Day 3/100
Challenging!
Breakfast - small bowl Raisin Bran.
Lunch - Mixed Greens, egg salad, lite italian dressing.
Dinner - Roast turkey breast, small serving mashed potatoes.
Snack - 1 protein shake.
The challenge: Numerous - broken washing machine. That was my exercise. Ever move a washer full of water? Trust me, lots of full-body exercise for the fat man. Other challenges included a few moments of panic with a seriously ill daughter. I went to bed as soon as the kids were down in case we had to go to the ER in the middle of the night.
Tags: exercise, kidsAnother person starting the Hundred Day Head Start
I am an absolute link whore.
I love when people link to my sites, but you know what’s even better? When someone says “Hey, that’s a good idea, I think I’m going to try that.”
Marianne at Practice Living has started the Hundred Day Head Start. She had a great start - almost 2 hours of trail walking! She has the right mindset for this, committing to doing 30 minutes of something every day for the next 100 days. She mentioned WiiSports, and before you scoff at it, try the boxing. Really get into it, throw a bunch of punches and dance around, and then tell me that isn’t aerobic exercise - just try it. I haven’t gone more than 10 minutes at any time. My kids love the Wii also, and get exercise without even realizing it. I don’t use it often, but when I get hooked up with WiiFit I could see it becoming something I use as part of an exercise rotation.
As for Marianne, now that you’ve announced to the world that you’re going to do this and I pointed at you and said “HEY! She’s doing this!”, you’ve gotta do it. 
How to get children exercising (without them knowing it!)
I’m still out of commission, but I came across a solid article from Dr. Sheri about exercise for kids. It mirrors my own thoughts on getting my kids moving throughout the week. Here’s an excerpt of her suggestions:
Additional suggestions to get your kids moving more:
# Whenever your kids have ten free minutes, encourage them to walk around instead of sitting down.
# Get your kids more involved in helping doing physical chores around the house, like cleaning, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and washing dishes.
# Make a game out of raking the leaves in the yard.
# Take your kids with you when shopping for groceries (as an added bonus, use the time to teach them about which foods are healthier to eat).
# Put on some music and have an impromptu family dance.
# Send your kids outside to kick or hit a ball around or throw a Frisbee.
# Get a basketball hoop to set up in your driveway and send your kids outside to play regularly, or walk to the nearest neighborhood school and use theirs.
# On nice days, take your kids to the nearest park to walk or play.
# Encourage your kids to take the dog out for a daily walk (it needs exercise, too!).
# Always have your kids walk around the house while talking on the telephone.
# Have your kids walk in place, dance, or simply move while watching TV – at least during the commercial breaks.
To these I’ll add a couple of the things I’ve been doing:
- Races. My daughters LOVE to race in the yard and around the house. I time them with the stopwatch function on my cell phone and they enjoy hearing that they are getting faster. Timing helps by letting me know when they’ve done enough - if the times start getting longer, they’re tired or hot. Time to stop. In effect, this serves as an interval workout.
- My oldest daughter likes jump-rope, and can jump for 15-20 minutes at a stretch.
- Playgrounds! I’m a believer that there is no better workout for a kid. It’s a full-body workout done for an extended period of time at a variety of speeds and levels of effort.
- We live in Florida, so swimming is big. We don’t have a pool, unfortunately, but we take advantage of every offer to have the girls swim with friends or family. We also have the
beach.
It’s summer. Can you challenge your kids to do something physical every day until school (and PE and fall sports!) starts? Can you challenge yourself to make it fun for them? What are your ideas?
Tags: children, exercise, kidsSometimes, you just have to suck it up and go
Man, did I feel bad last night! I was sick, nauseous, really, and changed the routine I was planning. Instead, I did two core exercises: Air Squats, and Forward Lunges. Then walked a slooooow mile, although i did pick it up towards the end when I started feeling a little better.
So, Day 9/100 is in the books. Days 10 and 11 are going to be a challenge. The girls have dance recitals tonight and tomorrow night, which means late nights for everyone. I’ll be going out in the dark, something I really don’t like doing since we’re back in the woods a bit, and even when I get out to the road there’s no streetlights. Not that I’m afraid of the boys from deliverance or anything; it’s just that I have neighbors that let their kids (children, really) ride dirtbikes and ATVs anytime and all the time. I’m not real keen on being run down. I usually take a flashlight, but still…
So, these two days will test my commitment to the hundred day head start!
Tags: children, exercise, kidsDay 4 of 100: I’m moving, how about you?
Day 4/100: I did my 20 crunches and walked 1.5 miles very hard.
What did you do?
Today - I don’t know if the kids will join me today or not. They played at the beach all morning yesterday, so they weren’t “made” to exercise with me. My deal is that as long as they’re active and moving and playing during the day, like swimming at the beach, that’s good enough for me. Variety is the most important thing for kids, in my opinion. Plus, I get to use these days as days when I can really push myself, so it works out for all of us.
My core exercise of the day is Mountain Climber, taken from RonJones’ Bodyweight Exercise website. It’s not the mountain climber’s you remember from gym class. This version works the lower back and glutes a lot, and is scalable to your ability by increasing or decreasing the angle of your body. So there’s no excuse not to try.
Start YOUR hundred day head start today!
Tags: exercise, kidsHow I work my one-pack
Had a great walk last night - 2.5 miles and about 45 minutes, and felt tired-but-strong at the end.
The kids had dance class last night. I’ve seen those classes and I’d rather walk. Hard work, that.
Did you anyone else try the lateral step-downs? I’m definitely feeling the effects of that exercise on top of the walk on top of the Air Squats, in my thighs and butt. I’m still working the core muscles this week, but I’m moving a little further up my body to work my one-pack.
My abdominals (altogether now, “Ahhhhh”).
Doing the old-school military sit-up still isn’t practical for me, unfortunately. So, I’ll be doing Crunches tonight. No links, we all know what Crunches are and how to do them.
My belly gets in the way of an old school sit-up. I’m one of those middle-aged farts that prefers them. I just feel like I get a better workout. Back when I was a ROTC midshapman at Vanderbilt, in the best shape of my life, I was doing 5 sets of 50 with a 25 lb. plate on my chest, three times a week.
Those were the days. I sound like Al Bundy, don’t I? “Back when I was a star running back at Polk High and scored 4 touchdowns in one game…”.
Silly. But, I actually WAS in great shape once, making my current fat-ness all the more frustrating. During that same time period, I’d been running cross-country and track for several years and had run a 4:50 mile, a sub-16:30 5k, was benching 225 lbs, cranking out those sit-ups, and weighed 165 lbs.
I suck.
———–
Since this IS a health blog, and not just a diet and exercise blog, I wanted to talk about my father. He’s had two surgeries in the last 3 weeks, and complications will have in the hospital for another 2-4 weeks. Tomorrow, though. It’s been a rollercoaster and I need time to gather my thoughts.
Tags: diet, exercise, kidsTuesday’s Exercise Tip
Last night, the whole family went out for the walk, even my wife!
Guilt is a powerful motivator… 
Also, I got my girls to try yesterday’s exercise, Air Squats. They weren’t too sure about the whole thing, but gave it a shot when I started calling it the “Egg-laying exercise”. Done properly, your butt goes below your knees, so to get the kids to do it right, I told them to pretend they were chickens and squeeze eggs out of their butt.
Yeah, I didn’t think about the potential for “accidents”, but thankfully there weren’t any.
I don’t know about them, but I’m really feeling it in my quads this morning after only doing 10. But, that would be like doing 10 x 290 lbs on a leg machine, so thinking about it that way makes it make sense.
So, we’re at 2 days now in the hundred day head start.
Today’s exercise is sticking with this week’s Core Strength theme. I found a fitness site through Diet Pulpit, and found lateral step downs as their exercise of the week. I don’t have one of those overpriced steps that they have at the gym, so I’ll use a cinder block or my porch steps. Be creative on this one if you don’t have a step - use a bench or a chair or even the stairs in your house. Try not to hold on to anything if you can because the muscles used to balance you during the movements will help your core strength - but, do so within the limits of safety. You can still get a good workout from this even if you’re balancing, as long as you’re keeping your weight off your arms.
Tags: diet, exercise, fitness, kidsThe Hundred Day Head Start: How All This Got Started (and how you’re going to join me!)
I stopped on September 26. Doh!
So, we’re not going to wait for September 23. In fact, there is no kick-off date. Each of us needs to be accountable for starting our improvement programs NOW.
I started mine yesterday, May 28. My commitment is to walk 100 consecutive days - my previous streak was 117 days, last year, and documented heavily on my original diet blog, Run FatAssRun. My 8-year old daughter is taking part as well, committing to doing some kind of exercise every day until school starts (Summer vacation is already here in Florida). That’s somewhere around the last week in August for her. My goal would take me to September 4. For me, setting a goal like this gets me to get out and move even when there are other priorities. i just get up early and get out late, but the point is, I GET OUT!
I’ve been out two days in a row, walking 1.3 miles and 2 miles. It’s a start. Annie rode her bike with me yesterday, and had dance class for 45 minutes today. I watched a class several weeks ago, and it’s a good aerobic workout with lots of stretching and strengthening. I’d like to see her mix walking (progressing to jogging) with activities like dance, swimming, and extended playground time - a great total body workout for kids.
All of this takes me back to my high school cross-country days, when we did our “summer miles”. It was against state rules to hold organized practices before the start of school for cross-country, so our coach gave us a summer mileage goal, usually something like 700 to 1000 miles depending on ability. Believe it or not, we had a couple 1000 mile guys. Not me, mind you - I only did 750 miles. Of course, 16-yr old Tim could handle two-a-day runs; 40-yr old Tim can barely handle going up and down the steps in the house twice a day.
But, that should change, right?
So, anyone out there want to commit to making a big behavioral change over the next 100 days, and maybe build some habits that will change your life?