Do you see a theme so far with my daily dozen habits posts? I'm hitting the basics here--I'm dealing with the most fundamental needs of the human body. Not all of the dozen fall into this category, but because I believe caring for our basic physical needs is so important, that's where I decided to begin.
It's not big news that exercise is important, but do we realize how important it is? I'm not going to go into all the nitty-gritty details, but the fact of the matter is that active people live longer, healthier lives and activity is protective against many different ailments, from depression to heart disease. Plus, it just makes you feel good.
Exercise should change as life's seasons shift. When I was in college I loved to get up at 5:30am and go jog over to the health center where I'd swim laps for 45 minutes (no, I'm not kidding). There's no way I could pull that off now! I go to bed later, need more sleep, can't jog to the fitness center, can't exercise at 6am outside of my house.....it's impossible. So I work with the season I'm in *right now* and honestly, I think that makes exercise more interesting.
There have been periods of my life when I ran five days a week. There were periods, before children, when my husband and I would hit the gym for two hours in the evening. There were times when I used a tae-bo kickboxing video. There was a season in life, when Annie was a baby and toddler, when I got dinner started, and then as soon as my husband got home, I'd go to our basement and do push-ups, jumping rope, etc. or use our elliptical trainer while he watched the children and dinner finished cooking itself. It worked for me in that season, but I've no desire to structure things that way anymore! I had a season when I did an online pilates video most days each week. Things do change, and I think it's smart to work with the changes in life and not against them.
Exercise doesn't have to look like exercise, either: gardening is exercise, and so is taking a walk with your children, or doing some vigorous housework. Exercise can be dashing up and down the stairs at your house a million times a day (just hold the rail). It can also be parking the car and doing errands in town on foot, if you can.
My own situation is that exercise has become absolutely non-negotiable in my life, simply because without it I live with chronic pain. I have idiopathic scoliosis, was in a back brace by the age of 6, had a double spinal fusion at the age of 13, and have 2 fiberglass rods in my back and part of my left hip fusing my thoracic spine. I have dealt with excruciating, searing pain and I do not take pain medication; what I discovered, though, was that the pain dwindles when I exercise.
So I take exercise like some people take medicine! I also love that exercise helps my mood stay stabilized and gives me more energy and optimism. Who doesn't want those things?
During my current season of life, my exercise routine is--
*20 minutes of toning/strengthening exercises 6 days a week, which I do at home, whenever I can work it into the schedule
and
*10,000 or more steps every day (I just use a pedometer that attaches to my skirt or trousers...no Fitbit here), which I achieve through walking or hiking outside, using my elliptical trainer, dashing around with my children, doing chores, and jumping on my beloved mini-trampoline (600+ steps in 5 minutes!!! I love that thing). For instance, today I did half an hour on the elliptical--20 minutes this morning while breakfast baked and 10 more this evening after the children were in bed, walked up and down our lane twice this afternoon with my children, and jumped on the mini-trampoline twice, for 5 minutes each...once after piano lesson and once while the children were getting ready for bed. And I did my housework! I got over 10,000 steps this way and it doesn't feel like a grind.
On Sunday mornings very early I sometimes go to the gym and use the treadmill, the spinning bike, and lift leg weights (these help my back a lot). That's the only day I actually go to the gym...I don't have time on any other day during the school year.
We also love to go hiking on the weekends!
* * *
Today between the walk, the elliptical, the trampoline, and the strengthening, I spent 80 minutes exercising. What's funny is that because it was 20 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 5 minutes elsewhere....it didn't feel like that much. When I added it up and saw "80" I was shocked!
I am well aware that these pockets of time that I use for exercise could be used for other things, and in choosing to exercise I'm taking time away from other activities. Sometimes this is hard for me to do, but I'm quite driven by the clear benefits that exercise has on me personally--primarily the drastic reduction in back pain.
Exercise is like anything else: if you can establish a habit of doing it, you'll begin to do it without thinking twice! And you don't have to start with a lot: set a very small goal to just walk around the block or around the house a few times, and decide you'll stick with that no matter what for one week. Or find a short exercise video online that you would enjoy doing and that matches your fitness level. Or decide to do some vigorous gardening or housework for half an hour every day. Whatever it is, just make a tiny, daily commitment to increasing activity and that will get the ball rolling. (Don't go for a huge commitment...it will be too overwhelming. Keep it tiny at first.) Get that momentum going.
Because once you have momentum, the habit becomes automatic!
And that's my pep talk on exercise, another one of the daily habits that I think everyone can benefit from incorporating into life. I'm much healthier when I rest, eat well, and exercise!
Exercise doesn't have to look like exercise, either: gardening is exercise, and so is taking a walk with your children, or doing some vigorous housework. Exercise can be dashing up and down the stairs at your house a million times a day (just hold the rail). It can also be parking the car and doing errands in town on foot, if you can.
My own situation is that exercise has become absolutely non-negotiable in my life, simply because without it I live with chronic pain. I have idiopathic scoliosis, was in a back brace by the age of 6, had a double spinal fusion at the age of 13, and have 2 fiberglass rods in my back and part of my left hip fusing my thoracic spine. I have dealt with excruciating, searing pain and I do not take pain medication; what I discovered, though, was that the pain dwindles when I exercise.
So I take exercise like some people take medicine! I also love that exercise helps my mood stay stabilized and gives me more energy and optimism. Who doesn't want those things?
During my current season of life, my exercise routine is--
*20 minutes of toning/strengthening exercises 6 days a week, which I do at home, whenever I can work it into the schedule
and
On Sunday mornings very early I sometimes go to the gym and use the treadmill, the spinning bike, and lift leg weights (these help my back a lot). That's the only day I actually go to the gym...I don't have time on any other day during the school year.
We also love to go hiking on the weekends!
* * *
Today between the walk, the elliptical, the trampoline, and the strengthening, I spent 80 minutes exercising. What's funny is that because it was 20 minutes here, 10 minutes there, 5 minutes elsewhere....it didn't feel like that much. When I added it up and saw "80" I was shocked!
I am well aware that these pockets of time that I use for exercise could be used for other things, and in choosing to exercise I'm taking time away from other activities. Sometimes this is hard for me to do, but I'm quite driven by the clear benefits that exercise has on me personally--primarily the drastic reduction in back pain.
Exercise is like anything else: if you can establish a habit of doing it, you'll begin to do it without thinking twice! And you don't have to start with a lot: set a very small goal to just walk around the block or around the house a few times, and decide you'll stick with that no matter what for one week. Or find a short exercise video online that you would enjoy doing and that matches your fitness level. Or decide to do some vigorous gardening or housework for half an hour every day. Whatever it is, just make a tiny, daily commitment to increasing activity and that will get the ball rolling. (Don't go for a huge commitment...it will be too overwhelming. Keep it tiny at first.) Get that momentum going.
Because once you have momentum, the habit becomes automatic!
And that's my pep talk on exercise, another one of the daily habits that I think everyone can benefit from incorporating into life. I'm much healthier when I rest, eat well, and exercise!
Good advice!
ReplyDeleteI still loved what you said in your first post about how these foundational habits really are your day. I've tried fitting exercise into the fringe hours of my life (early morning, late at night), but it's so much more enjoyable when I just make it part of my day. I walk the kids to school, do yoga with my youngest child, and use my fitbit step count to motivate me to do housework. I have mild back pain due to scoliosis, nothing like yours, but I also find that exercise, especially activities that strengthen my core, are essential, and that's another thing that motivates me. What a good feeling to have this part of my life "figured out", and forming habits has been key to making it easy and desirable to do every day.
ReplyDeleteThanks Polly, I needed to hear that! This is the first year that I haven't homeschooled in 19 years and I just hit menopause. I need to start walking again and doing the Jane Fonda workout. I just needed some encouragement...Thanks!! Linn
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this. I have struggled to get exercise into my routine because I just don't like it, but you're right, my body does feel a lot better when I actually use it! I notice as I get older that I have more aches and pains, but when I do yoga regularly they just disappear!
ReplyDelete