A short(?) recap

And well I'm at it again, berating myself every other day for never being able to stick to that much needed exercise schedule. And if one more person sees me and says "Why do YOU need to exercise?" I will really tell them :)!! I mean, have you seen my post-C-Section (that's one excuse long gone!) paunch ?!

So to amuse myself, and hopefully you too, (and find material for that Day 4 post ;)) I thought I should make a list of home exercise schedules that I tried, and somehow or the other didn't work for me.

1. P90 - This is one of the easiest ones from Beachbody (yeah you read that right ;)). They have a really well known one called P90X, but I wanted to start from the basic version and work my way up. Overall, it was quite a good option. Short, simple exercises, with a good set of stretching thrown in. The neck stretches especially were very good for my cervical spondylosis issues, never needed to do my therapeutic stretches when I did this. Did this on and off for a month, stopped, restarted etc etc. It basically gets a bit repetitive and boring after a while, of course you are supposed to progress to the next step that I never did ;).
2. P90X - The real mean version of the one above, it's raved about by most exercise enthusiasts who've tried it. Longer routines, so a bit more difficult to fit in, not to mention the intensity is about a quadzillion+ more than what I can ever manage! Tried it for all of 1 day, and then went back to endless loop of above.
3. Turbo Jam: Dancey routine from Beachbody, nice for a change, but did not like the lesser amount of stretching. Didn't feel it was great for my knees.
4. Turbo Fire: Much faster, much dancier version of above. I have two left feet. Enough said.
5. Leslie Sansone's Walks: This is a very nice set of videos, totally approachable, very simple set of steps, seems ideal for someone like me. The 1 mile walk is only about 20 minutes long, so great to fit into any day. Why I still didn't manage to stick to it - NO IDEA!!!!

Other than these I have tried the gym, power yoga etc at various times of life, but even with being a SAHM I am not keen on getting into something where I will have to devote exactly that same hour every day, doesn't work for me as a zillion things seem to come up that need my attention exactly between 11 and 12 on that very day. 

So here I was, again at square one, and I finally decided to start somewhere and went and joined a yoga class that functions along with my daughter's karate class - this way I'm anyway going to be there so no time lost - Wish me luck!

And yes, if anyone wants to partner up and join me in trying one of these schedules, I'd love to do that too ;). After all 23rd time may be lucky I guess!

This post is for Day 4 of #marathonbloggers. Do check out our FB group if you would like to make one post every day in the month of December.

It's a new year !

And Resolution time of course ;) I usually refrain from making resolutions as I never manage to keep them :O but there are some this year which I (hopefully!) am already on the path of:

1. No new clothes in 2012 - Overflowing cupboards, 4 unstitched blouses and 3 salwar-kameez materials that lie inside taunt me everytime I take out clothes to wear. I keep giving away clothes (3 times last year) and yet it's like an Akshayapatra and clothes are always falling out. I usually try to limit wastage in stuff like water/electricity/groceries/even LPG consumption that I thought it's time I included this area of my life too. So - also to be announced to all family members who might feel the need to buy me any - no buying or being gifted clothes this year.

2. Finding my abs - That's a more fun way to put it than to talk about losing flab ;). My second child is now going to be 4 years old and having been pregnant is no longer an excuse (even to myself) for the state my abs (hidden under layers) are in! Have been checking out lots of Home Exercise programs (mostly from Beachbody) and I'm quite comfortable with the starting levels of P90 as well as Turbo Jam. Going to attack both these, either in separate cycles or as a combination - done with 1 week of TJ already, wish me luck to keep at it !! This one is also important because my family has a history of neck and back problems, some of which I'm already facing, and regular exercise is sooo important.

3. Organize Organize Organize - this has so many levels to it it's scary. From accounting to remembering to check if my maid has washed the tiffin boxes for the next day, on some days I have no clue where to start. I've tried making checklists, but then forgotten to look at the checklist :X. So here I go with setting reminders for everything I can think of, and hoping that's going to be better than my previous attempts. The hitch is to actually perform the action as soon as the reminder comes, or I am capable of forgetting within 10 mins :(.

4. Green green green :) - this is something I've been trying to do in 2012 with composting and kitchen gardening, so hope to keep at it. I have started using an organic detergent for clothes washing, but my experience is that to try a do-or-die approach for this stuff will drive me and everyone around me a bit crazy. So if i can't get that stain out, I still reach for the Cuffs-and-Collars! Until the time I can effortlessly use organic means I will just try to progress a step at a time :).

5. Schedule Schedule Schedule ;) - this could be part of point 3 but this one is aimed more towards my time spent with the children. Somedays when I'm feeling tired or watching something interesting on TV :O I feel lazy to read that bed-time story or to sit and play that game with the kids. And then feel really bad about it afterwards. So I'm hoping to have a loose time-table for the way we spend time. D atleast is old enough to know what a time-table means so we can have lots of fun setting it up, and then she knows what to expect :).

This list is getting dangerously long, so I think I should stop here for now and keep the rest for next year ;). Bye Bye Bye !