Use It or Lose It

Today's tidbit of wisdom is about using your muscles. Did you know that if you stop using your muscles it takes 96 hours before you start to lose muscle? The good news...if you miss a day or even two of exercising you are ok!! Get back into it. You haven't lost anything. The bad news...if you miss four days...all your hard work is gone!!! So it is true what they say, use it or lose it!

www.pt-1on1.com/assets/bicep.gif

Abdominals

Today's Denise Austin focused on the abdominals. Good old Denise talked about pulling up and in the abs the multiple effects this has on the body. I will go to a bullet system because they make me feel official.

Pulling in the abs:

• Strengthens your core muscles
• Prevents saggy gut
• Improves your posture
• Supports your back

I am sure it does many other things. But as I focus on pulling in my abs, I feel like standing to do dishes is a workout. I definitely see the difference as I sit here at the computer. When I don't make an effort to pull them in, my guy squished forward...not pretty.

So even when you can't fit in an exercise session, pulling in the abs with make you look and feel better. And...it is hard work, trust me.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4616966_hard-abs-doing-crunches-step.html

Weeding

In 30 minutes a 180 lb person can burn:

• 182 calories weeding
• 202 calories general gardening
• 162 calories planting seedlings

Out of this you get:

• Healthy nutritious food
• Time to spend time outdoors breathing fresh air
• To observe nature
  
• To center your chi
• To teach your children and give them hands on learning opportunities
  
• To share the excess, thus serving others
  

Plus there is something soooo satisfying about watching your little seedling emerge and nurturing them to fruition. That probably has something to do with centering your chi.

Yesterday I weeded and gardened for about an hour and didn't think much of it, but I have sore muscles today so it must have done something.

I hereby declare gardening a healthy option.

http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/gardening-as-healthy-exercise-944590.html

Movement

I have heard that at the average desk job you burn between 300-400 calories. I figure this is the up and down from the chair, walking to the copier, delivering this or that to co-workers etc...

So I think that as a stay at home mom I can burn about 400 calories, at least, doing laundry, cleaning, playing outside and all the other things I do to stay on top of things.

But I do spend a lot of time down. On the computer, reading books to me or to the kids, knitting. I did some research and found that if you work at a desk, you should aim to get up from your desk every 20-30 minutes.

So I will do the same. Truth be told...I already do that, but now I will do it consciously to make sure that I am not getting sedentary.