Would I Actually Play Rugby Football?

I was out with my daughter and picked up a postcard inviting me to join the Louisville Women's Rugby Football Club. My daughter laughed at me. I don't really know what rugby football is. I think I've seen a practice at Seneca Park a couple of years ago yet that could have been something else.

No experience necessary! That's what the card states. And good thing since I have no experience being a member of a team. The only sports experience I have is doing karate in high school. I'm not good with sports. I'm too self conscious of my body. I'm paranoid about getting hit and/or hurt. My temper's too short in physical situations. I'd either end up hitting someone or crying because I wanted to.

So why'd I pick up the card?

People can change. I need a change. I've read over and over again and said it too, that if exercise was fun and interesting I'd do it more often. And if I did it more often surely I'd lose some weight and feel better. I'd actually be more active. That's good in and of itself.

I can at least email and find out about when and how often they practice. I can at least go watch a game. I can at least pretend as if I'm going to do something new and potentially dangeous and beneficial. The Louisville team calls themselves, The Riversharks.

How many calories can I burn?

One site estimated the calories burned in an hour to be 780 for a person my size. That's compared to 550 for jogging, which I'd never do & 784 for jumping rope at a moderate rate, which I love to do! Jumping rope fast for 1 hour would burn about 940 calories. That could solve all my weight problems. I can't jump for an hour yet I could jump for 5 minutes, every hour on the hour during 12 of my 16 daily conscious hours. Why does exercise always sound so easy and doable in writing??

related post: dance like no one is watching & lose a pound a week

Exercise Fun with Kango Jumps

In September 2002 I brought a pair of kango-jumps (photo)
I went to the mall specifically to get them.
That’s an endorsement in itself. (I hate the mall.)
Anyway, they looked fun and that’s what I most want from my exercise routine. I also want it to show results fast.

I remember enjoying them for a long time. I’d also brought this music tape. The music is silly, “jump, jump, jump, like a kangaroo …” over and over again –there were others but that’s the song I remember.

My kanga-jumps have been in the basement for some time. I don’t remember why I stopped wearing them. They even give my abs a workout. I think it had to do with that fast results criteria. Somewhere in my mind I thought they’d do it all; aid in weight loss and tone and trim my lazy body. I didn’t measure so I didn’t have a baseline. I did them a disservice. They may have been doing all kinds of wonderful things but how would I know?

Well, last night it occurred to me that I should pull them back out. I’d been walking around my neighborhood with M.A.G., my dog, and that started getting stale. Actually, it started getting depressing because of the high levels of litter.

Plus the past couple of weeks I’ve developed a strong urge to be alone and unseen. I wonder if I could be developing agoraphobia. (The fiction writer in me is fascinated by phobia in general and agoraphobia in particular).

Anyway, I realize that the neighborhood walks were not a complete waste. Despite their inability to make me drop 20 pounds in a week (somewhere in the back of my mind this must be what I expect), they got me moving and I learned a lot about the neighborhood, had some interesting conversations, and I even found a couple of people who will walk with me if I call them. Which I have done a couple of times but I like to walk at 8 am and I don’t like talking on the phone that early (or really at all).

So I decided to keep moving but inside hence the return of my kango-jumps. With this decision came the epiphany that I should only hold myself responsible for the things within my “circle of influence”. I can’t really gauge when I’ll lose weight or where I’ll tone but I have total control over rather or not I follow my plan; put the kango-jumps on, walk/dance with them for 10 or so minutes, etc.