In the past couple of months my husband, Jeff, and I have been attempting to be more active. We are both athletic…or at least we used to be. Last year was spent with Jeff training for an Ironman. (He injured his knee three weeks before the race, putting an end to his triathlon dreams…bummer 😦 ) The year before that we spent 90 days doing P90X. Well, at least Jeff did P90x… I sorta did P45x…didn’t quite make 90 days. When we were discussing ways that we could be healthier and get into shape we talked about lots of exercise plans. He suggested “cross fit” which involves some sort of kettle bell weight lifting. I suggested Zumba. 🙂 We both continued to sit on the couch.
In the midst of our discussion we came to the conclusion that if we want to be active we need to do things that we enjoy doing instead of forcing ourselves to attempt activities that we will eventually come to dread {insert awkward yoga pose here}. So we made a list of all the sports or activities that we have enjoyed in the past or that we would be interested in learning to play. Our list looked something like this:
- basketball
- mountain biking
- hiking
- tennis
- softball
- Frisbee golf
- boxing/ heavy bag
- racquetball
- running (Jeff’s suggestion)
- dancing (my counter-attack)
- rollerblading
- swimming
In the last couple of months we have actually attempted almost all of these activities AND found many of them to be quite enjoyable! The YMCA has a nice basketball court which is usually empty on weekday mornings, so we enjoy shooting free throws and layups, doing various dribble drills, and playing one on one. Jeff tried to make me think that adding suicides to our workout would be fun…I wasn’t convinced…and neither was he after we did the first one!
We’ve discovered that Frisbee golf, or frolf as it’s known on the professional circuit, is a lot of fun and much less strenuous than some of our other activities. This sort of low-key sport is definitely needed after several days of basketball and tennis! We’ve gotten pretty good at frolfing- we even have our own discs for long distance, mid-range, and putting… well, at least we used to have our own discs… I lost mine in a water hazard last week. Stupid wind blew my disc into the pond beside the hole I was aiming for! Yes, it was definitely the wind! An amazingly strong gust blew my disc into the water! Don’t let Jeff tell you any differently!
I think that racquetball is my favorite sport that we are learning right now. The YMCA has a court as well as rackets, balls, and protective eye gear that you can borrow. I tell you what – I’ve never found something that relieves stress any better than locking yourself in a big cinder-block room and smacking a little rubber ball as hard as you can! (Of course, I haven’t tried boxing yet…) Boy do we have a ton of fun on racquetball days! We take out our frustrations on that little ball, blow off some steam, work up a sweat, and burn some major calories – all while laughing at our clumsy attempts at coordination and praying there’s not a security camera recording our blunders! If the Y turns in a video and wins ten thousand dollars, I think we deserve at least half of that!
All of this activity has led to lots of adventures. We even have a box in the back of the Jeep that we call our adventure box. Early on we realized that we needed to be prepared for anything, so we loaded all our equipment into a box that we carry with us wherever we go. That way if we come across a new activity we have everything we need to try it out. I looked in our box today and saw that it is full! We have tennis rackets and balls, hiking boots, a backpack with water bottles, goggles, biking helmets & gloves, frisbee discs, a basketball, tennis shoes, an ankle brace, a knee brace, two arm braces, an ace bandage, and a bottle of Ibuprofen. Yep… looks like we’re ready for anything! 🙂
The Not-So-Perfect Pastor's Wife 
Wowee! I’m totally impressed and motivated… in a “I’ll be clapping for you” kind of way! In January you can add swimming and baby tossing to the list.
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