Inertia vs. Kick-starters!
Inertia: a body at rest tends to stay on the couch unless acted upon by an external force. This is my round-about description of how my own activity level goes. If you are like me and sit down for a second, I am in danger of staying that way for a regrettable length of time. At that point if my internal kick-starter doesn’t work, I must rely on that external force.
Enter my nephew, Felix Tambeau. Hailing from Corbeil, on the outskirts of North Bay, I know when the kindergartener is visiting. With the weekend weather blustering outside and a cozy fire inside, my self-motivation was low. Felix would have none of that.
Arriving with a Santa-given sled in tow, I knew what I would need to be outside. Saturday was windy and snowy but his excitement outweighed the knowledge that I would soon have snow down my back and up my sleeves. Minutes later on the hill, I needed to remove a layer of protective clothing to dump some heat because I had worked up a sweat. I was exercising! I was having fun and exercising.
Simply walking up a hill repeatedly is one of those HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) exercises that could have been carefully crafted by a fitness trainer. HIIT is essentially, repeatedly raising our heart rate towards the maximum, followed by short recovery periods. These routines have been proven to be much more efficient than long-slow-aerobic work-outs ad-nauseum, encouraged back in the day.
Once properly kick-started, I was out there, building a ramp. Followed of course by a bigger, badder, better ramp; shovelling more snow, packing, shaping, more snow and repeat. Felix the kick-starter got involved in the building and the all-important testing, augmenting the activity into a creative but still fun, exercise. Back inside, hot-chocolate inserted and another experience locked into long-term memory.
Of course, I preach all the time that people need to spend more time being active and outside, ideally. If we can just allow ourselves to be convinced or forced to get out the door, 3/4 of the battle is over. It only happens when we come inside that we can truly appreciate the comfy, indoors. An exercise in recognizing gratitude much like never being so glad to see a shower or the lowly toilet after camping for a few days. So, allow yourself to be kick-started or be the kick-starter. Thanks, Felix. Now if I can just kick-start him to put up the toilet seat!
Panther Points!
The U18 Manitoulin Lady Panthers travelled to North Bay on Wednesday to challenge the U18 North Bay Jr Lakers. This is a best 2 out of 3 game series, with the team coming out on top advancing to Provincials in Toronto in April.
Charmaine Webkamigad opened the scoring in the first period, followed by a goal from Carlynn Simon. Goalie Brynn Best secured a shutout, with a final score of 2-0 for the Lady Panthers. Today, Wednesday, February 19, Game 2 of this series will be played at 7:30 pm at the NEMI Recreation Centre. Bring your noisemakers and cheer on the girls, as well as help celebrate “Seniors Night” for the girls who are playing their last year of minor hockey. Good luck, Panthers!
Sign of spring!
There are a number of sure signs of spring that we look to, especially during a blizzard in February. One harbinger recently spotted demonstrates how long in advance a good event needs to get its duck in a row. Greg Lockeyer has been the driving force of the Mindemoya Youth Softball Tournament that will enter its sixth year this coming June!
The event is so popular that it will sell out by that time, but Greg is working on it now. He is getting together the organizing committee in place. Greg can always use people for the many jobs required to pull off this amazing community event. Check him out on Facebook.
A good sport is good for sports.
