My best friend Dana is super into yoga.

She is not someone who is into fitness at all.

She is definitely an academic. Because it is essential to participate in some form of physical activity, she has taken an interest in yoga. Every now plus then she convinces me to attend her yoga class. I give in because it offers me something different from my normal workout. Her yoga class includes a lot of strenuous types of stretching that I would never do on my own. Some of the leg, arm and whole body poses can be quite taxing. It is just not my usual way of working out. I typically go for insanely long runs, bike rides, jump rope or a kickboxing workout. To me, a good workout is when I sweat profusely and get my heart rate elevated to the point of breathlessness. I feel proud of myself when I start dry heaving. Dana prefers a workout that clears her mind and improves flexibility. I will admit that yoga is beneficial for my other workouts. Stretching and plus after a run is really great for preventing the muscles from tightening up. I should do splits and straddle stretches before I kickbox as well. Stretching out my back, neck and hips before riding a bike helps to avoid soreness and injury. For me, I work out to be fit, not to relax. When I join Dana’s yoga class, I sometimes zone out. There have been times when I felt Dana poking me and I realized I’d fallen asleep in the yoga pose. That is a little embarrassing. In my opinion, a strenuous workout would never allow me to fall asleep during it.
Health and wellness

I take group classes at the health and fitness center in the city.

There are several different sessions offered for my particular class.

There is a day session offered at 6 AM and an evening option at 6 PM. The fitness expert for the day session is wonderful. The girl is full of energy, encouraging and always has a new target for the day. Some of the morning sessions are strictly jumping rope and doing different tricks with the ropes. It’s very much about repetition and cardio. One time we did a kickboxing class with hand weights the entire session. Although the morning class is definitely better, I do not like waking up that early. I then need to shower and get ready for work in the locker room at the gym. That is not the ideal way to start my workday. There are mornings when I simply can’t force myself to get out of bed early enough to attend class. I then just head straight to work. My punishment is I then need to attend the fitness class at the end of my day. That is not pleasant. It makes my day much longer and more exhausting. By the time I get dinner it is usually eight o’clock. The personal trainer for the evening class is not bad, but I don’t enjoy her classes as much as the morning sessions. She is very into yoga and relaxation. We do a great deal of breathing in and out. Stretching is a main part of her class. While there are rewards to yoga and getting a thorough stretch in, I find it tedious. I don’t feel like I’m getting a strenuous workout.

Nutritional Programs

Recently, I got the bright idea to get back into correct exercise.

• Okay, I guess I have to confess that I am not a lady who has been into exercise my whole life.

In fact, I despise exercise. There were a few years that I respectfully exercised at a local gym. The nurse advised that I go there to take workout classes or utilize the services of a personal trainer. Well, the health & wellness center, as it is called, does supply three free lessons with a personal trainer, although I never honestly took them. They also have about 5 million unusual workout classes, although I never took those either. In fact, the only thing I did at the local gym my nurse advised was swim & do water aerobics. Swimming was way better than the water-based workout classes, but periodically there wasn’t a single lap lane available in the pool. I hated it when that happened, but if it happened to be the right time, I would go ahead & take the workout classes in the other pool. I am sure my nurse wanted me to go get my heart rate up while some cutesy twenty-year-old jumped around with her ponytail flying, but workout classes just aren’t my thing, but first of all, I am an introvert. I don’t get more energy by being around crowds; my energy is drained. Who needs drained energy while I am in workout classes? That is counter-productive. Secondly, I am old & fat. I do not love bouncing around in workout classes & hitting myself in the face with my boobs. Thirdly, I have arthritis. Workout classes hurt! I will join the gym again, although I will just swim.

Wellness and fitness

Annoying… People love that should not be put in a locale where they talk with people

I recently had to go to a physical therapy appointment; the office my nurse sent me to is owned by the hospital, & the hospital also owns a health & wellness center – otherwise known as a local gym. While I was there studying about the unusual exercises that would benefit me now that I have arthritis, I asked about the pool. The therapist highly advised that I exercise in the pool as much as possible, & she told me that because I went to the physical therapy office, I was eligible for a membership discount at the health & wellness center. Well, membership discounts at the gym make me smile, so I was quite thrilled. Unluckily, when I asked the receptionist about the gym membership discount, she acted in love . I was speaking a foreign language. She said she had never heard of such a thing. When I told her I was certain the therapist had said being a physical therapy patient entitled me to a membership discount at the health & wellness center owned by the hospital, she just continued to say it was not true. She was 1 of those people who doesn’t get off her butt to do anything. Annoying… People love that should not be put in a locale where they talk with people. They should be squirreled away in a room doing data entry or something. I never did get my membership discount at the gym, so I did not end up joining the health & wellness center. I have to do my exercises in the living room instead of the pool.

Training methods

Because I am on a quest to become a bit healthier, I am considering becoming a member at a local health & fitness center. To be truthful, I was a member of this same gym a few years ago. At first, I went to the gym respectfully, & I enjoyed going. I was not going there for the yoga classes or weightlifting equipment, though. I went there solely to swim in the pool. This unique local gym is the best 1 in town! Everyone knows it. It is also the most overpriced health & wellness center, but even so, it is continually crowded & well-attended. It has an association with the local hospital, which also helps its reputation. Anyway, I went to discuss the gym membership occasions the other day. Of course, they also took me on a tour & showed me the pools, the steam room, the sauna, the locker rooms, the workout classes areas, & the weightlifting areas that have both machines & free weights. I was once a member already, but love I said, before all I had ever seen were the pools. They provided a few free sessions with a personal trainer, although I never took them up on it. All I wanted was to swim, & truthfully, that’s all I still want. I confess that, although I will also say that the whole gym is just charming. The thing that absolutely touched my heart, though, were the charming locker rooms. When you have to go to labor after the gym, a charming locker room is mandatory. The charming locker rooms drew me in!

Cross fit gym

I absolutely need to take some time to look after my health & wellness! When I was younger, I absolutely didn’t have a lot of time.

Now that I am older, I have lots of time, although I have no energy.

In addition, I have pain due to being middle aged & overweight. What I need is nutritional counseling & will power to go along with it. What I also need is workout classes & to labor out at a local gym, however unluckily for me, I am much too embarrassed to go to workout classes, so I absolutely want a personal trainer or private fitness training; Guess what? Ifg you are going to be embarrassed to go to workout classes, you better have a lot of money because a personal trainer isn’t cheap. When I asked the boys at the local gym if there were any other options, they told me about semi-private fitness training. The idea is pretty similar to getting a personal trainer, but rather than having him or her all to myself, there are a few people sharing the time of the personal trainer. In other words, semi-private fitness training means we can have our own workout plans with a personal trainer & split the cost. It’s a nice balance between group workout classes & personal training service. It’s just a more affordable option for people who love me who are introverts by nature & also don’t want to be hanging out with all the charming bodies in the health center classes.

Personal Fitness Training

I am overweight… I have been overweight my whole life, & I have done battle with the scale for as long as I can remember. I have to admit, however, that when I was younger, my weight did not bother me as much, and as a matter of fact, I was pretty strong as a result of carrying around extra pounds, & I liked that, and now that I am in my fifties, however, I am paying the price for not taking wellness & fitness more seriously. I should have been more adamant about finding time to get to the local gym & getting in some workout classes, cardio, weightlifting or yoga classes. I was constantly too busy, though. I was working full-time, going to college part-time for much of my life, raising a family, & living in a rural section that absolutely had no certified gym. Now, I am regretting my decisions not to place more emphasis on health & wellness. I am the only 1 left in my family who does not have diabetes. I have arthritis in my neck, back, hips, & knees, & let me tell you, life is painful. It is now imperative that I get the weight off & keep it off, so I have reached out to my nurse, and she has told me that workout plans & going to the local gym are all pressing, but recent evidence suggests that the most pressing section of a weight loss system is what you eat & don’t eat! Therefore, she has written me a prescription for nutritional counseling. The hospital here has nutritional counseling as part of its diabetes education program, but because I do not have diabetes, the insurance company won’t pay for it.

Cross fit

When I was a kid, my parental units were always sure to have me involved in some sort of athletic pursuit. Neither of my folks were into sports in any way. They were just signing me up to keep me out of their hair. They still won’t admit it but I know this is the case. But, I suppose I was the ultimate beneficiary of that plan as I have loved sports and being active all my life. I like to get my exercise outside not inside a poorly HVAC maintained gym. Gyms have never really been my thing. They are too crowded and I feel like the HVAC is either not enough or way too much if it’s empty. So, I have made sure to just get my exercise through sports and outdoor activities. But, age is starting to take its toll on my joints. My knees and hips have been particularly painful as of late. That’s why I have had to accept that the bulk of my exercise is now going to have to be done in the gym. However, I just can’t bring myself to join one. Instead, my wife and I cleaned out a guest room and made that the home gym. We were able to find some used equipment at a great price and we were all set. But, I took things one step further. The HVAC guys came out and installed a ductless HVAC unit for the home gym. Now, we can customize the temp as we work out. If I have to work out in a gym, this is the only way to do it!

New air conditioning

I think we can all safely say that there is nothing at all normal about how things are during a pandemic.

That is fair given that this is sort of a once in a century sort of thing I guess.

But wow, this whole thing has really put life into a clear perspective for me. My wife and I have been strictly following the social distance guidelines. Frankly, we are staying inside the security of our HVAC maintained home as much as we possibly can. Thankfully, we are both able to do the majority of our job from the HVAC comfort of our home office. All this time inside got me to thinking about the indoor air quality as it relates to my health. I started to do some research and found a stat that just set me straight right off the bat. The EPA lists poor indoor air quality as the fourth leading environmental hazard facing Americans. That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I immediately made some decisions. The cheap HVAC air filters were going to be a thing of the past. Those thing were replaced by the high end HEPA type air filters. These things trap and remove 99 percent of the hazardous elements in the air that work to suppress our immune systems. And, a strong immune system has never been more important than it is as we face down this pandemic. When it’s feasible, I may even take the indoor air quality to another level by installing a whole house air purifier.

a/c installation

We are pretty careful with our money.

Household purchases are made on a need basis not just a want basis.

My wife and I are pretty disciplined when it comes to sticking to the household budget. We figure the more money we save on everyday life, the more money we’ll have for treats and special occasions. Save some money on the HVAC energy bill and it goes toward a fancy dinner later in the year. So we weigh the need and the value of the stuff we buy. It’s understood that any purchase over a hundred bucks is worth a discussion. The same goes for our tech stuff. Of course we have to have the smart phones and the computers. There is just no getting around technology as it’s so present in our daily lives. However, we don’t jump as soon as a new thing comes out. In fact, we just now decided to purchase a smart thermostat for the HVAC. We are in a region where the main cost of the HVAC is during the summer. It gets really hot here and there is just no surviving this kind of heat without HVAC. However, let loose, the HVAC costs will get completely out of control. That is why we have been so pleased with the new smart thermostat. Basically, we gave it some parameters about raising the setting during the heat of the day and that is about it. The rest of it was on the smart thermostat. And wow, it has done such a great job. We are seeing quite significant energy savings already.

Air conditioning workman