Like many geeky girls, I watch a fair amount of tv. It’s especially bad when you’re trying to play catch-up on some really good shows you missed or couldn’t watch. Most of the time, I also do computer stuff or I work on my crafting. But sometime last winter, I began “Operation Buffy and Geeky” (or “Geek and Buffy” 
).
It’s very simple, each night that I watch a tv show that’s at least an hour long, I try to do 100 crunches. If I’m in the mood, I tack on planks or lift weights. I was already trying to elliptical at least 3 times a week (schedules, cramps, and a foot injury sometimes interfere, but ProfX runs nearly every day so I have someone to do it with), but the November foot injury left me unable to walk for a week and then unable to run for months. So I decided to do the next best thing and get toned.
I don’t have it down to a perfect ritual yet, some nights I don’t think about it and some nights I don’t want to. But I’m not pushing myself on it since I will do it a fair amount of the time. Doing it is better than not doing it.
Someday I’d like to have a machine in the house so that a) we don’t have to use our apartment complex’s tiny, sketchy & smelly exercise room and b) I can get in the ellipticalling while watching tv shows. As it is now, I listen to fast or intense music (often metal) on my iPod.
Yesterday, Rosalind from Girls Are Geeks wrote suggestions to geekify your workout. I especially liked her one about getting dice involved. I could see numbering a set of 4 post-crunch options and then rolling the d4 for an exercise and a d20 for reps. The geek in me finds that exciting. Check out her post for other ideas!
Jovana May 18th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Doing a 100 crunches in an hour seems like something I won’t be able to achieve. Hahah. I’m lazy at heart
Rosalind May 18th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Thanks for the plug!
I did some dice yesterday, rolled a D20 to pick reps for cardio moves and a D6 for circuits, that was 11 reps, 5 circuits or 3 exercises. Then I rolled our double 6 (one inside the other, so cool) and got two 3′s, so I did 33 reps of the strength moves for 3 circuits.
Sounds like you are getting going well, another good suggestion is walking in place while watching tv, then kicking it up with side steps, knees lifts, kicks, and hamstring curls.
.-= Rosalind´s last blog ..Weekly Geekly Flickr Finds 5-17-10 =-.
Ruth May 18th, 2010 at 9:51 am
@Jovana I started out doing two sets of 25 with a long break between. Then after a week or two, I upped to 3 sets, now to 4. Now 100 feels ok, whereas before it’d have been a bit overwhelming.
@Rosalind I really love the idea of using dice to pick what one does next. Sometimes I have trouble making a decision because I want to do something but not everything after the crunches.
GeekInsight May 18th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Wii fit. For serious. That plus a change in diet helped me drop 40 pounds. And, it feels comparable to a game like DDR. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a workout and excercises. But for some reason I found it so much more tolerable than the gym.
.-= GeekInsight´s last blog ..Renegade Win & Jaipur First Impressions =-.
Jovana May 19th, 2010 at 4:33 am
I should look into the Wii Fit. I’m a gamer at heart, so I think I’d work pretty well with something game-like. Lol.
.-= Jovana´s last blog ..Welcome to Masters of the Geek =-.
Ruth May 19th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
@GeekInsight My roommates and I used to use DDR in place of going to the gym for our Life Fitness class. We called it “running” and I really think it counted. I hit the gym too, but that mad “dancing” gave me a great workout. Wii Fit might too, I don’t know (no Wii yet).
@Jovana good luck!