It’s Friday so let’s talk Fitness! You know because it keeps you flexible, keeps you healthy and cuz it’s fun! :)
That’s me practicing my handstands in a park on the island of Majorca, Spain last April. Can you do a handstand? I absolutely love um!
I pretty much love discussing food as much as I love fitness and I especially enjoy finding new folks with a passion for both. It’s like seeing a double rainbow. If you picked up a copy of my Paleo cookbook, Pigskin Paleo you probably read the foreword by my friend Vic Magary.
Vic has a no B.S. approach to fitness and you’ll notice his pup Coda tends to come along for the ride. Vic takes away all the gimmicks & hype and gives it to you straight. You don’t need an ab lounge or the latest & greatest item or pill advertised on late night TV to lose weight, all you need is to follow a healthy diet (ahem…Paleo) and to move. How often you move and what you chose to do to be active is up to you but if you’re looking to lose weight you need to first focus on food and changing your diet. Only after your food is under control should you focus on your workout.
I regularly participate in high intensity interval training, i.e. warrior workouts, thanks to Zuzka Light. But Vic has a few different products available to keep you moving that I tend to fall back on when I’m looking for a new movement. 40 Days Fit and Fat Loss For Free are two different programs Vic has developed and the second one is exactly that, Free. Plus he also has a few books available for Kindle including his newest, 5 Minute Fitness. Vic’s products are comprehensive and jam packed with video components for you to easily follow along.
This week Vic and Mark each introduced a couple new-to-me fitness dudes who’s main focus is body weight workouts. Todd Kuslikis of AShotofAdrenaline.net and Al Kavadlo of AlKavadlo.com both are body weight experts with new products available and plenty of free video content on their blogs and YouTube channels. If you’re looking for motivation to move, you’ll find it by watching a few of Al’s video’s. Jeff & I were practicing our shrimp squats at 3am after we came across them on Al’s blog. :)
The thing about fitness is you don’t have to be doing handstands or muscle ups right out the gate. Depending on your fitness level and what you’re looking to do, there’s plenty of variations that can be done for lifting or body weight exercises. Recently I came across these two February fitness calendars thanks to Trish at Healthy Life in Balance. Even though the month’s already started these can really be used anytime as a good day-to-day challenge.
However, if you’re a very basic beginner and want to start working out, the simplest place to begin is walking. Take a walk around the block. Next time do 2-3 laps. Build your way up to a jog and then possibly down the line into a sprint. Don’t be afraid to take baby steps and start slow, there’s no need to jump straight into the deep end of the pool if it’s been a while since you’ve done any type of activity. And if that doesn’t sound like fun, then just find something you really enjoy and play.
There’s so many great resources available now I just felt the need to share the most recent ones I’ve come across. Even though it’s snowy, slushy and cold around here, don’t let that stop you from some daily movement (but be careful on the ice). ;)
Just for fun
While we were on our Transatlantic cruise last April we toured around Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. While walking around we came across Fitness Park. A bunch of fun contraptions just sitting out waiting for people to go play. And that’s what we did.
