Every Little Bit Counts
When it comes to exercise many of us detest the word. To many of us it means sweat, pain, ungodly hours of the morning, lean trainers telling us what to do, enthusiastic starts followed by a petering out of effort and motivation. Maybe you have started one too many “exercise programs” only to quit midway. Maybe you have always hated exercise (think PE class nightmares) and never really tried at all. Maybe you hate the idea of changing your clothes, getting sweaty and then going back to work.
I have good news! You don’t have to do this kind of exercise to lose weight and improve your health!
Health Experts recommend 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise to help ward off heart disease, diabetes and unwanted weight. But this doesn’t mean you have to do 22 minutes a day in the gym, or 30 minutes a day in a Spin Class. The key is movement! You can string activity together throughout the day to get your cumulative amount of “exercise”
There was a time, not so long ago, that exercise was built into human existence. We had to walk to work, we had to plow the fields, we didn’t sit eight hours a day in order to make a living. Now we have cars, and phones, and jobs behind computers, to say nothing of the ease of finding junk food, sugar and caffeine at every drive through. Once it became apparent that we had to be purposefully active it became something to sell and hence we all have some idea, or ideal of what “real exercise” looks like.
If you love to exercise then go for it! There is no shortage of options for you, classes, smart bikes, gyms, videos etc. But if you just want to move here are a few ways to get started. And remember it all counts!
Every active choice you make works toward the collective good of being a body in motion, and our bodies were made to move!
Walk whenever you can. Walking is real exercise! In fact it is one of the best things we can do for our health. Also, it does not require special clothes, or shoes, or extra time to get to where you are going to exercise. You can walk anywhere; around the block, around your office building, around the mall or large department store. Even better if you can walk outside because we also need exposure to light and nature daily in order to feel grounded and reduce stress. This also includes taking the stairs at work, parking further away from the store or any other actions that can substitute the alternative of being still.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing. This is something I see while working with people to improve their health. If you can’t make the 60 minute kick-boxing class, you just go home and watch tv. If you don’t have an hour – but do have ten minutes – then you can do something for those ten minutes.
Start with small goals, celebrate and then make new ones. Avoid the detrimental “all-or-nothing” mentality. If you start with “I want to exercise 60 minutes a day,” but are currently exercising zero minutes a day, jumping right to an hour is untenable. The chance that you will burn out and quit is high. Instead, start with three, ten-minute blocks. Choose three times a day that you will move for 10 minutes. A walk, some squats and lunges, some push-ups or sit-ups, or just dancing to some music. Set a timer, move for ten minutes and then go back to work. Once you do that for a month, you celebrate and choose a new goal. Maybe 20 minutes at once, or an additional ten minute block.
Focus on how movement makes you feel: This one is key. It can’t all be about how we look. Movement and activity are keys to a healthy life, and yes, that means our bodies are healthier but it is also essential to our mental health and our general sense of well-being. We live in a world full of passive autonomy. We sit in front of a computer, we always have our eyes on our phone, we don’t even have to leave our homes to see a friend’s face. We can forget we have a body, but the body craves movement. There is also the much needed benefit of endorphins, dopamine and other hormones that our body produces when we are active that are crucial for our overall sense of happiness. Not to mention when we expel energy we tend to have more energy as a result. The more you move, the more you will want to move.
And as always, remember to be grateful that you can move! If you can’t move as easily and as much as you want, be grateful for what you do have and work toward building on that. Gratitude always helps us keep perspective and helps shape our goals. Celebrate ALL the wins along the way and never forget you are worth every step you are taking toward better health!
“The more you move, the more you will want to move. ”
