Exercise is Critical......

​This week begins with several sets of good and bad news.     The first and most expensive bad news is that my Fitbit died, and the battery refused to charge, so I had to replace it. The bad news is that the new Fitbit "personalized" my cardio fitness and, as a result, increased my required effort to get thirty-five minutes of cardio or above per day. However, the good news is that I have built lots of cardio strength and endurance. The bad news is that I must increase my exercise effort to reach my daily goal of 35 minutes of cardio and beyond. The good news is that I've already found a way to accomplish that in the early morning. I found this article on NPR that explains a quick way to get twenty-two minutes of cardio. The foundation of the workout is high-intensity interval training. Each activity begins slowly but includes bursts of intense aerobic activity that increase the heart rate. Using Jake's exercycle, I'm alternating between one minute of cycling as hard as I can and then shifting to a gentle pace several times. I also use regular jogging in place to twenty-thirty second sprints. This and my regular exercise work together for my thirty-five-minute daily cardio goal. Actually, the suggested 150 minutes of cardio per week divided by seven days is 22 minutes per day, so I am exceeding the recommendation. However, I must continue if I want to lose weight, so this works for me. The next good news is that my birthday was this past Thursday, and I had a wonderful day. The bad news is that now I am 73. Yikes! I plan to keep working on health and fitness, and the keto plan is central to the works because obesity is very destructive. The other good news is that I'm making simple shift dresses to stay cool in the Waianae climate. I'm hand painting various colors of hibiscus flowers onto the fabric, and they're turning out amazingly well. That's all the news I have, but I hope to share more good news next week!