How to Get Your “Move” On
For many of us, the availability of time and effort-saving devices and services has rendered our lives quite sedentary. We drive rather than walk, hire laborers to clean our homes and manicure our yards, and even use services to do our food shopping for us, pack it up neatly into bags and load it into our cars. No wonder we keep gaining weight!
Study after study confirms the fact that if you and I are to maintain healthy bodies, governed by sharp minds, we need to be moving on purpose on a regular basis. Purposeful movement (which includes traditional exercise) has been proven to ward off disease, disability, depression, and dementia. In order to gain these health benefits, researchers have long suggested we include 30 minutes of activity into our day, 5 times per week. More recent studies have demonstrated those 150 minutes of purposeful, moderately intensive movement do not need to be spread out evenly over our week, but rather accomplished in any which way, even in one, 150-minute burst of weekly activity.
Now I am intentionally using the term “movement” rather than “exercise” because I want you to think outside the box of conventional “exercise” in order to rack up those 150 minutes in your “health account”. Every day activities, done at a quickened, slightly breathless pace are just as effective.
Here are some non-traditional movement suggestions to help you get your “move” on this week:
- Park farther away in parking lots, and then walk briskly to, and through, the store.
- Pretend your food shopping trip is being timed—as if in a game show—and then get going!
- Perform your house cleaning in half-hour, non-stop bursts.
- Do your own yard work…or at least a part of it. Rake some leaves, shovel some snow, dig some dirt, prune some bushes, or sweep some sand.
- Avoid the elevator altogether, or get out a few floors below your final destination and walk up the remaining flights. If you’re out of shape, start with one flight and then increase the number of flights climbed by adding one more each month.
- Plan a physical activity into your family time—rather than a movie or board game night.
- Turn on some music and have a personal dance party (or worship-fest) for half an hour.
Whatever way you chose to get your “move” on, know this—your body and brain will love you for doing so!