Especially during the holiday season, you really need to be careful about scammers. They do look for big ticket items and try to say that they'll send a cashiers check or through Paypal, send a 3rd person to pick it up after it clears, blah, blah, blah.
Be aware people, even through Paypal you can be swindled. I told someone who wanted that that the only way I would do that transaction would be for her to send me the persons name and id number in advance, they would have to show me their id and it would have to match exactly, I would take their picture and a picture of them with the item. Needless to say, I never heard back from her.
The scam is to claim they never received the item and get a full refund and you lose both $ and item. Be sure to do your research on how scams are done and how your payment handles refunds. Scammers are good and make their living off of your ignorance, I'm sorry to say.
I've had a lot happen last year, some good but quite a bit was rough. I stayed with a friend over the holidays due to a medical situation she had. I refused to let her stay in the hospital again through the holidays as had to happen the year before. My beautiful dog Delilah died in March, I got the rear-ended in May that screwed my back up, 2 Memorials to go to within weeks of each other at the end of the summer, my foot diagnosis at the beginning of the year, blah, blah, blah.
I did have some remarkable times though too. Like going down to Ajijic in March for a week and going to Spain & Portugal in Oct. over my birthday. 2 wonderful weeks. 1 week floating along the Douro River. Just beautiful and relaxing. Boy, I needed that.
Sadly, an acquaintance felt I wasn't supportive enough for her and decided to berate me for making a comment on FB concerning, yes, you guessed it, the US' political climate in mild defense of another. She "unfriended me". Oh well, too bad, but my plate is and was full.
I'll be leaving for Ajijic at the end of this month, for 6 months, and I am so excited. I have been staying at a friends' home due to the chaos of moving and deciding what comes, what gets sold and what gets donated. I just couldn't focus and couldn't fall asleep with so much on my mind. Squirrel! Being out of the house has been hard, going back and forth to clean, clean out, sell, throw out, etc. but at least I can sleep at night now.
Now, on to some fitness goodies...
I participate in a couple of Facebook groups for group fitness instructors and soon-to-be- instructors. Most topics are about taking the exam to become certified to teach by a major fitness body. Some are discussions on various topics in the field of fitness. One such topic was concerning low-intensity vs. low-impact. I love this topic. Mainly because so many people think the 2 are the same. Au contraire mon frere.
Low-impact simply stated means that 1 foot is always in contact with the floor. I'll show some examples in a bit. I actually find that I perspire more during low-impact movements than I do in high-impact ones. Why Judi, how can that be?
Well, here ya go.
The reason is due to the fact that you're utilizing muscle power to change levels rather than rebounding, or jumping, off the floor. The more muscle fibers used the greater the energy expenditure generated. The greater the energy utilized the more stored energy supply is used. Simply put, Fat!
Low-intensity is kind of like jogging instead of running. Using a mild amount of energy to accomplish a move or movement. Say you're taking a spinning class and you've had an intense week of exercise or even an intense day of exercise and you just want to exert minimal effort and use the class almost as a cool-down for the day. Or, say you took 3 dance classes 1 day and just want to move but not go full out. going through the motions, if you will. Rest days are legal ya know.
The 2 can be the same but they aren't necessarily the same. Does this make sense?
So why low-impact? Well, low-impact is so much easier on the joints of the human body. Since jumping creates so much psi upon landing, low-impact removes that severely.
People like me, with joint replacements or other injuries can't do repetitive jumping. So, low-impact is great.
Now, of course, years ago came the research that claimed that low-intensity or longer steady state workouts were considered the "fat-burning zone". That a body burns more fat at lower intensity training than it does during higher intensity and interval training. Well, I'll tell you, it's true. You do burn a higher fat calorie percentage vs. total caloric burn. So, just throwing out numbers here, low-intensity total calories burned = 300 and a 70% of that is fat calories = 210
YES, Virginia, there's a BUT. But when you're doing a higher intensity workout or an interval workout, because the total caloric burn is so much greater that even though the percentage of fat calories is less it's still higher than the greater percentage of the low-intensity workout. Higher or interval workout total calories burned = 680 and a 45% of that is fat calories burned = 360.
Ok, ok, what the heck is all that mumbo-jumbo? Here's the best analogy I ever heard about this very point. If you take my salary and you take Bill Gates' salary, now just think about it, who's salary would you want 50% of? Mine or his? Hell, I'll take his, myself!
The HIIT or high intensity interval training burns calories for up to 9 hours after you finish the actual workout whereas the post workout burn is up to about 1-1.5 hours after a regular steady-state workout. This is called EPOC or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.
Its a great tool to utilize to lose the extra fat, fluff, storage, whatever you want to call it. But hear me here, do not attempt to do a high intensity interval workout every day. You will end up trashing your body. It needs to recover and your body will get used to the intensity and stop responding positively.
So, throw in a few high-intensity workouts/week or even just 1/week to start. They are uncomfortable but not unbearable. Push your body's limits a bit once in a while, remembering that it's your body's limit I'm asking for. Your brain will say enough long before your body will so push past the brain. Your body will begin to show the benefits of these workouts. If you do this with a friend or in a class setting, it's much easier to push on. But...stay safe.
Keep dancin y'all. Peace out.