Monday, May 21, 2012

Exercise Can Be Complicated


[When I originally wrote this post, there was an ad at the top asking if I were a Pilates mom, or more of an aerobics type, or whatever; it also offered a chance to win an XBox Kinect to whomever of us would be willing to make a video of ourselves doing our exercise routines.  All this to explain the rest of the post...]

I'm none of the above, by the way.  I'm more of a Girl Scout Cookie Gal.  In case you were wondering...

Also?  I'm still trying to figure out how one would take a video of oneself while exercising.  Is that possible?  The video part, I mean, not the exercise part.  I know the exercise part is possible, of course.  But NOT probable, I must admit.  I'm sort of exercise-adverse.

Which might just explain why I am such a Weight Watchers recidivist, come to think of it...

Maybe Larry should buy me one of those XBox Kinect things.  Do you need a modern TV to use it?  Or do people hook it up to their computers?  I wouldn't want to exercise in front of my computer desk in the den, though, with that huge mess of papers and abandoned cables and wires and - hey, my lost Amazon Visa card! - staring me in the face.

As if I could even figure out how to work this thing...

Come to think of it, the TV wouldn't suit me much better - it's in the family room downstairs and I'd have to make the kids clean up their toy mess and then I would have to vacuum or I couldn't stand being down there.  And the situation in that sector of the house has just gotten worse since our neighbors gave us this huge brown metal cabinet (circa 1960) that I had planned to put in the laundry/utility room so Larry could stuff all his tools in it and close the doors.  That way, the laundry room (which doubles as a garage-type storage space for us townhouse dwellers) wouldn't look so messy.

Good idea, right?  Only, the horrid thing (the cabinet, I mean, not Larry) is making my menopausal-I-hate-ugly-furniture self miserable, because it is STILL hulking around in the family room until we manage to clean up the laundry room enough to move the cabinet in there. 

Do you see how confusing and difficult all this is for me?  No wonder I don't exercise.



[Xbox image: Digital Dialogue]

16 comments:

  1. I have to admit that when I read the first part of this (the part from Health first and Blogher) I momentarily thought that you had gone to the dark side.
    Then I saw the part about the Girl Scout cookies and realized that you are still awesome :)
    Here's my question, for this contest do I have to actually video tape myself exercising, or could I sneak into the gym, video tape some skinny little Zumba instructor, then have my son use his super cool software and mad video editing skillz to put my face on top of skinny girl's body?
    Are there any specific rules about this sort of thing? Because my kids would really like the Kinect.
    I got a chuckle out of the fact that you still have that cabinet in your family room. My new airbrush compressor sat in our family room for 5 months, waiting for me to clear a spot in the storage room so I could have room for it. We finally moved it to our son's room when we had a party at the house.
    The compressor still isn't anywhere near my airbrush.

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    Replies
    1. I like that idea for the video! And now I have to go look up "airbrush compressor."

      Delete
  2. OK, I'm a dork, that last comment was from me, apparently, I wasn't logged into my account properly.

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  3. Any of what above? I think I'm missing something important.
    My SIL has an XBox Kinect, and I'm still gloating over the one time I boxed against her, scoring a K.O. It was glorious. She can out-do me in just about anything "for real" but with that machine? I won! Once.

    I understand the menopausal-I-hate-ugly-furniture stage of life. I am there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. a. Lunges Lady
      b. Plank Pro
      c. Medicine Ball Mama
      d. None of the above

      I'm "d."

      Delete
  4. My wife and I have one of those things... and both of the very fun "Dance Central" games. They really are fun, and they really do give you a workout, and they can actually inspire to let loose a bit and have fun being active.

    ...but, for all that, we still mostly go on walks--rarely--because doing anything that even remotely resembles exercise is somehow bothersome. I must be getting old. I used to love tromping all over the world and swimming hours a day...

    ~Luke

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See? This is exactly what I mean. Everyone else seems to know what an XBox is and how to hook it up and what to do with it. If that thing entered my house, it would sit in the middle of the floor of the family room for months while we noble savages gazed at it reverently, waiting for it to reveal its secrets.

      Delete
  5. Okay, first of all--it would *not* sit around- David would have it out of the box and hooked up for you in a trice.

    As for how you make a video of yourself while exercising...easy. Tripod. Or at least that's my plan for videoing martial arts stuff, when I finally get a round tuit.

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    Replies
    1. Do you mean to tell me that the average person has both a video camera and a tripod hanging around? AND he/she knows how to use them? You're making me feel worse.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousMay 22, 2012

    I like your category--Girl Scout Cookie Gal.
    This contest sure presumes an awful lot about people--it's pretty exclusive!

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  7. I'm going with D too. Although I do like to ride my bicycle. No tripod or video camera here (although there is stuff in my phone that can do that. No Xbox or Wii here, although if we did get one, I'm sure my 6 year old would immediately get it hooked up without any problem. Girl Scout Cookies - mmmmmm.

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  8. seems like a lot of the factors that keep you from exercising keep me from exercising and, uh, messing around. it's hard to do either when surrounded by... life!

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    Replies
    1. I could just weep when I walk into someone's house and see all this technological stuff set up and they can just sit down and use it. David rigged up something with cables that drop down from our den through the heating grate into the family room below and then attach to the TV so that we can stream movies and watch them on our TV set. But it looks weird and involves a keyboard down there and I don't know what-all, and why don't I see that sort of set-up anywhere else? How does everyone else stream movies from Netflix?

      Delete
  9. My DH is electronically capable, but I still wouldn't be videotaping myself exercising. Nobody wants to see that much jiggle when the camera is the one being stationary.

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  10. I think "they" can watch you through the Xbox connect. While you're exercising. Or eating pie. Or both.

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