Do SOMETHING

No one can argue the impact that being active can have on our overall well being. I have learned that a little bit of activity each day is crucial for my mental health.

While I wish I was one of those people who LOVED working out, I’m really not. While I truly admire those consistent and committed folks who make exercise part of their daily routine, I have a lot of trouble being one of those people.

While I have LOVED following programs like the 21 Day Fix (and seen fabulous results), I can’t seem to stick with these programs for any length of time (be sure to read “21 Days,” published back in August 2015). In the past, when I have set fitness goals to work out a certain number of days per week, I would fail and consistently dread the fact that I would have to push play on the DVD player and get moving. Or I would spend the day talking myself out of doing the workout at all. There’s always tomorrow, right?

Well, those days are over. My new workout philosophy is simply this … do SOMETHING every day. I enjoy walking, and have recently turned “wait time” into an opportunity to go for a quick walk around town or on the treadmill in the basement. Sometimes it’s only 15 or 20 minutes, but any movement is better than no movement, right? Besides walking, I have been working through some core workouts to repair my diastasis recti as a result of my last pregnancy (essentially the core muscles are split and all your guts want to poke out in between … making me look like I am still pregnant … eight months later … grr …). Other than that, I try to do a basic “150” for upper body and for lower body every couple of days. What does this mean??? The 150 refers to reps, so for lower body, I might do 25 squats, 25 lunges x 2, 25 calf raises, and so on to get to 150. For upper body, I might do 25 bicep curls, 25 tricep dips, 25 chest presses, 25 push ups, and so on (again, to get to 150). These things only take a few minutes here and there, so exercising for me is no longer an “event” to dread … I just aim to incorporate SOMETHING into my day everyday … it might be in the kitchen while making supper, it might be in the living room while the baby’s happily jumping in her jumper, or I might join in with the big girls’ daily dance party … some days I only do a little and some days I end up doing a lot … at the end of the day, if I have done ANYTHING, I’m happy!