Happy New Year! I have eaten all the leftover cookies and am ready to begin exercising to lose some weight. Forget the quarts of my favorite Oberweiss peppermint ice cream in the freezer. I have, for the past few days, been spending some time each evening working with 5-lb handweights. You can do a lot with those, combining arm exercises with leg squats and waist twists. I even do the arm exercises at the same time as the leg squats or twists in order to save time. And I can do this while watching Jay Leno! Talk about multi-tasking.
This brings the thought to my mind that exercising can be a family affair. My 10-year-old likes to lift those handweights, too – don’t ask me how her waifish body can hold up those heavy weights. I suppose I can buy her a lighter set and teach her how to handle them correctly. Another thing she likes to do is yoga. I took a few years of yoga classes at the excellent Health Advantage Center, Inc., in Herndon, VA. I tell people that yoga saved my life during a particularly stressful time. I learned how to breathe and relax. It is a wonderful thing to teach others. My daughter and her friend like to follow my lead, doing various poses while a scented candle burns nearby. I ought to do that regularly. Kicking a soccer ball around the backyard with the kids will take my breath away; I prefer briskly walking the dog – he’s family! – and my daughter and her friend like to come along, too. My goal is to make time for my health.
These days when the newspapers are crying warnings about overweight children (along with their parents) it might be a fun New Year’s resolution to get in shape together. The family that sweats together…
*click on the sidebar entry to visit Amazon’s books on yoga for children
