The Groups: What I Learned: Pt. 2

Aerobic exercise saves your life; strength training makes it worth living.

Yes, exercise is important as an ‘activity’ but for other reasons as well: it will strengthen your body, elevate your mood and increase your sense of well-being, relieve stress and resist regaining the weight you’ve lost. You need to adopt a regimen that includes both aerobic/cardiovascular and resistance (strength) exercise.

Let’s start with the aerobic.

First, pick something you enjoy doing (or think you might enjoy) so you will be motivated to make doing it a habit for life. Let me emphasize that: the changes we are urged to make are not short-term remedies – not just something to do for a while and then revert to our prior inactive behavior pattern. There’s walking, jogging, biking, elliptical, swimming, Zumba, just to name a few. I recommend you begin modestly to establish a “duration” baseline during which you can comfortably do the routine. Then, whatever you do, make doing it a habit.

I Nordic-walk – that’s ‘power walking’ with hiking poles. You can check out the benefits of Nordic-walking here. I love it. My body loves it. In fact, Suzanne (my lovely wife) says that she can tell if I’ve gone more than a day or two without walking by the change in my mood. (Unfortunately, I am currently suffering some withdrawal symptoms: since breaking my left big toe July 10^th – I dropped a 20 lb. cutting board on it while unloading stuff from my car at home after shooting the initial episode of the Health Cooking …with Howard video series at the LexMedia studios – I have been without my favorite regular aerobic exercise, mostly inactive and, frankly, going a bit nuts without it. I can ride a bike with a Teva sandal on my left foot and I’ve done 8 miles at about a 10 mph pace several times but it’s not the same.)

I live near the Minuteman Bike Trail which is a delightful ~12 mile course that follows the route of an old commuter railroad bed from Alewife Station in Cambridge MA, through Arlington, Lexington and terminating at Railroad Ave. in Bedford. It’s mostly level, mostly wooded, mostly quiet, no auto fumes, lovely flora and fauna all year round (I even saw a coyote). It can also be quite social; I usually encounter several regulars doing their thing (walking like me, biking, jogging, inline skating or just out with their kids and/or dogs) whom I greet either by name, a nod or a wave.

For more about walking, see the tab “Walking with Howard…” above as well as a prior post of the same title.

Scene 1; Take 1; “Marker”…

Yesterday, the initial episode of Healthy Cooking…with Howard was shot in Studio K at LexMedia’s facilities in Lexington.

I have been anticipating this event since I conceived of the idea in March and had been preparing for it for at least a month: planning the menu, designing a concept, scripting it, rehearsing for it “in my head”, watching other LexMedia’s cooking shows, testing the kitchen facilities, etc. I even took a series of courses in filming and editing offered by LexMedia to get a sense of what producing a show entails. Suffice it to say all of that did not prepare me for the experience of simultaneously articulating a message and cooking a meal on camera. Sort of takes the “walking while chewing gum” dichotomy to a whole new level (I guess that’s what rehearsals are for).

That said, the experience was generally a positive one for me. So, if we can edit the footage and get a 30 minute show out of it, I’m committed to making it the 1^st in a series. And, unless it’s just awful, I’ll post it to the Healthy Cooking…with Howard page when the editing is done. The recipes for the food I prepared will shortly be available on my Recipes page.

Finally, my sincere thanks to the LexMedia staff and crew for their effort and expertise; to my “studio audience” for their support; and, as with all things in my life, to my wife, Suzanne, for her encouragement and collaboration.

“Inspiration, move me brightly
Light the song with sense and color, hold away despair…”
"Terrapin Station" Words by Robert Hunter; music by Jerry Garcia