Receiving

Earlier this week I wrote a post for my own blog at The Inspired Classroom that connected a concept from yoga to my teaching. But there is a need for me to elaborate on this in terms of, well, exercise. It is the idea of receiving.

The Inspired Classroom's summer book group which is reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert spent a morning last week experiencing India as we had a private yoga session with Jeanne Russell of Portsmouth Center for Yoga and the Arts. One thing Jeanne kept coming back to was the idea of receiving. After we came out of a move she gave us a moment to pause saying, “…and we receive…,” at which time I would close my eyes and feel my body tingle amidst my surroundings. I had a sense of accomplishment. My whole body was happy to have been cared for, stretched and noticed. Jeanne went on to say that she likes to give people the opportunity to receive their movements so that they are not moving and rushing right into the next move. This truly resonated with me.

For the past few days I've been trying this idea out as I exercise. (My personal preference at this time in my life: exercise videos!) After I complete a set or interval or circuit, I close my eyes and take in a breath. It has really helped me to feel the good things I am doing as I exercise. I feel my muscles tingle, my lungs working and it gives me a really nice sense of accomplishment. It's a great time for visualization too. I visualize my muscles getting more toned, my fat melting away and my body getting stronger.

When I open my eyes, I'm revitalized to continue with the next thing. "Receiving" is actually something I look forward to as I move through my workout.

Hopefully some of you will try this and get something out of it as well. I am so happy to be part of #temt. Thanks Joan and all of the #temt team for having this blog and giving me new motivation. I'm looking forward to receiving more as we head out of summer and back to the school year!

@eliza_peterson :-)

Getting It Done

Good morning fellow #temters and friends,


I hope you've all been getting active in some way. On my walk each morning, I really have enjoyed the distraction of Twitter. I open my Twitter app, turn on the tunes, and set my timer. On my Interval Timer it adjusts the music depending on a low intensity or a high intensity. I get the opportunity to catch up on my tweets or favourite any that I want to look at later, especially blog posts where I can see it. I'm thinking about buying an iPad just for that reason. I'm going to have to justify it a bit better... Maybe a goal would be to continue to workout each day for the months of September and October. I'm a bit worried that I'm going to let it slide with the busyness of heading back to work. I know you'll all push me to get it done :-). When I've worked out faithfully I'll buy myself the iPad (it'll also give me time to save up for it). Anyways, I'll stop rambling now. My point is if you find yourself addicted to Twitter because of all the good stuff and you still want to get up moving, take your Smartphone or iPhone with you. Just take caution. We don't want to hear of accidents happening.


I'm actually very proud of myself for committing to exercising.  I've gone passed my half way 30 Day Challenge on the Wii (Yay Me!!!) and I'm into my third week of Walking Training. I'm so proud of myself. I feel great. Each day I'm not dreading doing the workouts. I'm finding time to get active in some way. Sometimes, I have to multitask hence the iPhone and Twitter :-). #temt has been such a motivator. When I see others getting out and being active it helps to motivate me to do the same thing.


I've had a goal for the last 3 weeks and it's to get past a certain plateau. Tonight at Weight Watchers I'm hoping to have passed it. I've been here for 5 weeks and I'm hoping the working out is going to help. It did last week, so lets cross our fingers this week. I'm not going to get distracted by the scale because I know the exercise is helping in a lot of other areas as well. It hasn't been that long of a time period. I know we all want results instantly but to see the effects of exercising and eating healthy does take time.

Take time out for yourself, be active and enjoy what you are doing. Remember, we're all here to support and encouragement each other.

Also posted at April's Best Life

Why I joined #temt

I was kind of dreading the 5:30 spinning class.
Don't get me wrong, spinning classes are my absolute favorite classes at my gym. It was just that I hadn't been to the gym in 6 months.
< G.u.l.p. >
During the harsh winter, I fell on ice that left me in a hospital for 4 days and 6 months of recovery. I had a bad contusion around my tailbone so I had a sore *bottom* for a while. Actually, I had so much pain I couldn't walk. I was out of school for 3 weeks.
That's when my blog was born. I couldn't do much so I sat up with my laptop and learned a great deal during the recovery time. My PLN was absolutely awesome and encouraging.

Lately, I've been reading some tweets about getting in shape - phrases like "I just ran..." or "I'm going to go (insert something active), or "I just ousted so and so at my gym" etc. kept popping up. I even heard Jerry (@cybraryman1) give a shout out for #temt from #ntcamp!

It was just the time for me to give exercise a try. I've been scared to sit in the cycling seats, and was not sure if my legs would hold me up.

As soon as I set up my bike, I got on it and started pedalling.
I just smiled like a fool because it felt so good :-).

As a musician, I didn't really try to be good at any sport. Actually I wasn't allowed to play a lot of sports because of possible injuries. I never thought I'd join a gym, but because I loved cycling so much, I joined last year for the first time ever.

Something I love about spinning/cycling class:
1. Love listening to good music while working out (here's a pic of our workout songs).
2. I find myself keeping the beat, counting, and focused, like students in my class. It's quite fun!
3. I love it that you can adjust when to push yourself or relax a bit - I learned to pace & listen to my body.
4. Our cycling room is PACKED every time I go, full of people ready to challenge themselves and being good to their bodies. It's very much like finding such passionate learners in our PLN...every day, any time of the day.
5. It makes me feel really good.

My legs are sore now, but I'm so glad I'm doing this (and my bottom is OK!).
Thanks, PLN for encouraging me to think and take action.

I like this start - and would like to keep it going.

Let's go!
@DoremiGirl #feelingood

Attitude Adjustment

I mentioned in my previous post here that I work out at Curves three times a week. I generally go Monday-Wednesday-Friday. So I wasn't even planning on working out today (Thursday). I came home much later than anticipated after a very trying day, not feeling like doing much of anything. I realized I was just full of frustration and maybe a workout would be helpful. Guess what! It was! When I checked in to CurvesSmart my results indicated that I worked way past my target for the workout, and stayed in "green" even on the machines that usually kick my butt. Seeing the results of my workout on the screen gave me an instant attitude adjustment.

My message for this short post: don't let a bad day be an excuse to not exercise, because it might be just what you need to change your frown upside-down!

Photo by lrargerich on Flickr

A Time to Grow

Every spring and summer I get inspired by nature and all of its beauty. Everything is green and growing...full of potential. This spring I got caught up in this potential and started looking for ways to challenge myself to grow as a person, and as an educator. My first big change was to sign up for Twitter and begin to put myself out there, making comments, sharing ideas, and listening. In those opportunities I have learned so much, grown, and seen more potential for myself than ever before. The people I have virtually "met" have taught me so much. I know that this journey of growth and potential has just begun.

I have truly been challenged intellectually by my Twitter PLN but I began to realize that I haven't been challenging myself physically. I have put so much of my energy into work and my family that by the end of the day, after some Twittering, I had nothing left for my body. I only had to look at the scale to know this was true. I knew that I had to do something but I also knew that for me exercise has never been fun. In fact I really dislike it and any motivation I have ever had to do it was often short lived. My question, my own personal inquiry, was how can I bring the motivation I have to learn more and push myself intellectually into pushing myself physically?

The possible answer to this question came to me while chatting with my new Twitter friends @flourishingkids and @TheHomeworkDog. We decided to create a little support group around exercise, make a daily goal, and check in with each other to see if we had meet those goals. And now within days our little group has grown into a team. A team of wonderful people who are there to offer the support and motivation I have often longed for. I love that we have a blog to contribute to and be motivated by. I love that we have a hashtag #temt to call home. And most of all I love that we have so many wonderful people, who are willing to share, inspire, and motivate. Thanks everyone for this time to grow and …Go Team!!!!

Find What You Love, and Do It!

A little over a year ago, I joined Curves. When I joined I committed myself to working out three times a week. And other than being sick, I have pretty consistently kept that promise to myself. Yes, I have days when I don't want to go, but I remind myself how good I feel when I'm done, and just get myself there. I chose Curves for several reasons (in no particular order):

1. location-less than a mile from my house
2. it's all women
3. it's only 30 minutes
4. I had done some weight-training years ago and really liked it.

I could have joined a more "traditional" gym for less money, but how much am I really saving if I don't work out? I really love the workout I get at Curves, and the people there are fun, too. My membership is an investment in me and my health. And what do investment advisors always say? Pay yourself first!

The best way to motivate yourself to work out consistently is to find something you enjoy, because then you will look forward to it. (Well, most of the time, anyway!)

At a loss...

This spring, my staff and I started a running group together. Most of us were not really exercising and were looking for something similar to the #temt group. Motivation and accountability. We started at the very beginning with walk 2 minutes and run 1 minute for 20 minutes total. We worked up to 5 km races! I had actually found a form of exercise that I enjoyed and I was keeping it up at least three times a week!

My running partner in crime and I were doing our third 5km race on May 30th when it happened. About halfway through the race I turned to my running partner and told her that my ankle was starting to hurt. I kept going, thinking that it I should just push through it. Bad choice.

The next day, my ankle was swollen to the size of a softball and I had shooting pain up my entire leg. The picture that I have included in this blog post was taken three weeks after the day that I hurt it. The doctor said 4-6 weeks with no activity. It has been 6 weeks today since the original incident and my ankle still swells sometimes. I have been able to start walking some, but I am still searching for a good cardio activity that won't hurt my ankle. I can't really swim without help of pool noodles...

Maybe you guys can help me with some suggestions of exercises that I can do with this injured ankle of mine... Thanks for reading and helping with this!