Daily Movement Is a Must—Here’s How to Make It Work for You
For the first 12 years of my life, trips to Grandma’s house were sporadic at best. However, I have core memories of visits to her house when we were between military moves.
One memory is stopping by her bedroom door and watching her do her “morning calisthenics". Curlers in and slippers on, she’d start on the edge of her bed with some arm stretches. She’d work her way to the middle of her room and spend about 10 minutes or so stretching and doing light aerobics.
At 6 years old, I remember being impressed that an “old lady” could still move her body like that. I’m not someone who really enjoys exercise, but I want to be like my Grandma and keep my balance, my flexibility, and my strength as I age.
A couple weeks ago, I learned — thanks to the DUTCH test — that my body isn’t doing a good job of getting rid of cortisol later in the day. One simple thing I’m doing to help my body is shifting my workout from the mornings to the afternoons.
I don’t love to exercise, and while this would be a perfect excuse to ditch it, moving my body is one of my non-negotiables so I’m making it work! It’ll take some time to get into a good routine, but I know it’s worth the effort — that I’m worth the effort.
For many women, making time to exercise, to intentionally move our bodies, is one of the first things that slips off the to-do list each day. Unless it’s a non-negotiable, it's SO easy to tell ourselves we’ll do it later, do it tomorrow, wait till the kids are asleep, wait till we feel better, do it when we have time to put on workout clothes, do it when we can get outside…and on and on.
If this is you, I have three suggestions for you today!
#1: Check your mindset around “exercise”
Much like the word “diet”, the words “exercise”, “movement” “physical activity” or “work out” can be loaded with other meanings for us. These words can be tough, especially if we've had poor experiences in the past with difficult workout programs or have felt like a failure with our past attempts at physical exertion.
Whenever I talk about exercise, movement, or physical activity, I’m referring to the act of physically moving our body in whatever ways we do in a day. The World Health Organization backs us up in this. They define physical activity as “any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles that requires expenditure.”(1)
In other words, all the times that you go up and down the stairs during the day, taking a walk on your lunch break, lifting children, cleaning the house…these are examples of physical activity in addition to the ones that probably popped into your head first.
Checking our mindset around exercise can be as simple as trying out some different words. If you hate “exercise” could you give “activity” a try? If “doing a workout” or “hitting the gym” makes your body tense up or feel stressed, how about “getting intentional movement”?
You may also want to ask yourself: “In this season of my life, what role would I like physical activity to play? How do I want it to support my emotional and physical health?”
If you’d like some additional guidance, click here for a helpful worksheet pulled directly from my online program, The Exhausted Mom Solution!
#2: You do you, my friend
It's important to remember that bio-individuality applies to exercise as well. Just like there’s no one diet that works for everyone, there isn’t one form of exercise that’s ideal for everyone either.
Some women might do better with more gentle centering exercises while others require vigorous activity. You might prefer a walk around the block first thing in the morning or doing stretches before bed each night.
Finding what works best for your unique body at this particular point in your life might take some experimenting. The type of movement, time of day, amount of time: you’ll want to play around with things until you find something that you can stick with for a while. (Note: I didn’t say forever! This will change as you change!)
When you find what works for you and your particular season of life, you’ll be more likely to do it consistently and reap the benefits.
#3: Something is better than nothing
One of the things I hear a lot from women is “I don’t have time to exercise.” or “I know I should, but it’s so hard to fit exercise into my day.”
I absolutely have compassion and empathy for women whose schedules are packed from sun-up to sun-down. However, I challenge them (and you) to come back to your sacred self-image. Prioritizing physical activity is an act of self-love and part of your most important responsibility — caring for yourself.
Put it in your calendar or set an alarm on your phone.
If you’re at ground zero, start with 2 minutes or 3 minutes most days. Can you make it 5 minutes? 7 minutes?
Take a quick walk around the block. Set a timer on your phone for 5 minutes and do some squats, jumping jacks and planks. Filter the FitOn app workouts to a time that suits you and do as much as you can. Or use my personal favorite, the 5 minute hacks from MommaStrong!
If you find that you can easily do 5 or 7 minutes, aim for more. If you’re just starting out, however, don’t put tons of pressure on yourself to do a 30 minute workout every day of the week. (Spoiler alert: it probably won’t happen for more than 1 week and then you’ll be back to feeling like a failure.)
Making time for movement is making yourself a priority. You are worth it! Be intentional and be deliberate about how you do that. I know — this is SO hard for many of us. I encourage you to take it to prayer. Ask Jesus to help you care for yourself in this way. Ask Him to show you how you can love your body through movement.
A bonus tip for you
If the thought of adding anything more into your day has your brain shouting “Nope! Not gonna happen!” I invite you to consider the NEAT approach.
NEAT stands for “non-exercise activity thermogenesis”(2) which is a fancy way of saying all the energy you expend when you aren’t eating, sleeping or doing structured exercise. A great example of NEAT movement is if you have a smart watch, to notice how many steps you get in a day, just going about your day.
A couple years ago, my best friend sent me a picture of her watch…10,271 steps with the caption “Just another average mom day around the house.” You probably already get a lot of NEAT movement without realizing it.
If this is where you’d like to start, I challenge you to start noticing your NEAT movement and be deliberate with it when you do. Check your posture as you carry groceries (shoulders back, not flaring your ribs), park a bit farther away at the store, notice the stretch and strength of your arms as you scrub the bathtub.
Finally, if you just really feel like you can’t squeeze anything in or are stuck in the mindset of “I’m not a person who likes exercise”, reach out to me!
That’s why I’m here:
To help you overcome mindset or lifestyle roadblocks
To help you figure out what will work best for your amazing body
To help be your accountability partner, your cheerleader and your tough-love giver
We all feel like we need that neutral third party input every once and a while. That's why I offer free Action and Accountability calls! Just shoot me an email at janna@atthewellcoaching.com or click below!
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity
https://blog.nasm.org/exercise-programming/neat-approach-weight-loss
