What to do when you 'just don't wanna' exercise

Everyone knows that keeping up with consistent exercise is good for you.  But there are some times where you 'just don't wanna.'  The key is to figure out why you don't wanna and then go from there.  Here are some reasons and my thoughts about what to do next:

• You are injured: 
• Do no work out.  Rest up and if you don't see improvement, see a doctor.
• You are tired:  Are you not getting enough sleep?  Burning the candle at both ends? Overextending yourself and shopping at the mall for the holiday presents?  Staying up late buying SpongeBob Chia pets and The clapper on the internet? (Confession:  I really, really want Santa to bring me those items)
• Take a day or two off and try to catch up on being rested.  Force yourself to go to bed earlier if you have the time.  It's not smart to train when you are tired as you can risk injury.  Plus you'll feel like crap and hate your workout.  That's a lose-lose.
• You are sick:
• The general guideline is as follows:  If your symptoms are from the neck up (i.e. a simple cold), you can train if you wish.  If you have fever, chills etc = symptoms are 'from the neck down' (i.e. the flu), do not train.  It would probably take a minor miracle for you to train with the flu anyway.  Rest up.
• By the way, the flu vaccine cannot give you the flu, despite common beliefs.  The vaccine is made from killed virus.  Read a doctor's view about this on Medscape here and the CDC's statement here.  My purely unscientific theory is that people remember to get their vaccines when they see people around them getting sick.  Chances are, they are already infected but not yet symptomatic.  So when they get the vaccine, then get sick, they blame the vaccine.
• You are just plain lazy:  What to do?  This is the tough one with which I often struggle.  Have you been working out a lot recently?  Are you bored with your workout routine?  Is it raining/snowing outside and you'd rather be curled up with your cat/dog/chia-pet by the fireplace? Things to think about:

• If you choose to wrangle yourself to go anyway, you will almost always not regret it.  You will feel accomplished and want to jump in the air afterward and give yourself a high five, although people may stare.
• Sometimes gratitude can help:  Be thankful that you have arms and legs that work; that you can afford a gym membership with talented teachers.  This sometimes gets me out the door.
• If you choose to stay put, try not to beat yourself up.  Instead, relish the rest and know that your next workout will be all the more kickazz.
• If you are kindasorta lazy, and the issue is getting dressed and leaving the house, you can do a quick 15-20 minute lunge and squat routine like this one at home, even in your pajamas!  Trust me, even this little routine can get you good-sore.  You can also add in a minute of jump roping between sets as demonstrated here.

So when you 'just don't wanna', there are other things that you could be doing (work excluded):

Making marmalade.  I thought it would be fun. I was wrong.  Very wrong.  It was awful, horrible, sticky, messy, dangerous.  I will not provide a recipe.  I wouldn't wish citrus-marmalade making on my worst enemy.  And I won't even know if it was a success for TWO WEEKS!

Two hours of blood sweat and tears and this is all I got. .

 Meeting friends for lunch and a good chitchat:

Blurry iphone photo of Lynn from The Actor's Diet and Ameena from Fancy That...Fancy This.  Great company as always.

Watching the little ones play Peekaboo:

Getting a massage:

 Taking a drive with friends:

Stealing kisses:




Taking a nap:

Obviously, Samantha doesn't sleep as well as I do.

Running to the post office to mail the Blogger Charity Calendars in time for Christmas:

Yes, it's true.  I still have some calendars left!  If you'd like one, click here.  If you missed the extra photos, click here.

Wishing peeps a Happy Holiday, even if it is un-PC these days.  So HAPPY HOLIDAYS everyone!  Be safe out there!

Q:  For those days that you 'just don't wanna' exercise, what would you rather be doing?  And how do you motivate yourself to train when you 'just don't wanna'?

Does my Butt look Big in this Tutu?

I don't usually address controversy in my blog.  I usually like to keep it light, informative and fun. But today I caught something on the news that really caught my eye:  a New York Times critic labeling a normal-weight ballerina as overweight.

Keep in mind that I've been overweight much of my life and have managed to lose all but the last vanity pounds that are not dangerous, just annoying.  I've never had anorexia, although after successfully becoming quite lean in 2006-7 by eating lots of egg whites, salads and carrying chicken breasts in my purse, my dear sweet mother in heaven might disagree with that statement.  Nevertheless, I couldn't help but be somewhat shocked by the critic's comment.

In this article, New York Times critic Alistair McCaulay says that ballerina Jenifer Ringer, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many.'  Despite the "brouhaha" on the internet, he has since stood by his statement:  " If you want to make your appearance irrelevant to criticism, do not choose ballet as a career."

SAY WHAT?! I have three things to say about this:

1. Jenifer is an amazing dancer
2. Jenifer is not in any way overweight
3. Jenifer has been open about her history of eating disorders including anorexia.  She appears to be the poster child for recovery. 

In his article, Alistair (or let's just call him "Al" because I'm certain that it would annoy him) points out that he has called men 'portly.'  Brother Al also says that Jared Angle, as her Cavalier, “seems to have been sampling half the Sweet realm.” These barbs were greeted with deafening silence from the discerning public.   Al-baby says, "Fat, apparently, is not so much a feminist issue as a sexist one. Sauce for the goose? Scandal. Sauce for the gander? No problem."  Is he right?  In some ways he is right.  But why?

Of course men can and do suffer from body image problems, yet it seems that females either outnumber men in the realm of eating disorders and body image issues, or speak out about it more.

Ballet dancer Jenifer Ringer:  Does this woman look fat to you?

Image Source: Exploredance.com

Al talks of Jenifer's 'arms flapping.' Huh?

Image:  Exploredance.com

If you have 7 minutes, check out her interview on NBC from this morning.  Jenifer is one classy woman.

Derek and I do not have kids about which to worry regarding the development of body image problems (or anything else for that matter) but I have friends who do.  Allie of Pimp my Protein Shake wrote one of the most poignant posts about it.  And Charlotte writes brilliant posts about body image issues all the time. 

The upside to all this is is that I had fun while googling "photo hippo in a tutu". 

Does Al look at Jenifer and see this?  Perhaps he needs is prescription checked.

 Photo Source Gamespot

I also got a great idea for next year's Halloween costume for our Samantha and Ellie:

Source:  

Don't worry, you can still get in on the fun if you have dogs:

Does my butt look big in this?

 Source

I also found other fun stuff:

Could this be Al?  I doubt it, but I'll pretend that it is.

 Source

And for my next birthday?  Here's the cake I want:

Happy Birthday, but you had better not eat too much cake or you may start to look like one of those fat ballerinas

Source

Q:  What's your take on this 'fat' ballerina topic?  Do people have the right to be upset?  Or is it a 'storm-in-a-teacup?' 

Edited to Add:  Jenn over at Girl Heroes posted on the same topic- for further discussion on the topic, click here.

Photos from the cutting room floor! Blogger Charity Calendar behind-the-scenes!

Thank you so much to those readers who purchased the Marty's Blogger Babes calendar.  Your money is going to support cancer research and I can't tell you how appreciative I am of your orders.

I have seen some of the other girls' blog posts that include some of the out-take photos:  those that didn't make the calendar.  Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing them so much that I decided to compile a 'cutting room floor' post for those girls who submitted multiple photos.  Many of them are untouched, so you can see how much work Carolyn did to add in the fun back-drops to final images!  Here they are...enjoy!

• Miss January 2011:  Susan from The Great Balancing Act 

• Miss February 2011:  Abby from I Have Issues

• Miss March 2011:  Tiffany from Carbzilla    

• Miss April 2011:  Heather from Heather Eats Almond Butter  

• Miss May 2011:  Allie from Pimp My Protein Shake and Random Teaspoon

• Miss June 2011:  Janetha from Meals & Moves

• Miss July 2011:  Charlotte from The Great Fitness Experiment

• Miss August 2011:  Jenn from Girl Heroes

• Miss September 2011:  Katie from A Joy In Class

• Miss October 2011:  Michelle from A Shade of Grey

• Miss November 2011:  Justine from Confessions of a SAHM 

*courtesy of La Photographie Nashville...

• Miss December 2011:  Lara from Thinspired Blog

• Me:

(My photographer Calendar Girl/Girl Hero Jenn!)

Notice how I called them "Miss?"  I must be an old-fashioned non-women's lib bra-burner because I just love it when people call me "a girl" or "Miss."  Call me "Ma'am" and you've risked getting a huge smoothie accidentally spilled all over your clothes.  All wait-staff and shop keepers in the greater Los Angeles area:  consider yourself warned!

You can see how much effort the babes made in taking and submitting their photos.  They also told me that they had a blast taking them.  I can assure you that my Dad had a lot of fun in making his choices.  Nothing like a pretty girl to make you forget your woes for the moment, right?


Did you forget which photos actually made it into the calendar?  You can see the final calendar  here.  Remember that you can still order calendars and support cancer research by emailing me directly at LASmoothieGirl (at) gmail (dot) com.

Here are a couple of nice comments from calendar recipients:

Andrea of Andrea's Wellness Notes says: 
"Thank you for sending the calendar so quickly. It's absolutely beautiful, and I love having some of my favorite bloggers hanging on my wall! :-) I'm very glad that you and your dad were able to work on this project together as a distraction during a very difficult time; it makes the calendar so very special. Thank you also for raising money for such an important cause!"




Sean of The Triathlete Blues says to the male readers: 
"Guys, this is the one calendar filled to the brim with beautiful ladies that you can put on your wall without your girlfriend or wife getting angry!"

(Hee, I love that!)

Q:  Have you ever taken professional photos and if so, for what reason? (Sears with Santa doesn't count!) Does it bother you when people call you Miss, Ma'am, or does it offend you to be called a 'girl' rather than a 'woman?'