All this sitting around waiting for hurricane season has made us pretty lazy. We do a lot of sitting around, when we are not wrangling the kids. Other than our day trips to the beach or walks in town for groceries, our physical activity is at an all time low. Eben has baseball once a week that gets him working up a sweat, but baseball is not my thing.

   I always managed to convince myself of a few good reasons why I am not working out, “it’s too hot”, “I have two kids I’m too tired”, “where would I go?”. Well enough of that whining and procrastinating. I saw a picture of myself that I didn’t find too attractive and that got my motivation going. We have the perfect spot for working out, which I can do at any time in the day (when the girls are napping or sleeping), and don’t have to waste precious time just getting to the workout spot. It’s our Stand Up Paddleboard, also referred to as SUPs.  We usually use this as a toy to get us to and from the beach, but now it’s a “get my shape in order” tool.
   Using a SUP is a great core workout, just simply standing on it and paddling around, especially if you get a few waves here and there to destabilize you and keep you on your game. I have heard of people doing yoga on the SUP and I decided to give it a go. First I changed into clothes that I didn’t mind getting wet, just in case I took a fall into the water. I downloaded a few yoga routines on to the ipad and plugged that into our portable outdoor speakers so that I could have the audio guidance, tied the SUP to the back of the boat, and let the downdogs begin. It was scary at first, especially since I wasn’t keen on the idea of taking a dip in the Luperon bay, I don’t actually think it would give me a staph infection like many have rumoured, but it would leave me feeling pretty icky. It didn’t take long for me to start gaining confidence in the boards stability and what I trusted myself to do on it. Today I completed my second full yoga routine on the board and I love it. I did discover that my complaint about it being too hot to workout was validated though, as my ipad, with the yoga audio, shut down due to high temperature. I don’t think it agrees with me about workouts in the noonday heat while the girls nap. I can already feel more energy flowing in me, but I can also feel my muscles quiver like jello as they try adjusting to this working out thing.