Exploring Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis To Reach Your Exercise Goals And Live a Healthier Lifestyle.
According to the CDC adults should aim to get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week and add muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days. This may not seem too unreasonable but according to the CDC barely 24 percent of adults over the age of 18 met the guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strength activities in 2020.
Many of us think of exercise as something specific and separate from our everyday lives, like going for a run or going to the gym. But the truth is that we do get exercise every day by just living our lives. This is called non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) and you can actually burn a lot of extra calories in your day if you bring some awareness to how you spend your time.
Why Is Staying Active So Important?
To be honest, I struggle to stick to an exercise routine nowadays. When I was younger staying active seemed easier and was just part of my life. After becoming a mom and moving to the suburbs, I seem to spend more time driving than walking and by the end of the day, when everything that needs to get done is done, going to the gym seems impossible.
Still I know that I need to stay active. The benefits of exercising are too important to ignore. It is good for your heart, your muscles, your bones, your joints, your digestion, and mental health to just name a few. And I am not just doing it for my own health any more, I need to stay healthy for my family.
So a change of mindset was needed. I found a few tricks and tips to help me stay motivated to start getting more exercise into my day realizing that I did not need to set specific time aside for an exercise routine.
Favorite Tips for Everyday Exercising
1. Start slow. Even if 30 minutes a day seems achievable it may not be and that is OK. Start by adding 10 minutes of activity into your day and then slowly add on. Remember, it is better to do something than nothing!
2. Make it a habit to do some exercises while doing everyday activities. If you are watching tv do some squats, flex your feet, lift your legs, and grab a couple of water bottles and do some bicep curls.
While you stand in line at the grocery store move around, sway back and forth, walk in place. Will you look a little funny? Maybe, but who cares!
If you have stairs in your house make it a habit to walk up and down a few extra times a day, forget something on the top floor
on purpose and set a goal of walking up and down the stairs ten times a day.
3. Start walking. A recent study suggests that taking a light walk after a meal helps lower your blood sugar. Even a 2 minute walk was shown to be beneficial! That gave me some motivation because 2 minutes is definitely doable. Try to add steps into your days by walking down the hall to talk to your coworker instead of sending an email, take the opportunity to take a walk during your lunch or coffee break, and park your car at the far end of the parking lot to add some steps (and as an added benefit lose the frustration of looking for a convenient parking spot).
4. See doing household chores as an opportunity to get some real movement in.
Vacuuming, squatting to pick up items, carrying
loads of laundry up and down the stairs, yard work and pushing a lawn mower around all count.
5. Be playful. Add some play time to your day, even if you don't have kids at home. Put on your favorite song and dance, jump around, jump rope, take a bike ride or head outside and check out the season.
In The End....
What really matters is reducing the time that you are sitting down, as sitting for prolonged periods of time has been shown to negatively impact our health. You can be creative and have fun knowing that the more time you spend being active the better, and that every movement counts.
If you have any questions or need help getting more active please reach out to me at linda@simplynordichealth.com
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