Sunday, March 1, 2009

Fit for Five Minutes with Sport Maki

Welcome to the “Fit for Five Minutes” series! Through this series, I will give you an idea a day for half the days in March of things you can do to get yourself moving! Do them during commercials, just before lunch, while baby is asleep, whenever you can!!

When you have completed a Fit for 5 task, come back here and leave a comment for a chance to win a prize. To easily get back here, click on the drawing of the basketball guy on the sidebar. Read through the FAQ’s after the list of ideas to understand what this is all about. Here are all the ideas:

1. Jump rope or jump on the trampoline.
2. Turn on your favorite crazy song and focus on trying to wiggle every single part of your body at least once to the beat of the song. This means your head, hands, neck, toes, belly, arms, knees, behind, back, etc!
3. Jog in place.
4. Lay on floor with legs lifted slightly off the floor. Pick up something heavy (your baby, weights, books) and lift it up and down, up and down with your arms, straight into the air. You may pause after each minute to put your legs down for a sec if you need to.
5. Do as many sit-ups as you can in a row. Rest, do it again until your 5 minutes is up.
6. Jumping jacks.
7. While watching television, mimic the actions of the actors/actresses in the commercials in an over-exaggerated fashion.
8. Sing every children’s song you can think of that has actions to go with it.
I’m a Little Teapot
Once There was a Snowman
Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes (Do this one lots!)
The Hokey-Pokey
Do as I’m Doing
Little Bunny Foo-Foo (Have to jump like a bunny too!)
9. Dance around the kitchen (or wherever) with or without a partner.
10. Imagine a hopscotch game on your kitchen (or other room) floor and use it to get hopping. Or, make a real hopscotch game with sidewalk chalk outside and play it with your kids.
11. Toe touches & knee bends.
12. Lay on your side and lift your top leg slowly up and down, never letting it quite touch the bottom leg. Do 15 to 20 leg lifts before rolling over to the other side and doing leg lifts on that side. Keep repeating. For added difficulty, hold the bottom leg up a couple of inches off the floor.
13. Kegel exercise 8 different times for at least 30 seconds. {What's this? If you are a Mom, you probably know already. If you aren't, you probably don't really need to do this one. Email me if you still need/want an explanation because I couldn't find a good explanatory site to link to that I considered child friendly. ;)}
14. Play a quick game of chase with a child or other available, willing participant.
15. Your turn! You make up one and tell us what you did to get active for 5 minutes!

Why are you putting this on your blog? I thought of doing this mostly so that I can make myself do some of these things. By putting it on my blog, I give myself some accountability. Besides that, I thought someone else might want to join me in doing this. :)

What about accountability for CompleteLee Blog readers? Aha! Good question! My idea for you is this:
**Read over the ideas.
**Decide to do it.
**Do it. (Today, next week, whenever you plan it in)
**Report back here and leave a comment (or email me at http://www.blogger.com/blog@completelee.com) letting me know “I did it!” {You can tell me exactly what you did, or how much fun you had doing it if you want, or simply let me know, “Did #2”.}If you follow those steps, I will willingly lavish praise upon you as well as enter you in to a drawing to win one of these items: {If you win, you choose the item you want.}

~~My “He’s the One” CD (digital version or actual CD)
~~My “Out of the Mouths of Babes book (digital version only)
~~One dozen cookies or one loaf of bread (continental U.S. only)
~~Three pieces of my “non-free” sheet music (digital copies)

Hmmm. Seems like I’ve seen that prize list before. Hey, now! That’s not quite true! I added something different this time—the funniest book I have ever read (or written). You’ll be hearing more about it soon! And, who knows, it may be only you and I that participate in this series. I am fine with that. I am hoping that the actual prize will be the fun of doing these things for someone, but I thought it would be fun to throw in a little prize for the thrill of it since it is always cool to win something. {If you have a prize you would like to donate to the cause, let me know!}

Can my name be entered more than once into the drawing? Absolutely! Every time you leave a comment letting me know you got one done, you are entered in to the drawing again.

How many times can I be entered in to the drawing? There are 15 days worth of ideas for you to do. You can do each thing once and receive 15 entries. Or you can pick and choose, repeating some and not doing others and get one done every day, thereby earning an entry every single day! If you really, really, really, really want to win a prize, you can also refer your friends and family members to this contest. If you can get them to leave a comment on my blog stating your name (or blog name) as the person who referred them, you will be entered in again!

Why 5 minutes? This is an easy question. I am busy! Anyone can find at least 5 minutes out of their day seems do-able. {"Am I right or am I right or am I right?" 1 bonus entry to the person who first correctly identifies either the character that said that, or the movie it came from.}

Any questions? Please ask away! This is going to be fun--Let's get moving!

6 comments:

Kim J. said...

Hi Marika! I tried posting a minute ago but don't think it worked. Great ideas for getting active! I went for a bike ride with my husband today...longer than 5 minutes, does that still count? And that quote is from "Groundhog Day", right?
Take care,
Kim Jones

Laurie said...

How fun!! I feel like everyone around me is trying to get healthier! It's great having moral support!!

CompleteLee Blogger said...

I put together the list with things that take approximately 5 minutes to give myself easy things I can do throughout my day, even if I didn't squeeze in a full exercise routine. I hope to do these 5 minute activities more than once a day.

So, to answer your question, Kim...A bike ride is excellent. You choose if you count it or not. I don't have a problem with people counting things that take longer than 5 minutes. This is all about what works for you to get a little more movement in your day. If you do something for more than 5 minutes, great! If you are in the habit of daily exercise, I would recommend doing some of these 5 minute ideas anyway to challenge yourself to do a little more. Part of the reason for these series that I am doing is to get us to go an extra 500 feet! (As opposed to the whole mile.)

And, yes! It is "Groundhog Day"! Now who gets the other bonus entry for telling the name of the character that says it?

CompleteLee Blogger said...

Laurie--thanks for your comment. I love hearing from you all because it gives me moral support too!

Laurie said...

Hey, I did number 12 AND number 5!!

Also, I bought a pedometer, and that really motivates me to be active! I find myself parking farther from stores, just to get in a few more steps. :) I also wander around the house a lot at night, just to get it up to the next mile. It really works!

CompleteLee Blogger said...

That's a great idea, Laurie! Way to go!