Take a moment and think about your day. How much time do you spend sitting down whether at work or at home? Do you hate bending over to put on your shoes? Do you drive everywhere? When your kids want to play in the yard, do you sit and watch them instead of playing with them? We should be walking 10,000 steps a day. If you do the math, there are 5,280 feet in a mile, which means you should be walking about 2 miles a day just for your own wellness. If you were to wear a pedometer for the day, would you hit 10,000 steps? Most people don’t even come close.
The problem with life today is it is much too sedentary. We don’t move enough. We watch TV at night, sit at a computer all day, and drive everywhere we have to go. The result: laziness and obesity. Sure you don’t feel lazy. You work 8 hours a day, take care of 2 kids and a husband, and keep it all together. That is not the lazy I am talking about. I am talking about driving somewhere when you could walk. Going through the drive-thru instead of making dinner. Watching TV instead of working out.
I have been grappling for the past few days how to broach the subject of exercise. How do I impart to people who might not be inclined to work out the importance of doing it?
Let me make just a small plea on the importance of frequent and consistent exercise: your heart. As we all know, your heart is a muscle and just like all muscles in your body, it needs to be used or it will atrophy. Your heart shows signs of atrophy in different ways, though. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, inflammation, and all of these things resulting in possible heart attack, stroke, certain cancers and death. Is that a good enough reason? Some might call that extreme, but heart disease is the #1 killer of women (and men). BUT… you know that! So, why aren’t you exercising?
Take a day. Observe yourself. Before I can give you an exercise routine to follow, you have to learn about yourself. Do you care enough to want to move? Have you settled into a lazy lifestyle? To lose weight and keep it off, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFESTLYE. You have to educate yourself on YOU. The idea isn’t to work out for 6 months and stop; it is to move for the rest of your life whether that be nightly walks with your husband or hour long workouts at the gym.
I can and will give you the best work out to burn the most fat, boost your metabolism, and increase your speed, but unless you decide to change the way you live, it will only get you so far.
I am going to break my exercise advice into two blogs. The reason being: 1) there is too much information for me to concisely put it in one blog and 2) I can’t put enough emphasis on taking time to observe your own behavior. That is what I want you to do before I start dishing out exercise routines.
Here is the work I want you to do. Observe your life tomorrow. Find one thing you could change that would make you move around more. Could you walk to work? Take public transportation? Go for a walk at lunch instead of eating at your desk? Walk to the grocery store? Change one thing and make it a permanent change. Think about reaching your 10,000 steps. What can you do to get there?
Wednesday, I will post actual exercise routines that are built for multiple skill levels. Exercise is not the sole solution to weight loss, but coupled with a good diet, it is an imperative part. Remember, 80% of weight loss is what you eat, 20% is exercise. Don’t miss read what I am saying, you need to exercise… if all you do is eat right, you are missing 20% of a complete you.
A few things to add to the eating portion…
Have you started feeding your body better? Need a few helpful hints to keep you on track? I read about one idea in this month’s Natural Health magazine that I really liked.
- Keep a food diary. Don’t just write down what you are eating, also write down how it makes you feel right after you eat it and then an hour after that. Look back at how you feel when you eat. The idea is to be happier. Eat what makes you happy (I am guessing that is not going to be McDonalds).
Also, I have a recipe to share with everyone! I made this last week and it was a total hit at my house.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/California-Grilled-Veggie-Sandwich/Detail.aspx
Substitute whole wheat bread for focaccia bread and omit the mayonnaise (I have made them with and without the mayo and there is very little difference). If you want to add some protein, add a few slices of lunch meat. Also, I made mine on a Panini press and they came out great!
Look for more on Wednesday!
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