A Little Bit of Fit

Fit Bit. Jawbone. Garmin. iWatch. Misfit Shine.
Fitness trackers are saturating the market, and consumers are eagerly purchasing their wares.

I have a confession. Part of me wants a fitness tracker, and another part of me loathes the very idea that they exist.

Let me explain.  I DO love physical activity. I personally engage in walking, running, biking, volleyball, strength training, and aerial silks. Moreover, I strongly advocate that other people should engage in physical activity. Not only is it advantageous for our physical health, but it is beneficial for our emotional and spiritual health as well. I believe that our contemporary culture is far too “heady” and that we become more grounded and connected when we engage physically.

I’m also aware that our current cultural arrangements make it easy to be sedentary. We sit at desks all day for our job. We work many hours so we don’t have time to be physical. We have cars that take us exactly where we need to go.  We are inundated with technology that mesmerizes us for hours at a time- Netflix, X-Box, Smart phones, iPads, etc.

Fitness trackers, therefore, encourage us to be physical. They remind us that we need to find breaks to walk around when sitting at our desks. They persuade us that we do not need to always drive to arrive at our location. They inspire us to work out daily when we would rather go home and watch TV. And they encourage us to stop consuming more calories than we burn.

So…there’s a part of me that wants a fitness tracker. Even though I’m already pretty active, I know that I can do better at driving my car less. I know that it would probably be beneficial to take more breaks during the workday to stretch and walk around. I would like to continue to maintain a steady weight. And…I’m gonna be honest…there’s a part of me that’s simply fascinated by the fact that fitness trackers exist, and that makes me want one. (Yes, the influence of American consumerism is certainly alive and well!)

However. (There is always, always a however! J ) There is also a part of me (and right now this is the larger part) that does not want anything to do with a fitness tracker.

Overall, I worry that fitness trackers and their numbers cultivate unhealthy obsessions. Should we work on being more physical? You bet we should. However, by quantifying our physicality, I’m worried that we stop enjoying activities for what they are, and we become more concerned with the final number that the activity will produce. Instead of enjoying a walk with a friend, for example, we start to think about how many steps it will add to our daily report.

Numbers, numbers, and more numbers

Moreover, I’m also concerned about the pressure we place on ourselves to reach a goal, and the potential guilt/shame that ensues if we do not reach it. Perhaps we simply had a lazy Sunday in which we just wanted to rest and binge watch Netflix. And we ordered pizza to boot. Because of our obsession with numbers, I’m worried of the guilty feelings that this might promote.  Obviously, a day like that would not yield the desired numbers, and I’m concerned that feelings of remorse will stop us from enjoying the simple pleasure of a lazy day. While I don’t think that we should have lazy days every day, I DO think that an occasional one is actually quite constructive.

Finally, I am also concerned about the “end goals” that are pushing us to track our fitness. I think that fitness trackers are often used primarily as a means of losing weight. And I am simply exasperated with “losing weight” as a goal due to its narrow, one-dimensional, superficial focus.

I want people to engage physically because they enjoy it. I want people to engage physically because they want to increase their strength and endurance. I want people to engage physically because it’s simply a habitual part of their life.

I don’t want people to engage physically because of the number they see on their screen at the end of the day.

Is it possible? How do we promote healthy activity engagement ? What do you think?

CELEBRATE!

 

Hello! Well, here we are again – having to explain our absence on the blog for yet another week. I feel a tad guilty as it was my turn to post last week and I just couldn’t get around to it. Truth is, I can barely gather myself and muster enough energy to post this week. I’ve had a whirlwind month of May. I legit have not been home one single weekend in May. If you couldn’t gather from the title and picture above, it’s mostly because I’ve been busy CELEBRATING!

The first weekend I had to drill and stay down at Cape Cod. I was also simultaneously working on last minute wedding arrangements, details, and packing. The second weekend was our wedding in St. John (see Jill’s blog post from two weeks ago if you missed it)! The third weekend I flew to Iowa for sister Kristen’s graduation. The fourth weekend, this past weekend, we drove to upstate New York to spend Memorial Day with Larry’s family. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Well, you dumb bastard, no wonder you are tired and don’t feel like writing. Maybe you should have relaxed after your wedding. Did you REALLY need to go to your sister’s college graduation? I mean, a lot of people graduate these days. It’s not really that big of deal. Oh, and did you really need to CELEBRATE Memorial Day in New York with Larry’s family? Didn’t you just see most of them in St. John for the wedding?” Well, I have to admit, those questions actually crossed my mind as well so you aren’t a total A-hole if you, reader, are thinking them to yourself. Obviously though, I chose to CELEBRATE both events and can’t imagine choosing not to CELEBRATE them. I’m going to post twice this week so that I can talk separately about both Kristen’s college graduation and Memorial Day weekend so let’s start with Kristen’s graduation…

Coincidentally, one of our other wedding guests was also graduating the same weekend as Kristen, albeit from a different school in a different state. She is a good family friend of Larry’s. I had a conversation with her down in St. John that provided me with a new life motto and confirmed my decision that even though it seemed crazy to travel merely two days after our return from the wedding, it was absolutely necessary AND worth it. Anyway, on one of the last nights that all of our guests were in St. John, Larry and I met a bunch of them at one of the bars to say good-bye. I was talking to this particular family friend that would soon be graduating and saying how nice it was that her parents, sister, and Larry’s parents were going to be able to make it down for her graduation. I asked her if she was excited and she said she was not super excited because she didn’t “think it was a big deal.” I immediately responded with a gut reaction and told her that YES, it WAS a big deal! I explained that it might not have seemed like a big deal to her at the time because her entire circle of friends was also graduating so she likely couldn’t see outside of that immediate circle and realize how many people actually DON’T graduate from college. I further went on to explain that even if almost everyone graduated from college, it was still worth CELEBRATING. I specifically remember telling her, “life is too short- CELEBRATE everything.” It was a spontaneous quote at the moment, but I think I’m going to make it my new life motto.

Anyhow, fast forward to sister Kristen’s graduation. Yes, she was the fifth Alesch sister to successfully graduate from college. Yes, she is not an anomaly. But most importantly, YES, it was absolutely worth CELEBRATING. The thing is, I realized as I sat in the blazing hot auditorium listening to way too many names being called, when you CELEBRATE any event whether it be a graduation, a birthday, a wedding, etc., you aren’t just CELEBRATING that very specific accomplishment. Rather, you are CELEBRATING everything that has led the individual being CELEBRATED to that specific mark. In this case, we were CELEBRATING the mature, young woman that our sister had become. We were CELEBRATING everything that she both succeeded at and failed at over the last four years. From having a run-in with the police, getting that first failing grade, and rationalizing random college hookups to being brave enough to study abroad in Spain, making it through Army Basic Combat Training and getting accepted to Teach For America, we were CELEBRATING it all…failures and successes alike. And it was absolutely freaking beautiful. After all, “life should not only be lived, it should be celebrated.”

 

Speechless

It isn't often that I'm speechless and yet, today I find myself in such a state. I'm absolutely and utterly exhausted and simply lack the ability to dedicate my heart and soul to a post like I normally would. You see, all of the Alesch's-the assholes and the angels alike - and even a few of their friends and extended family descended upon St. John for middle sister Molly's wedding to a wonderful man named Lawrence. I spent a week in an alcohol - induced haze that seemed to be fueled by my very presence in paradise despite the activity of the day. Going boating? Grab the Corona. Going to the beach? Grab the rum.  Going to Skinny Legs for a cheeseburger in paradise? Order the guava special. Have to give a toast at the wedding? Down five glasses of champagne. It was a fun, relaxing, beautiful, romantic and love filled week.

It was not without harsh words and included a bit of drama but that is to be expected when you have 13 adults and my two children crammed into a five bedroom villa. It was also not easy to get 13 people to do anything much less to do it on time. Plus, St. John is an expensive place to travel to, to stay and to play. Oh, and good luck getting cell phone service there. So there were worries about money, worries about getting in touch with others, worries about who paid for what and how much and worries about who got stuck with the couch. I was constantly worried about my kids and whether I made the right call in taking them with us. They were exposed to cursing, drinking and sarcasm. But they were also exposed to real life, real love, real forgiveness, the ocean, the island life and so much more. In the end, I know I made the right call. My children have not been sheltered from the bad but they have also witnessed first hand the good, the beauty. They see the give and take in relationships. They see that an argument doesn't mean you cease caring about a loved one. They see conflict resolution and that no one is perfect. They see that right and wrong can be fluid depending on the situation. They see that life is meant to be enjoyed and lived to the fullest. They also see that there is a big world out there and hopefully, someday will understand that the sun does not rise and set on them, the local sports team, the local competition, or their job. I'm not downplaying the benefit of doing one's best and participation in activities or work, but what I am against is the rabid and often parent dictated importance placed on things that truly do not matter. We owe it to our children to expand their spheres of reality, not limit their focus to myopic levels of self accomplishments.

We all returned to general chaos...Amy stranded in Texas for what seemed like an absolutely ridiculous amount of time due to weather and flight attendants not showing up for work, Kristen taking a final the next day, me driving all night to start military school, and John losing a bag that never made it out of St. Thomas. My son had to go to school the next day after going to bed at 11 p.m. Anne was the only semi-smart one of the group who took the next day off work.

But...none of that mattered. I would do it all again in a heartbeat in order to see any one of us get married by Anne with the rest of her sisters standing up as bridesmaids. Yes, I could have bitched. Yes, I could have made people pay me to the penny. Yes, i could have let someone else plan a boat day. Yes, my kids got sunburnt and so did I. But all of these things simply didnt matter to me. What mattered was that everywhere I looked, there was love. Love between Molly and Lawrence that simply emanated between them...love between five different sisters, love between two families, love between friends, and love between my kids and their extended families. Sure, this is probably present in any wedding but the fact that we had all traveled so far to share in this experience really made me see so clearly what a lovely gift Molly gave us in giving us the reason to travel as family and friends, and to enjoy a week in paradise--a gift that most of us would have never bothered to give ourselves unless we were made to. So Molly got married, and yet, I was the one who felt like the richest person in the world.  It made think that is really funny how that works. The more we give, the more we receive. The more we refuse to accept a mentality of scarcity, the more we get back. And the more we embrace all of our emotions, the less power negative emotions hold over us because we begin to see they are just a small part of the whole. Whatever I spent in money, gained in pounds, and lost in liver functionality, I do not regret a single moment we were there in all of our dysfunctional yet beautiful glory. That's how an Alesch rolls.