Oct
02
Fitness, Diet and Life advice from around the Web
ByIf you are like me, you are challenged for time. I have some very important goals, several ongoing projects and 
sometimes I forget – a life of my own. I do not believe in or try to mentally multitask but I do believe in doing more than one thing at once. I listen to books or podcasts on my iPod while I walk and I am going to follow Scott Tousignant’s advice and exercise in my office while I work. I have recommended this to others myself and I recommend following the 30 Day Home Office Challenge. Thanks to The Wellness Lady for pointing me to Scott.
Nichole Nichols over at the Daily Spark Blog wrote about another favorite of mine. She got her balance disc for $13, I paid $20 at Target in the Yoga center but I got a DVD on how to use it. It was really worth it! Training the muscles of balance trains the entire core. A few years ago I had become weak enough that I had to sit down to put my pants on. I felt like the blob. I bought one of these (a trainer had introduced me to it once before) and began using it right after work everyday for about 10 minutes. I would just go into the bedroom, take off my shoes, pull out the disc and using the closet doorway for a place to hold, just stand or sit on the thing. I can now stand as long as I like with both feet and am working on doing it on just one foot. It really made my balance muscles much stronger and I was soon able to put my pants and my socks on while standing. I recommend them to my patients who have not exercised in a while. I ask them to stand on it during every commercial of their favorite TV show. Try it, you will be stronger and more fit as a result. Also from The Daily Spark Blog comes this recommendation for dancing as part of home fitness. I really concur with this. Just get moving for 10 minutes to your favorite tunes. If you want some instructions here is a recommendation from Nicole again. It is called 10 Minute Solution Dance Off Belly Fat! It is $14 on Amazon. She likes their Kettle bell work out also. If you need someone to lead you in dancing, you might try this one.
If you like to read you should check out Jimmy Moore’s blog Livin La Vida Low Carb and his post on 27 Books about health and nutrition. I have the two Eat This Not That books on his list and the book by Lierre Keith The Vegetarian Myth is one recommended to me by several people.
The blog About Green Living has a post about how to save water. The tips offered – 12 of them- are practical pieces of advice. My Father has told me for years that is was utilities that were going to cost the most in the future. He certainly has been correct and he has profited from this by investing in the DRIP programs of utility companies that pay a good (4-6% dividend that is tax free in the USA after 18 months of ownership). Anyway this isn’t intended to be financial lesson. Just save some water and read the tips
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Thanks for mentioning my article on saving water. You’re father was absolutely right! The cost of utilities continues to increase and will continue to as some of the raw materials they rely on are being depleted, as is the case for energy. But other utilities such as water also rely on energy to clean, filter and supply the water. The thing with utilities as well is most people (in the Western world anyway) are in a situation where they are totally dependent on those utilities. So, they’ve got you over a barrel, as the saying goes. But it’s amazing the difference a few little changes, which soon become habit, can make.
The balance disc you mention in this article sounds great. I love using a swiss ball for fitness, but the balance disc sounds even easier to use, especially when you don’t have much space, as is my situation at the moment. I’m sure I’ve seen pictures of them. I’ll just have to try to find one here in NZ.
I appreciate your comments. I follow your blog via RSS and on Fridays I go through the starred posts for the previous week and link to them. I think about how great it is to have water every time I turn it on. I have lived without it for periods of time and having it is a privledge.
Bruce,
Thank you for attribution for leading you to Scott Tousignant’s 30 Day Home Office Fitness Challenge. I’m on Day 8 now and I love that he breaks the challenges into easy, manageable changes I can make in 10 minutes a day. I hope you continue to enjoy the challenges and they help you become more productive during your work day. And I hope many of your readers will join us.