Are You Ready to Move It, Move It?

I do have moves like Mick Jagger.  Not the good ones, though.

I've been struggling for awhile now - let's say, oh, about six months - with how to get more active.  This past summer I was doing fan-flippin'-tastic after Elsy, baby #2, was born.  I was stepping out to the mall every day and doing the mall cruise with the AARP crowd.  It was pretty good.

And then school started back up, and with working late, and increasing my daily commute to an hour, all my exercise fell quickly to the wayside.

I tried to get up earlier and work out before waking up the kids.  I tried that briefly.  I think it lasted all of 2 days.  I thought about getting another gym membership and trying to hot step it out of the house as soon as I got home from work, but honestly, the moment I step inside the house at night, I know I'm not going back out for anything.

So, I've been struggling.  It's been tough to find my way out of this exercise limbo.

Thank you, Weight Watchers, for coming up with something to give me a little kick in the tush and get me moving again.

WW has a new toy called the "ActiveLink."  It's a little device that clips onto your clothes or can be worn on a necklace, and monitors how much activity you've achieved that day.  It's like a pedometer.  On steroids.  It's freaking awesome!  And it has really helped me to get my butt in gear.

The first week of having it, you don't do any extra activity at all, and it spends the week creating a baseline measurement of how much activity you normally participate in on a given day.  Then, the second week you start adding in more and more activity, and after you've reached your baseline target, you start to earn activity points on the Weight Watchers website.

It's pretty stinking cool.  It also sets a challenge for you to reach a desired amount of activity points in 12 weeks.  When you reach your daily goal, it does a mini light show for you.

Because it records my movement all day long, I have allowed myself to be more active in short bursts.  I do more "energy bursts" along with my students than I did previously.  I take the stairs more often if I can.  And I even do laps around the playground while I'm doing my recess duty - which has the added benefit of making me more aware of what's going on around the playground.  When I get home from work, I've been pulling out the Wii and doing Just Dance and the Wii Fit.  I tell Lily that Mommy gets to play the Wii first for 20 minutes, and then it's her turn.  So, I get to exercise while Koichi makes dinner, Elsy chills in her bouncer or playpen, and Lily reads books.  Pretty stinkin' awesome.

I've been at it now for about two weeks.  I think I'm going to get a new Wii game.  I'm having a hard time deciding between Zumba and Just Dance 4.  What do you think?  Which would you pick?

Are you getting in activity?  What are you doing to stay active?

2013 - The Year of the Beast

Okay, now that I've written the subject line, I see how very end of the world, too much literal translation of Revelations, happy, happy days of armageddon it is.

That wasn't my intention.

Instead...well, I've declared 2013 to be my year.

This is MY year.  You can share it if you want, but just know that This. Is. My. Year.

My year to become on the outside who I am in the inside.

Because on the inside I am beautiful, successful, sexy and just damn amazing.

So this is the year that I allow my exterior to reflect my interior.

2013 is my year to achieve unbelievably lofty goals.  I'm okay with that.  Because I'm a beast.  And this is my year.