The Fitness Struggle

I’ll say it straight out: I loathe the whole fitness thing. I’ve never seen a gym I wanted to spend time in. Tell me the “right” way to work out, give me the rules, goals, or standards for sweating and pulse rates, and you’ve sent me running back to my comfy chair to bury my head in a good book, the place I spent my entire childhood. Endorphins? Runner’s high? Never met them, except maybe for a few years back when I had a stationary bike. I could read a romance novel while I peddled. That worked.

However, I’ve been given this body and it behooves me to take care of it. Research into the dangers of sitting—the great occupational hazard of a writer—has not been lost on me. My personal fitness theory is “any movement is better than no movement.” Before I retired, when I still lived in an office 40+ hours a week, I had a standing desk, chose not to have a printer at my side so I had to walk to pick up printouts, parked as far away from the door as possible, and chose the stairs instead of the elevator.

What works for me is walking, simply walking, My automated to-do list has me walking for 45 minutes to an hour every other day. That’s between a mile and a half and two miles, not exactly ambitious, but manageable. If the weather is bad, I have a treadmill. Far better is a walk down the parkway a block from here. Even better is when Beloved comes with me.  I confess, however, that it takes very little for me to “forget,” cut it short, or just not do it.

Last week I read a useful tip. AARP Bulletin did an article about various walking programs for various physical issues. The one that caught my eye dealt with diabetes and blood sugar stability. I don’t have diabetes, but I come from a family history of it, and I have always had fairly flakey blood sugar with big highs and lows. The impact on weight and energy is huge. Their prescription was to take a 15-minute walk after every meal.  They said, “Research shows that short post-meal walks, three times a day, were as effective as one 45-minute walk in improving blood sugar control over 24 hours.” I’m guessing it would have a positive impact on overall energy and sleep. I’m going to try it. Wish me luck.

I’ll need energy this week. I’m juggling two novellas with rapidly approaching deadlines. In addition, this week watch for me in these places:

• Today I appear on the Night Owl Reviews blog. I wrote about the impact of travel on my work
• Also today, my beloved Fred of The Reluctant Wife visits Jude Knight’s duchess for tea. Check out their conversation,
• I’m taking over the I Love Historical Romance group on Facebook all day Thursday. I’ll post about my books, but I’ll also hang around to answer questions, talk reading, and generally get acquainted.
• My every-three-weeks gig on History Imagined is up again on Friday. I’m scratching my head for a topic. I may do a piece on the Hudson’s Bay company. Why? The hero of Music on the Water, a story I’m writing for Scarsdale Publishing’s Marriage Maker series is a merchant who supplies the company. Maybe something else will pop into my brain. How about the repatriation of Canadian Troops after WWI. I’m revisiting “Roses in Picardy,” my story for last year’s Bluestocking Belle’s anthology.
• Saturday I’m due to contribute some historical, and, if I’m lucky, hysterical, gossip to The Teatime Tattler. What on earth did the gossips of London say when Fred Wheatly (Yes, the same one from The Reluctant Wife) returned to London with two biracial daughters in tow?

Whew. Off to work I go. But first? Coffee.