Fit to Print team updates

SHAPE UP CAPE

The Fit to Print team earned 899 points for the week. Our competitors St. Andrew's Fit for Eternity earned 1,089 points and the public library's Bookin' Team earned 372 points.

POINT TOTALS:

Sam Blackwell 132

Andrea Buchanan 94

Spencer Cramer 85

Heidi Hall 71

Jamie Hall 79

Gabe Hartwig 90

Laura Johnston 74

Heather Kronmueller 90

Bob Miller 96

Joe Sullivan 88

Total 899

Next week you'll hear from the other five members of our team.

SAM BLACKWELL

My yoga teacher, Amy, is probably in the best shape of anyone I know. She teaches not only yoga but aerobics classes. She also lifts weights and runs and who knows what. After leading an hour-long aerobics class just beforehand, she isn't even breathing hard when we begin yoga.

Working out is her work. Her example is to make physical activity as essential to your life as sleeping, eating healthily and doing fulfilling work.

And yoga is a perfect exercise because it increases both strength and flexibility.

My Shape Up Cape goal is to look and feel like a male version of Amy. It isn't going to happen by the end of Shape Up Cape on Sept. 28, and it won't happen by the end of 2002. Shaping up is a marathon. We're just getting warmed up.SPENCER CRAMER

When I started hitting the gym nearly every day, my ankle hurt. This didn't surprise me because I've occasionally had trouble with it ever since a car wreck 10 years ago. The pain went away.

Then my knee. Same reason. The pain went away.

Last week I was up to my hip, and I'm wondering what's next to get sore. (Last-minute note: I wonder no more.)

Apart from this, I feel the best I have in a long time. Who knows, I might even start jogging. I've always opposed jogging because I've seen too many people blow their kneecaps out. But maybe now it might be worth trying, if only a little.

Jogging would make it easier to break the 100-point barrier. That's hard to do with walking, weights and yoga. But I'll probably break that barrier with my current regimen just to show myself I can.

HEIDI HALL

The last two weeks were a time of growth on my path to fitness enlightenment. Here is what I learned:

First, sometimes false friends will try to lead you into temptation instead of deliver you from evil. When they come to you with offers of powerful drinks and show you all the bars of downtown Cape Girardeau, you must say, "Get behind me, fitness demons!"

Second, after you have fallen into these false friends' trap, you will be forced to get 20 Shape Up Cape points on Sunday -- the Sabbath and the last day of the fitness week -- to make the team's agreed-upon 70-point weekly minimum. Do not attempt to get 20 points on the Cape La Croix Trail in the heat of a July afternoon and then cool down with a large, syrupy snow cone. You will get sick.

Third, a margarita after that 20-point walk isn't such a good idea, either.

GABE HARTWIG

As I write this, I am slurping away at a 32-ounce Diet Coke I purchased immediately after a 45-minute walk. Is that counterproductive? I mean, It's called "diet," but does that really make it OK?

I'll be the first to admit that my diet could be better.

For a while -- near the start of Shape Up Cape when we were all giddy with excitement, imagining ourselves soon transforming into slim, fit, TV-type news folk -- I excitedly ate foods that were grilled, and I drank water at all times.

But in recent weeks, I've been eating things that can't possibly be good for me. In fact, yesterday I had a cheeseburger -- yes, with CHEESE -- that weighed no less than 12 pounds. Also, there were fries.

Alas, I cannot continue in this manner because my gut isn't going anywhere unless I change my eating habits.

I'll get right on that. After I visit the Coke machine.

LAURA JOHNSTON

OK, so maybe I did let the busted goggles and swim cap dilemma distract me from my aquatics exercise. I'm sorry to say that I haven't been to the pool since my last report. And with this heat and humidity, I'm not sure my exercise program can last until September.

I'm back to walking around my neighborhood -- and around barricades and broken sidewalks along Pacific and Henderson streets. I think I should earn more points for walking if I plan my route so that I walk up and down Cardiac Hill on Southeast's campus.

I've gone back to yoga, stretching with an hour-long program on television most mornings. While I'm in the downward-facing dog pose, my cats have a tendency to come rubbing against my legs or they try to sharpen their claws on my sticky mat. Apparently, there are a lot more hazards to exercise than I originally thought.