Like other mantras aren't just as weird...

I love rubrics.  They’re a little more flexible than rules, but they help me figure out how to get where I’m going without obsessing about perfection.  One of my favorite rubrics is:  keep taking out the garbage.  (Yes, recycling and green can stuff, too.)  (It’s literal AND a metaphor.  Keep reading.)

On the literal level, life is better when the smelly, dirty, messy stuff is not cluttering up the space.  When we sort out and dispose of the used tissues, empty envelopes, banana peels, holey socks (if we have holy socks, we probably should keep them), and the like, we have more space for the good stuff.

On the (more) figurative level, it works pretty well for fitness and nutrition.  Getting off my butt to take out the garbage gets me active.  Removing the junk food from my lunch allows me to fuel myself with better things.

And when I get really metaphorical, I can purge out the ideas that hold me back, the thought patterns that tell me I can’t do things or that I’m not good (or thin, or smart, or strong) enough for something.

What’s your garbage?  How are you going to take it out?

Sick workouts

How sick is too sick to work out?  We want to make sure our bodies heal, but we also don’t want to lose our momentum.  The basic rule is:  listen to the body.  If it feels too hard, don’t do it.

The more complicated rules are, shockingly, more complicated.

When we have a cold and feel congested, we probably need to take the cardio down a notch.  We need to breathe to do it, after all.  However, some light cardio can lift the mood a little and provide a needed change of scenery (walk to the store for more decongestants, anyone?).

Again, if our bodies are already aching, heavy lifting is probably not a good idea.  We need our energy for healing, so this is not the time to spend it on building muscle.  Stretching, on the other hand, can be a very good idea.  All that lying around can make us very stiff.

If we normally work out in a gym or with others, we also need to consider whether we are contagious.  It is not nice to infect other people.  This is a good time to reinforce all our hygiene rules about washing our hands and wiping down equipment.

Rest is both an integral part of fitness and of healing.  Rest may be the most important workout component when we are sick.

Fitting in vacation

I was on vacation last week.  Vacation, for some people, is problematic for fitness.  Some of us eat too much and move too little when we’re out of our normal routines.  Here are some things that can help:

Choose a hotel with a gym.  We can’t lift weights if there aren’t any.  Whether we get around to doing it is another question, but we can at least set ourselves up for a certain amount of success.  I will note that the quality of fitness centers in hotels can vary widely, so we need to be somewhat flexible in workout planning.  Also, we need to remember that body weight workouts are perfectly good and may be a welcome change from what we do the rest of the time.

Choose the salad.  Maybe not every meal, but at least some of the time.  Travel can wreak havoc with our digestive systems and a low-calorie, high-fiber, bulky meal can keep the guts moving in the proper direction.

Think about methods of transportation.  There is nothing like exploring a new place by walking.  We can discover so much about the flavor of a place by moving along its paths.  This works for both urban and wilder destinations:  hiking is walking in a different context, and almost everyone can enjoy a stroll along the beach.

Remember it is vacation.  If the workout doesn’t happen, that’s all right.  The point of vacation is to reset and renew.  We can hit the gym when we get back.