'Cheap' Exercise

I don’t know if I ever mentioned this before but I’m cheap. Others use words like frugal, thrifty. Cheap works for me. In the past, I have wasted a lot of money on expensive exercise. Then one day I woke up and realized it doesn’t have to cost a lot to exercise. Here are some of the less expensive or free ways to get some.

Walking

Walking itself is free. What you need to walk is almost free. There are many benefits of walking. What do you need? A pair of shoes. Now admittedly, depending on your need or want, shoes can be very expensive. Do you need expensive ones? No. Any pair of shoes you are comfortable in will do. Just be sure they fit well. You don’t want to damage your feet. Remember, sometimes as diabetics we have slower healing time.

How to enhance your walk:

• Do you have a dog? Take the little nipper with you.
• Do you have a cell phone? Upload music when you’re in wifi. Listen to music while you walk. It makes the time go fast.
• Do your kids/grandkids play sports like soccer or hockey? Along with the games, there are practices. Practices are usually an hour long. When my kids were younger and in organized sports, I’d take advantage of the hour to walk during their practices. It was pretty easy to walk around the periphery of the soccer field. I could watch the practice while I walked. Many of the hockey arenas I spent time in (and omg there were many!) had walking tracks around the top of the ice pad. This was how I used the hour. If there was no walking track in the arena, I’d go for a walk around the neighborhood near the arena. This really helped to lower my A1C.

Dancing

Free! Turn on some music. If you’re like me and your coordination is not exactly something to brag about, close the drapes...and dance! You don’t have to be good. No one's watching. Check out your local library too. They likely have some videos you can borrow if you’d rather do your dance following someone. Try looking on YouTube too.

Resistance Exercise

There’s evidence and promotion about the positives of resistance exercises in driving down blood sugars. Stretchy bands and weights fall into this category.

Stretchy bands

These are amazing. They are the colorful latex or non latex bands physiotherapists use to help with rehabilitation after injury. They are color coded: different color, different resistance. You can buy these in a number of places: online, Walmart, your favorite sport store, etc. They seem to average about $7 each. Amazon had the brand my physiotherapist uses. They are easy to use and inexpensive. Again, check out YouTube for some beginner, intermediate or advanced videos.

Weights

My doctor had recommended I try using weights to help lower my blood sugars but was very cautious about the use. His advice was not to strap any weights to myself or carry any while walking; too high of a chance of stressing joints and injuring yourself. He suggested I lift the light ones with my hands. Start slow. Good advice. He also told me not buy any to start...use a couple cans of soup. What? Putting a can of soup in each hand can give you the same effect as weights. To buy weights: about $8 each; can of soup $1-$2 each. Once again, check out YouTube videos for the type that suits you best.

Always remember

Avoid harm. Start slow. Go slow. Build up. Have fun.

For cheap. LOL.