Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Be Active!

From the CFG; "Canada's Physical Activity Guide recommends 30-60 minutes of moderate physical activity into daily life for adults and at least 90 minutes a day for children and youth."

For our family, we have incorporated a family 'exercise' dog walk in the morning.  20 minutes of walking with a purpose.  Good for the whole family and the dog.  During the rest of the day, our other activities vary for the individual.  Phatdogg has a physical job, and has begun a program that will see him eventually doing 100 push ups a day.  I have been increasing my walking (with Princess and Outlaw in tow, more often than not), and doing some low impact stretches/exercises at night.  On top of these things, we try to spend our free family time being active outside; Frisbee tossing is the family's (and Princess') current favourite activity (even Outlaw has proved to be a Frisbee dog!).

A good example of our increased walking came about yesterday.  Outlaw needed a new bag of dog food.  The store where we get it is a 45 min. walk away, when walking with a pre-schooler and dog.  Typically, Princess and I would grab a ride on the bus, and when the weather turns nasty, we will probably do so again.  However, summer is waning, and taking advantage of the ability to walk there just seemed like a great adventure, and an even better idea.  Walking through the park, provided additional adventure, as we walked passed 4 coyotes. Big ones too! We may live in an urban community, but nature is never too far away.  Needless to say, we took an alternate route home. 2 hours there and back, with a small banana/water break when we picked up the food.  Princess never complains about walking this long or far, is that typical? I don't know.

We also passed by one of the local middle schools and saw a class coming out to take a run around the track.  I would say they were 12 yr olds.  I was surprised to see 1/2 of them didn't even run around 1/3 of the track before walking the rest of the way.  On our way back, they were paired up and tossing Frisbees.  This cemented school coolness for Princess obviously.  My observation cemented the need for us to instill the ethic of physical activity in our household.  I would like Princess to be in the half running around the entire track.    Thanks, Bella

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