I’m having one of those days now. I planned on, even recited what I was going to do when I got home tonight as far as my fitness routine. My significant other and I were going to do a DVD that was pretty tough, but also slightly abbreviated, so we could at least fit a little cardio in at the end of the day and also some muscle building exercise. However, plans got a little fuzzy when I got home, we ended up downing a glass and a half of wine each with dinner, and here we are, sitting like bumps on a log on the internet!

I was in a used record shop the other day, and decided to purchase this hybrid yoga and pilates toning DVD. I had high hopes for it, but I should have known by the low price of $2 and someone else unloaded this awful excuse for a “workout” just so that they didn’t feel totally screwed by paying full price for it, and then probably using it one time, as I did. I won’t say what the name of it was, but it was lead by a woman who’s name I had never heard of and I believe she was Australian.

I used to think that swimming was one of the biggest fat burners there was when it came to aerobic training and fat burning – aka calorie burning, but then there were challenges to that saying that cross country skiing may outweigh the fat and calorie burning capabilities of swimming because not only were you constantly moving and using all muscles – the arms and the legs, but you were also most likely trying to keep warm, which burns extra calories, because the weather outside is probably going to be pretty darn cold when you find the conditions suit cross country skiing.

When it comes to working out your abs and really taking full advantage of that term you hear more and more often these days, the “internal girdle”, there are certain muscles in the abdominal area that it is more important to make sure you are working that will pull you in more and make you your own personal corset that slims the whole waistline. These muscles are what pull the belly in, and get rid of that little pooch that so many of us, women and men, tend to get, especially in older age, and women who have had children often have to rebuild these muscles in order to get back to their flattened belly.

Have you ever heard of the antioxidant quercetin? Well, unless you’ve lived a life completely void of fruits of vegetables, you’ve definitely taken in some of this powerful antioxidant at some point in your life. Quercetin is an antioxidant that finds it’s way to you via berries, apples, green and black tea, cabbage and broccoli. It is believed to have anti inflammatory properties, which may help explain why it helps the body go longer during exercise bouts, because it helps the body to quickly recuperate from muscle exhaustion. It also may likely help the body to repair itself after the body has been through a rough workout, which means that you can go ahead and work out quicker after having a heavy workout in the next days following.

I’ve never mowed the lawn in my life. That is, until now. As a fairly new homeowner, within the past two years, I have started helping my boyfriend out with the lawn. Mind you, we have just over an acre, so mowing the lawn at our house is quite the chore! Since I’m not really all that comfortable mowing with the tractor, I’m in charge of doing the majority of the push mowing in the yard. I push mow everywhere that the riding mower can’t get, which means I’m weaving in and out of trees, going up and down embankments (we have a very odd lot), and basically doing the rough labor!

You know, I sit for long periods of time here at my home computer, and sometimes, well, I just get the urge to get up and move. But not just move as in walk around, oh no, I mean move like I’m on a dance floor! So, whatever kind of music my ipod happens to be playing, that’s what kind of dancing I get up and do. I know, it sounds pretty bizarre, and I guarantee that if you were a fly on the wall, you’d get a very good laugh at my expense at the herky jerky dance moves I sometimes pull off!

Us women struggle with the upper arm fat, and boy I’ll tell you, it’s something that I’ve been wrestling with for years now. Even when I whittle my waist and other parts of my body down significantly through exercise and diet, my arms are still there. Mind you, they’re not enormous or anything, but that flabby jiggly part that’s underneath has always drove me nuts. It looks out of proportion with the rest of me, and I’ve always really wanted to just get it sucked out with surgery or something to be honest because I’m convinced that no amount of triceps moves are going to actually get rid of it or cut it down significantly.