Experiment in Motion: How Much I Move Chart, Day 3

I moved both more and less than the previous days. I spent a lot more time eating. It was Thanksgiving so I'm cutting myself some slack. As an aside, I ate pretty well. The food was delicious, healthy, and wonderful. I ate no sugar and had berries for dessert. I did break my no-wheat rule, which I am paying for in some extra pain today, but it was worth it because the various pestos I brought (mushroom artichoke heart, garlic basil, bruschetta, and the cream cheese garlic concoction known as xteepeetee*) are best with a warm slice of baguette.

The big news was that I did keep up with the aerobics rule and did more minutes of Just Dance on XBox. I love it! It's superior to anything on Wii, although, I must admit, I miss Dance Dance Revolution in its footwork complexity. And I do like the interface a little better when playing DDR.

So, here's the chart. As you can see, it's more skewed towards sitting and eating than movin' and groovin' but I'm hoping that will change as the experiment progresses.

* If you want recipes, drop me a line and I'll try to put them together.

How Often Do I Move? An Experiment to Learn My Patterns

So, I'm running a wee experiment on myself. It occurs to me that I have become a bit too sedentary. Certainly, when I'm on the go, I'm out and running. But, when I'm at home, I'm noticing my tendency to sit (pretty still) and work and get stiff and hurt. It got me to thinking about how much physical activity I'm doing in any given day. I want to figure out how much and what kind.

So, here's what I'm going to do. I've set up an alarm system that will ring a bell every twenty minutes for twelve hours. During that time, every time the bell rings, I will need to do something physical. If I am already doing something physical (yoga, hiking, etc.) then I will need to up my game and do it faster or deeper depending on what is appropriate. If I am not doing something physical, if I am instead practicing music, or writing, or watching a movie, I'll be required to get up and do something like yoga, Tai Chi, stretching, jumping jacks, kickboxing, etc., for a period of at least one minute. Then, I'll go back to my previous activity.

I have a number of reasons for this.

First, I recognize that if I don't move and move pretty often, I get horribly sore. So, I need to move more and this experiment will accomplish this goal.

Second, I'd like to know exactly how I'm spending my time. Am I wasting a lot of it on tv or movies or games (not terribly, I don't think, but I'd like to know regardless).

Third, I think once I know exactly how I'm spending my time, I'll know what, if anything, I want to change to help myself be more efficient when I'm working, more productive when I'm practicing or writing, and more physical regardless of what I'm doing.

I'm going to chart my progress and likely put up little pie charts here to see what happens.

Today, I'm just setting practicing how I need to set up my metrics (what activities I generally do and how they will be entered into my database), and I'm also making sure that I do indeed get up and move when the alarm goes off.

There will be times, like when I am with a client, that I will not be able to complete my motion requirements (clients tend to frown on you getting up and doing jumping jacks while you're supposed to be reading for them or energy work on them). And I will need to see what sort of consequences I will make myself face when I do not engage in a physical activity when the alarm rings. I think it will likely be something like extra motion for longer as soon as I *can* do something, but I am not sure.

If you want to track my progress, I'll be updating everything here. I'm going to try and run this for a week and see how it goes.

Looking forward to this.

Today's Tarot: Ten of Rods (Struggle, Movement, Motion)

Today's Tarot: Ten of Rods (Struggle, Movement, Motion)

Have you ever felt like just packing up all your toys and going home? Sometimes, after struggling to make something work or to make your square peg fit into something else's round hole, or just to pretend long enough and hard enough that you actually care about the minutiae of whatever it is that you are supposed to be concentrating on when you all really want to do is go somewhere warm and wild and dance naked in the sunlight, you decide that you are just done.

When you are done, be done. If you just can't handle one more excruciating meeting or one more dish to wash, or one more paper to grade or one more note to take, and you need a mental health break, then go do that for yourself (it will all still be there when you come back, anyway). 

Take care of your need to take care of yourself. We spend a lot of our time fulfilling responsibilities for everyone and everything except that ones that our inner being really needs. Yes, we make money to pay bills. Yes, we study. Yes, we walk the dog. Yes, we sweep the floor or scrub the tub. We do all those when what we might really want to do has nothing whatsoever with obligations and much more with desires.

This card reminds me of a small scene from the movie "Never Been Kissed." In the movie, a reporter goes undercover at a high school to get the scoop on the teen experience. While at school, she is required to take gym. At one point, while running in gym class, she falls to the ground and gasps for breath. The gym teacher stands over her and yells at her that if she doesn't get up and finish her mile run, that she will fail gym and will therefore never get into a good college. She looks up at the teacher and pants, "Are you still telling them that crap?" (I am paraphrasing here, but you get my point.)

Now that Josie (the reporter) is out of high school and now that she has some perspective, what had seemed so daunting and crucial back in high school has lost most of its importance both to her status and to her life.

That is the way with most things. In the moment, they might make you crazed. But once you get some distance and perspective, you realize that they aren't that big a deal and you have a lot more freedom than you thought you did.

So, here's your mission. If you are done, be done. If you are ready to move, do so. If you want a change, make one. As long as you are willing to face whatever consequences  your actions create, I say go for it.

One last thing, if you've been thinking about moving (job, house, etc.) today is an excellent day to get that ball rolling.