feelings of discomfort are fleeting, only lasting for a moment. And, the first step onto the cold floor is the hardest; the day gets brighter and warmer from there.

Hope to see you out there…


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FMFW’s are back by popular demand!

Glow Sticks are cool.

When I was in high school, my mom made me get up at 5am to run with her before work. She was afraid to run alone in the dark because she thought she’d get mugged, or fall into a ditch. As an adult I can see her point and while a creepy guy did follow us once, neither of us fell, and frankly you can get hurt just as easily in the light of day. Plus, creepy guys harass day and night! So, no more excuses folks, go it alone or grab a friend and get out there!

Back in the day, my mom and I ran with flashlights. Now they have fancy contraptions called headlamps, you strap ‘em to your head and look like a coal miner. Then, there’s my personal favorite the Glow Stick. Glow Sticks don’t really light your path but they’re hella fun and they come in super cool colors.

So, at the very least, giddy up and go for a walk around the well-lit city. How about this: make a pact with a friend or your kids to walk by the light of each full moon this year. Full moons come around only once a month (except twice in Aug this year) and the added light should keep you from falling off an unseen cliff or something.

For those of you here in San Francisco, I’ve made it easy for you. All you have to do is come walk with me! I’ll even bring Glow Sticks for the dark nights. Here’s the deets:

Full Moon Fitness Walks
There’s no better way to celebrate our beautiful city than to go for a walk by the light of the full moon. The evening of each full moon this year we’ll walk, look at the sights and visit corners of The City you may never have seen. Walking is the perfect way to shrug off stress, burn calories and breathe fresh air. Along the way we’ll have the opportunity to talk about your fitness questions, take in the views and participate in some light stretching and toning exercises. This is a low impact workout designed to offer folks a casual relaxing way to get a little exercise. Make no mistake however, this is a workout, you will sweat!

Time: 6:00 – 7:15 pm
Cost: 9 workouts for $50 paid in advance, or $10 drop in
Dogs are absolutely welcome as long as they’re friendly!

Schedule:
February 7th – Meet in the East Beach Parking lot on Crissy Field. Look for the orange windsock.
March 8th– TBD
April 6th – TBD
May 5th – TBD
June 4th – TBD
July 3rd – Sorry no walk this day
August 1st – TBD
August 31st – TBD
September 29th – Harvest moon! We’ll head for the hill for this one!
October 29th – TBD
November 28th – Last FMFW of the year!

For more information and to sign up contact Kelley@motionstarved.com


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5…4…3…2…1… and we have liftoff!

Climbing to the moon

Climb to the Moon has launched! We are up and climbing. It’s all up to you now. We can’t get to the moon in a year without you, so get up and start moving!

Remember, you can walk, you can run or you can climb stairs. Whatever you choose, be sure to count your steps and tweet us your progress. Thanks to our master programmer Skinny Scott, moonclimb.com will grab our tweets, count the steps and mark our cumulative progress on site. Don’t fret; Skinny has taken into account retweets and potential cheaters so it’s all covered. We even have the ability to figure out which one of us has climbed the most steps so maybe one day we can award prizes, or give a special mention to the most dedicated climbers. The Moon is our oyster!

If this is Greek to you, here’s the short back-story.  Please read it!

If you’re gonna join us on our adventure to the moon, please remember you need to tweet us your steps, you can say anything you like but you must include the number of steps you took. Use the word steps and mention moon climb, moonclimb, #moonclimb or @moonclimb. You can use hash tags and we’d love it if you sent us photos to share with the other climbers. We have folks climbing all over the world and it would be super cool to see photos from other places!

Also, if you count miles, you’ll need to convert them to steps. There are 2000 steps to a mile and about 15 steps to a flight of stairs.

Stay hydrated and hang on tight! We’re on our way…


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Motion Starved is 1 year old today!

One year ago today I launched Motion Starved. It started with my friend Skinny Scott giving me a blog for my birthday in November of 2010. See, I’d been talking about using a blog format rather than the standard website to promote my business and share my knowledge, but I never expected to have one handed to me all set up and ready to go. “Yikes” I thought, “now I really have to get my shit together!”

So then it began, I started coughing up words of wisdom in a massive effort to feed and inspire the motion starved soul in all of us.

If you’ve been reading this past year you’ll be familiar with the people who have contributed to the success of Motion Starved. Bear with me as I take a moment to thank them now.

To Scott, words cannot express how thankful I am for all that you do for me, every day. I’m touched and deeply honored to be your friend. When I’m rich I’ll build you a special town just for Vegans.

To Michelle (aka GP-2011). Thank you for letting me practice on you, for all your creative genius, your support and mostly for all the times you’ve enthusiastically followed me into the depths of potential imprisonment.

To Dawn for being the best friend I never actually met, for your daily challenges, encouragement, advise and your infectious positive spirit. I so look forward to drinking wine with you on the moon.

To Pen & Mo for keeping me in check and for always pushing me, for your support, and mostly for appreciating that life is all about the stories. Without you I’d have far fewer really good ones! Long live the AB’s.

To Dora, your comments keep me on my toes and your support is appreciated more than you can know. Mostly, thank you for being brave enough to call me out when I make a really bad spelling error. The world thanks you for that!

To the rest of you, I say THANK YOU for following and friending, for reading and for working out with me! I am incredibly thankful and greatly appreciate your spending time with me. Without you I would have no purpose and God forbid might have to get another dreadful advertising job.

So there you have it. I’ll stop here and invite you to review “The Annual Report” that WordPress put together for me. It details how Motion Starved did and what it did during 2011. It’s actually very interesting and kind of funny, although I learned that the post most viewed was the one about having a crooked butt crack. Not sure how I feel about that.

Happy New Year my friends!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.


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I can’t wait until 2012!

Climb to the Moon

Climb to the Moon

Happy New Year everyone!

While 2011 was a fantastic year I’m super excited to begin 2012!

To start the year off right, Motion Starved has a couple fun things on tap to feed the truly motion starved and offer opportunities for us all to get moving, get healthy and have a good time doing so.

Check it out!

Stair Climbing Workouts – Each Saturday for seven weeks we’ll climb a different set of stairs visiting all parts of San Francisco. This Saturday we meet and climb at Lands End. This session runs from 1/7 – 2/18.

The price for seven, one-hour workouts is $40 paid in advance, the drop-in rate is $12 per workout. We workout rain or shine!

Why stairs? The beauty of climbing stairs is, no matter your pace you always get a fantastic cardio and booty-boosting workout. These workouts will include core and stretching exercises as well as interval stair climbing. Participants are encouraged to climb at their own pace but will be urged to push themselves. Walkers as well as runners are welcome.

Climb to the Moon 2012 – This “event” is completely free of charge and is about fun, motivation and being part of something larger than yourself.

Here’s the short version of the story: One day, my friend Dawn and I wondered how many stairs you would have to climb to reach the moon. Dawn did the math and found that you’d have to climb over 4 million stairs to reach the moon. Yikes we thought, that’s a lot of stairs, we’re going to need a team to help us walk, run/climb if we’re going to make it to the moon in a reasonable amount of time.

That’s where you come in. Dawn and I would like to invite you to help us climb to the moon this year. Think about it, it’s kinda cool to imagine that with enough people we can actually get as far as the moon.

Here’s all you have to do: run, walk or climb stairs, the idea is to inspire you to walk, run and climb a little more than you might normally. You’ll need to record your steps either by wearing a pedometer, counting miles or if you plan to climb actual stairs those are pretty easy to count. Every day or when you choose to, Tweet us your steps and that will record them on our website. The big (477,714,000 steps) number on the site will go down the closer we get to the moon. It’s our goal to start counting with the light of the first full moon on 1/9 and reach the moon by the last full moon in 2012 on December 28th.

That’s the basic idea, there are other details like we’re working on prizes for those who climb the most within a certain time period but that’s still in the works. For fun we hope that folks will take photos and tweet them to share where they’ve been climbing. It’s likely that we’ll have folks from all over the world climbing with us so it’d be super cool to see photos from other places. Don’t you think? Another hope is that we can get individuals and corporations to donate money to their favorite fitness related charity as an incentive for us to reach our goal. Currently we have a $5000 donation promised to the San Diego Downtown YMCA if we’re able to make it half way to the moon by July 1st.

So, won’t you please help us? All you have to do is run, walk and/or climb a few extra stairs, open a Twitter account (super easy, you can use any profile name you like), follow @MoonClimb and tweet us your progress. Details on exactly how to make sure your tweet will be picked up by us are at the bottom of this page in the footnotes.

That’s enough for now; let me know if you have any questions. Please join the fun and help us make 2012 a really amazing year.

Kelley

* Sample tweets: You must tweet the number of steps, the word steps as well as mention moonclimb. Like: I did 100 steps for moonclimb today. OR moonclimb inspired me to climb 50 extra steps today. Easy!

** The average person’s stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles. If you count miles please do the conversion before you tweet.

*** Pretty Please “like” both Motionstarved and MoonClimb on Facebook!!!!

**** The Moon Climb 2012 site is not up yet but very soon! Stay tuned and check here.


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Go with “naughty” this year (The Season of Eating – Navigation Tip #5)

Naughty or nice?

You better watch out!
Better not cry!
Better not pout!
I’m telling you why,
Santa Claus is comin’ to town.

Remember that song? As a kid did it make you want to be “nice” so you’d get lots of presents?

He’s making a list
and checking it twice.
He’s going to find out who’s naughty and nice.
Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town.

It’s hard to be nice all the time and frankly I think it’s okay to be a little “naughty” once in a while. With that here’s my Season of Eating Navigation Tip # 5.

  • Regifting – My thinking is, if you receive a gift that’s just not your style it’s okay to give it to someone who might better appreciate it. It’s better than tossing it in the trash or the back of the closet for 5 years.
  • Go ahead and have some chocolate. Just stick with the good stuff and the darker the better. I say, “Once you go dark you never go bark.” (Did you get that?)
  • It’s okay to decline an invitation or two during this busy time. You don’t have to attend everything you’re invited to. Why stress yourself out and others too.
  • Santa always wants to know if you’ve kept your room clean. Don’t beat yourself up if you have to let the dust bunnies build up a tinny little bit. Just don’t let it get out of control. Better yet, give yourself the gift of a maid service once or twice this season. In this case your naughty behavior ends up benefiting another by giving them work.
  • Flirt a little. Santa says to be “nice” I say tis the season for a little friendly flirting. Harmless flirting is good for the spirit and makes folks feel good.

So you see, do it right and naughty becomes the new nice. Have at it!


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More bang for your buck (The Season of Eating – Navigation Tip #4)

My first dumpling

Okay, I get it! We all have way too much to do this time of year. Along with our regular duties we now have to add holiday shopping and celebrating to the list of to-dos. I don’t know about you but I’m overwhelmed and very behind.

If you workout with me you know that I like to choose exercises and activities that work more than one part of the body. Like doing squats with overhead press together.  You get “more bang for your buck” as you work the lower and upper body all at once. In my mind it’s about time management as much as it’s about getting more sweat for your effort.

With that here’s today’s Season of Eating Navigation Tip # 4 – More bang for your buck.

  • Rather than going to lunch/dinner/drinks with friends to celebrate the season, go for a hike and take along a bottle of bubbles to sip at a sweet spot in the trail. You get your cheer and exercise at the same time.
  • Gift cards are cool but why not give a friend a gift certificate to a workout class or workshop that you can attend with her/him. Give a gift and get one in return. See where I’m going with this? How about, Hip Hop, Hula Hoop or ever hear of Cocooning? Ooh…how about Massage for Couples!
  • Take your friends/family ice-skating. You can stop for a drink after. Remember, you burn more calories in the cold. If you decide to go, here are some helpful things to remember.
  • Teach somebody something. I learned to make Pork Dumplings this weekend. Rather than having a party where you just sit and eat, my friend Dora invited her friends over to learn how to make traditional Chinese Dumplings. We drank wine, ate yummy healthy dumplings, learned something cool and socialized. At the end of the day Dora sent everyone home with dumplings to enjoy another day. It was a great event and wonderful gift from Dora to all her friends. (Thanks again DL)

There you go, find ways to accomplish more than one thing at a time. Some say, “kill two birds with one stone” (but I never liked the image that congers up). You get the idea… and please feel free to share your “more bang for your buck” ideas.

Happy Monday!


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The Season of Eating is now in session (Navigation Tip #1)

Sweating it out

How did you folks manage over Thanksgiving? I must admit, I ate more than I should have, but I wasn’t totally out of control. I did however let my exercise regiment go to complete shit.

As I was driving home from my holiday away I spent half of the 3.5 hour drive stressing about how much of a slug I had become over the past 4 days. Then my brain kicked in and reminded me that it’s okay to slack off once in a while. Give your body and brain a break. You’ve got to think of this, “slacker time” is recovery time. Like when you train for an event. You can’t work hard or be perfect all the time. The key however is not to beat yourself up and to get back on the program post-haste. You all know that. Right?

As I drove I realized that the first thing I needed to do was to get rid of the excess water that had hitched a ride in my body from all the extra carbs I’d mowed down. Remember, carbohydrates in the body hold water. When you cut them out of your diet, your body will naturally lose water, which is why those low carb diets are so popular. On the other side of the coin, when you drastically increase your carb intake with stuffing, two kinds of taters, rolls, pie, etc, you puff up like a balloon and feel like a stiff cow. You know the feeling?

So, I’ve come up with Step One, of The Season of Eating Navagation Plan – De Puffing, aka, ridding the body of extra water and toxins brought on by a few days of cheer. (Take notes, you may need this again in a few weeks!)

  • Drink lots of water — I know it sounds wrong but water flushes the body of all the excess water and toxins. If you don’t eat a bunch more carbs, the fresh water will flush everything out.
  • Get your sweat on — This week, start ramping up your activity level. I’m not suggesting you attempt a half marathon. I am asking you to SWEAT! Do it any way you can. Taking a steam at the spa will even help. As much as I hate it, I went to a Bikram yoga class last night and I’ve committed to another 4 classes this week (Gawd, help me!) Go for a walk, but walk up hill! SWEAT your booty off (literally)!
  • Stretch — When you stretch you stretch your insides. This allows all the stuff in your intestines to get out. Think about it. All those nooks and crannies need a little help sometimes. Best thing is get yourself to a yoga class at least once a week but three times would be impressive and cleansing!
  • Clean up your diet — You know the drill. If you want to clear your system of toxins, water and nasty stuff you need to eat clean. That means lots of fresh, organic fruits, veggies and non-processed foods. Do the best you can; I know it’s hard! An easy way to eat clean is to “juice.” While I am not into juicing, it does help to clean you out and feel spry again. I’ll share some info on juicing with you Wednesday. I need to give it a try myself before I pass on. It could be crap.

There you go. An easy, effective start. Now all you have to do it is drink up and sweat it all out.

Stay tuned for a full month of tips on how to safely navigate The Season of Eating…


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If you aren’t climbing you’re descending

Mosaic Staircase, Inner Sunset, SF

I hate to be the one to point this out but the holidays are right around the corner and with that come parties and food and a zillion reasons not to workout.

In an effort to keep you moving and looking fab in your holiday attire I’ll be holding Stair Climbing Workouts every Saturday @ 9am, beginning this week through Saturday 12/17.

The beauty of climbing stairs is no matter your pace you always get a fantastic cardio and booty-boosting workout. These workouts will include core and stretching exercises as well as interval stair climbing. Participants are encouraged to climb at their own pace but will be urged to push themselves. Walkers as well as runners are welcome.

The price for 7, one-hour workouts is $35 paid in advance, the drop-in rate is $10 per workout. Be advised that taking advantage of the “paid in advance” rate is not only economical, paying in advance encourages one to workout on those days when getting out of bed is extra hard. We workout rain or shine!

Each Saturday we’ll climb a different set of stairs visiting all parts of San Francisco. I will post, and email the schedule once I have a group assembled.

This weekend’s workout will commence: 11/5/2011 – 9am sharp, @ Lyon and Broadway. We’ll be kicking off the season on the famous Lyon Street Stairs.

If you can’t manage getting to my scheduled workouts you can still get your climb on! No matter where you live or what time you workout I’m certain you can find some stairs to climb. If you need ideas or inspiration there are books, websites and even apps for your phone that can help. For those of you here in San Francisco I recommend, the book; Stairway Walks in San Francisco by Adah Bakalinsky or the iPhone app SF Stairways (it’s a little buggy but it’s only 99 cents.) it even tells you how much cab fare is back to your house should you need a lift home.

No excuses, it’s time to start climbing off those cocktails and cookies! Contact me if you would like to join our Stair Climbing Workouts here in SF.