I just found this timely quote online:
"Let a smile be your umbrella, and you’ll end up with a face full of rain."
— George Carlin
After taking the canine team on yet another dog outing, I can report that he’s right. It’s been downright soggy and gray here in the Northwest for what seems like ages. Fortunately for my mental health, exercise has been part of my recent self-improvement program. This week, I wasn’t able to go to my yoga class because I was teaching a PowerPoint class on the same days.
However, the other part of my exercise program is a lot easier than hauling myself down the slush-covered hill to a class. I have one of those cheapie mini-trampolines. So, to keep the gray dreariness from completely destroying my mood, every morning I listen to loud music and jump up and down on my little trampoline.
My mini-trampoline is one of those inexpensive ones with the ugly brown plastic around the sides that you see at yard sales everywhere. However, the reason they are at yard sales is because there’s not that much that can fall apart on them, since there are no moving parts. (I got mine about 10 years ago and it looks the same as the day I got it.)
A mini-trampoline is great for those of us who liked to jump up and down on our beds when we were little kids. (My mother was convinced that I’d fall off my bed and break my head open, but I never did.) Officially, jumping on a mini-trampoline is called "resistive rebounding" and apparently it’s extremely good for you. Various Web sites make lots of claims about how resistive rebounding is a fantastic form of exercise because of the body’s reaction to gravity and the fact that it’s low-impact (i.e., the trampoline takes the hit instead of your joints).
I don’t know if I buy into all the hype, especially given that many of the sites are trying to sell $150 mini-trampolines (which are not terribly dissimilar from mine or the ones you can get at WalMart for $20). However, I do know that jumping up and down is the only thing other than sit-ups (oh NOOOOOO!) that actually tones my stomach muscles. Yes, there is hope that this summer I may be able to put on a two-piece bathing suit without experiencing utter mortification.
So it may be endlessly gray, but I still have a smile anyway. Even if it is useless as an umbrella 🙂