Finding The Time To Exercise – A Critical Task
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Finding The Time To Exercise – A Critical Task
Dr. Colleen Trombley (“Dr Mom Online”) is a leading Health expert. See why so many turn to her for healthy living, nutrition, exercise, weight loss, parenting and life balance tips. Visit http:// HealthySchoolDaysMenu.com for great nutrition ideas. Visit http://DrMomOnline.com for more health tips.
On my way back from a run the other day, I saw several of my neighbors out in their yards getting some work done.
I started thinking about my neighborhood and the people in it. We live on a street with a couple dozen homes on it. Most people are in their 40′s, 50′s and 60′s. There’s one couple in their 30′s.
Since I’m outside a lot dong various things (running, cycling, walking the dog, going on nature walks & adventures and playing with the kids, gardening, etc.) I’ve had many opportunities to chat with these lovely folks.
Sadly, I’ve found out over the years that not many of them exercise at all, let alone with any regularity. One man in his early 60′s jogs almost daily. The youngster in his 30′s runs once or twice per week and goes to a gym a couple times a week. His significant other walks their dogs every day. Another lady in her 50′s walks regularly. A lady in her 60′s walks once in awhile, and usually with her grandkids… she’s not breaking any speed records! (but she’s very happy!) And another mom in her 40′s tries to walk regularly in the summer and once in awhile on her treadmill.
That’s it.
That leaves about 40 other adults that aren’t doing anything. Nada. Zip. Zilch. They’ve told me this – I’m not assuming! Some are retired. Some are out of work. Some are off work. The working ones are home in plenty of time to incorporate exercise. Plenty.
You have no idea how much this concerns me. More accurately, it freaks me out! It’s almost beyond comprehension. But, I DO get it. Life gets busy. Before you know it, you just fill up your days, your weeks, your months and your years with other things. It’s easy NOT to exercise. It will always take effort and time to exercise. Always.
Health is proactive.
So is brushing your teeth. No big deal. It’s just something we do.
I think if people truly understood the consequences of NOT exercising and the benefits of exercising, they’d look at things differently. A light bulb would turn on.
It’s not about weight loss/body weight, or muscle tone or the size of your jeans, per say. It’s not even about heart health. Those are all nice side effects of exercising regularly. Exercise is about the whole enchilada! Creating optimal physiological, mental and emotional function as well as preventing and reversing ALL chronic illness like cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression, arthritis, infertility, learning disorders, memory disorders, digestive disorders, and so on.
Being thin, by the way, is not the same as being healthy. To confuse the two can be extremely dangerous to our health and lead to poor lifestyle choices.
Daily movement (exercise) is a requirement for Optimal Health. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors (the gold standard of health) did not take a day off of movement to just chill out. We are meant to move.
That doesn’t mean it’s always about going to a gym or going for a run. Movement is comprised of endurance, power, speed, agility, flexibility, strength and so on. Fitting a variety of these movement patterns into our lifestyle in some way, shape or form is critical to our health.
One of my neighbors recently asked the question I think many people have once they’ve been off track for awhile. He said, “I see you out there running, walking, biking, jumping on the trampoline… you’re out every day. I haven’t done any kind of regular exercise since I was in high school! I wouldn’t even know where to start. What would YOU tell someone who’s as out of shape and off track as me?”
I said, “Do SOMETHING. Don’t wait for a special occasion or a certain date on the calendar… start TODAY. Just pick something and do it… every day. If you can’t do 20, 30 or 40 minutes of some type of exercise, so what? Do 5 or 10 minutes of focused activity. Better than sitting on your gluteal region all day! Go for a short power walk, or do a series of body weight squats/knee bends, lunges, push-ups and jumping jacks during commercials, or walk up and down your stairs 10 times… or whatever you feel compelled to do… just do something!”
He liked that. He said he could wrap his brain around something as simple as that.
There’s a reason I regularly say “Motion is Life”. We need it. Every cell thrives on it. Our function depends on it. Our future health depends on it. We need to move far beyond the discussion of “not having time” to exercise. You’ve got to find that switch that flips your outlook regarding exercise to “I MUST create the time to fit exercise in… I’ll do whatever I need to do in order to fit exercise in… I need to exercise… I thrive on exercise… I crave exercise!”
It’s time to stop reading and go move that body!
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