Announcing New Heart Throbs

My local YMCA is bringing in all new resistance equipment!  They took the old stuff out yesterday and the new gear arrived today.  We old-time members will even have to be retrained on how to re-sculpt our bodies.

Bill and I were so excited we made a special trip to town today (on a non-workout day!) just to see all the new machines.  We had lunch at KindRoots Café, a charming little diner on the YMCA premises.  They have yummy local, fresh, good-for-you foods.

And as we enjoyed a no-guilt healthy lunch we watched the Y’s transformation.

Staff Trying Torture Chamber

A fleet of grimacing strong-men were maneuvering   the heavy, enormous looking equipment, trying to get it through the front doors.

“Be still my heart!” I warned.

But, my heart was not beating for the he-man brigade.  (Ha!  Gotcha  there!)  It was beating for the imagined image of the new body I will be sculpting once I learn the intricacies of these state of the art machines!

Bill Waiting for Me to Take Pictures

It does not take much to impress us here in rural areas of the Commonwealth of Virginia you know.

We live in the country or “out in the county” as the locals call it.  So the comings and goings of the seasons are usually enough excitement.  And as you may know, I tend to blog about the seasons ad nauseam.

But when it comes to fancy new gym equipment to replace the oft repaired machines we have been using for years and years, well now,  that’s the equivalent of  taking a first roller coaster ride on the biggest, wildest one ever.

This “Y” purchase is top o’ the line equipment minus nicks, dents, scratches, groans or squeaks.  It is already making us feel richly rewarded for sticking with the antique resistance gadgets of the past.

Yep – out with my old body and in with the new!  I wonder if I can even get up on that torture chamber thing.

If you come for a visit, I will be sure to take you to my YMCA for a tour.

Isn’t that something to look forward to?

Try to contain your excitement!

 

 

 

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Getting Fit with Technology

There is something about replacing gadgets with new gadgets that makes men slightly obsessive.

 Like Bill absolutely had to have a new e-book thing this year even though he already had an older new one.

The newest version he has now is thinner and a little bigger and may have one or two new functions.

He has a smart phone too of course.  Like I said – “gadget mania.”

One day I walked by his den and overheard him shouting, “I’ll have a ham sandwich please!”

Since we don’t get delivery service out here in the boonies, I asked, “Who were you talking to?”

“I was translating English to German.”

Huh?

Fortunately, when Bill upgrades, I get the hand-me-downs.  Or maybe UNfortunately.  Even used gadgets require trial, error, and screaming urges to throw the durned things away.   My hand-me-down Kindle is one of those aggravating things but that’s another blogging story.

THIS story is about the POSITIVE side of technology to achieve physical fitness!

My wonderful son and family gave me a brand new FitBit thing for Christmas that is now my constant companion!

  You wear it on your wrist like a decorative bracelet and it records your steps.  I have it set for a daily goal of 6,000 steps and will work up to 10,000 steps, at which time I will be regressing in years and gaining stamina and achieving eternal youth and beauty.

But really – there is something about the little FitBit wrist band that is inspirational.

You just tap it to see where you are.  And then on the computer you can access the FitBit Dashboard to see exactly how many steps were taken today, yesterday, or the day before, and how many total for all days.

Because this amazing bracelet is always wirelessly watching and counting, I  am now walking in strange places just to add more steps.  For instance, today I walked around a hospital parking lot while waiting for a friend to be released.  Would you believe there is a barn right on the edge of the hospital complex?

Barn at the edge of a major hospital.

I even sleep in my FitBit because I might move my legs in a walking dream and maybe add extra steps!

There are other functions it performs too, like recording calories in and calories out, and sleep patterns.  But I just let it count steps.

I am step-by-step stepping my way to fitness with a brand new gadget that actually works with only a minimum of setting up frustration and no urges to throw it away.

Note:  Please don’t hold me to these lofty aspirations.  It’s only January and I have been known to abandon fitness goals by February 1st. 

I have even abandoned a 10 minute Vibration Machine (supposedly a substitute for a 10 hour workout)

in favor of  curling up by a warm fire with a good book and a few chocolates.

Isn’t technology wonderful?

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