Many months have passed since the last posting was made to Moving Your Body. in the interim, I have read and commented on about fifteen student story blogs and shared with them the joys and frustrations of trying to keep up the habit of maintaining a blog. I also have been moving my body, intermittently at times and more regularly at others. The effects are showing. I am strong enough to withstand several hours of work in the garden and the weight scale is telling me that I am 8.5 pounds away from being “officially” not overweight and about 15 pounds away from where I’d like to be.
And with that joy has come a sense that the transition from moving one’s body in order to meet a goal — like completing a marathon or triathlon — to moving one’s body as a way of life is a life-changing transformative process that is neither simple nor easy to define. I hit the half-century mark on November 9 — which is 121 days from now. If I am to stay alive for another half-century-plus, I must eat in a healthy way, be mindful of my indulgences, and exercise my body and my mind healthily on a daily basis.
Exercising on a daily basis — as in no rest days, no hard-easy, no workout that’s hard enough to throw you onto the couch with a bottle of booze and Aleve — is rather challenging. It means changing your pace so that the workout is integrated into your life, so that you’re not on a “reach-for-the-prize” sort of mission but on a lifelong quest to live longer, be healthier, and contribute to the world around you. My runs have dwindled in distance to about 2.6-2.9 miles completed over 35-39 minutes. My yoga is evolving into a spiritual practice that is all about mentoring, teaching, and learning. My swims — while inconsistent — are happening more often with hot weather. And my
Moving Your Body 