Sheila of Book Journey (host of It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?) has started a new project called Team Kickin It. She says:

What I am hoping is that through this space we can connect on what we are doing to stay fit.  Struggles and successes are all welcome here.

I’m in!

Sheila started a new blog for this, but I’m going to see what happens if I use my book blog. What I hope happens is that I learn about good fitness books to read!

For Tuesdays, Sheila is doing something called Checkpoint! with Mari at Bookworm with a View.  Checkpoint! is a link list for bloggers answering this question on Tuesday:

How was your fitness last week?

One of the reasons I wanted to join is that both Mari and Sheila are preparing for athletic events. I think events are great, powerful motivators for several months or a couple of years depending on your starting point and your goals. The one disadvantage, for me, was that they were sometimes ultimately counter-motivating. I reached my goal and stopped. Oops.

So, I want to represent someone in the community who is serious about fitness but no longer participates in events.

Here’s my check point. Last week included the end of December. I had a goal to exercise 1300 minutes in December, including 8 video workouts (the last part forces some variety). On Tuesday, the 27th, I was well behind the pace to reach my goals, so for four days in a row, I averaged 70 minutes of exercise and did one or two videos. I met my goal on New Year’s Eve with a long walk followed by a yoga routine (I drank champagne with the yoga). Then, I took New Year’s Day off. For January, I have the same goal: 1300 minutes with 8 video workouts.

To make this a book-related post, I have a recommendation for a quirky exercise book that taught me a lot of interesting things about how the human body moves and introduced a philosophy about movement that has changed how I think about exercise: Play as if Your Life Depends on It by Frank Forencich. Do you have any recommendations for books about fitness?