Survival Preparedness includes Physical Fitness

Watching a live haboob (aka
dust storm) roll through town
from inside the gym.

As made obvious by my sporadic blog entries these last few months, I've been a little busy. Among the many things Wifey and I are striving towards this year, physical fitness is at the top of our list. During our 15 years of marriage and concurrent with having six daughters...we've become a little (cough, cough) out of shape. 

I've noticed a few things when it comes to physical fitness:

1) You never see a fat marathoner

and

2) I've never heard a farmer say "Today at the gym..."

What I can deduce from this is that if you want to lose weight, you don't need a fitness club membership or fancy workout equipment.  Just get your butt out the door and starting running. Once you get to the point where you can run 26.2 miles (marathon), look down at your belly.  There shouldn't be much of it left.

And farmers work SO much on the farm that they don't need to go to the gym for a workout.  Visit Rural-Revolution a few times a week and see how much time they spend running down their cattle or working on the land. I can see where the phrase "strong as an ox" comes from...its all that lifting, digging, pulling, etc.

With that said, from my side of the city fence, I have a need for a gym. For reasons beyond my control, I feel enormous amounts of guilt if I leave kids at home to go exercise by myself.  With children ranging down to three years of age, they can't exactly go for a jog with me either.  Now sure, I can ask the older girls to run beside me and load the three younger ones up in some kind of jogging buggy thing but seriously...that sounds more stressful to me than anything else. And don't forget the lovely 120 degree days here in Phoenix that SO lend themselves to exercising outdoors.  Every tried to jog in a haboob?

Our favorite gym.

So, Wifey and I opted to get a gym membership that includes daycare.  My three little ones can play to their hearts' content, complete with little kiddie workout equipment for ages 6 and up and a rock climbing wall.  My older three can workout with us or on their own.  If they have homework, there are tables by the cafe to sit and study. For $99 per month, Wifey and I can workout as much as we want, get two hours of childcare per day (which is worth its weight in gold = two hours of uninterupted adult conversation!), and get healthy.

Being a non-farmer, my job involves a lot of sitting behind a computer or sitting while I perform an ultrasound exam on a patient. My job, like many other's I suspect, lends itself to becoming physically out-of-shape. So, until I move to my own farm and start working my own land, I'll have to frequent a fitness club to take my kids off my hands while I lift weights or climb a stair stepper.

Now, onto the good news.  Wifey and I decided in 2011 that it was time we spent a little extra money on ourselves for self improvement. Having devoted 100% of our time, effort and money to our family has given our kids a solid foundation in many ways but we were setting a horrible example of what healthy people should look like.

Wifey went first with a pesonal trainer for six months. She lost several pounds and dress sizes which, unfortunately, led to the NEED for a new wardrobe. Right. Anywho, good for her. I'm proud of her and all her hard work has paid off. My turn started almost a month ago. I'll be going six months with a trainer as well. One month in and I've already had to start punching new holes into my church belt.  Old shorts with buttons that couldn't reach their respective button holes are now needing a belt to hold them up. Hooray!

My point is this: you can spend years prepping as we have done. We've stored the food, water, bugout bags, medical supplies, etc etc.  But when the time comes to put feet to the asphalt, I would have been grabbing for my inhaler by the time we hit the end of our block. Life is about the survival of the fittest.  You can't wait until you are at your bugout location and start to shovel out your garden/latrine/stock pond to realize you are too out of shape to do what needs to be done.

Get in shape...before it is too late.

(Best Arnold voice): Do it! Do it NOW!