How to Stay Active and Feel Your Best
As an educator and coach, I understand that the idea of getting and staying active can be a perpetual struggle. Whether you work in and/or away from the home, are a student, or are retired, really no matter the circumstance, finding time to exercise can be a challenge. The health ramifications for being active are rooted in science. As a sedentary society, our bodies need to be moved and exercised for the intention of gaining fitness in order to: reduce or avoid chronic conditions and some cancers, strengthen our bones and muscles which can improve likelihood of independence, keep our moods elevated and emotions stable, increase our energy levels, improve sleep, and improve focus. All of these benefits are just a sampling and hopefully illustrates the importance of staying active in order to feel your best.
Your question now, may be, how? “ I’m tired, I’m busy, I know I need to and I still don’t do it, I do not feel safe walking in my neighborhood, I can’t afford a gym right now.” There may be one or several challenges to you getting and staying active. And this brings us to the first step in staying active:
Recognize your capability both physically and psychologically to participate in activity.
This can include a variety of challenges and opportunities, including:
Your strength, stamina and coordination: what exercise can you do or not do yet?
Your previous bias about personal failure, social anxieties about gyms or how you look, lack of support, how to get started, negative self-talk louder than positive affirmations.
Challenges will arise over and over, there is just no getting around them. However, with eyes wide open, we can recognize the challenges either before we hit them or during and make decisions about how to handle them.
Choosing an activity that you can do and importantly, enjoy is the first step. Choosing an activity you like ensures you will make time for it, you feel good doing it and after and that will tell your brain that you want to do it again.
If you are not comfortable in a gym, consider online content - there is a ton available! Find a place you feel safe to exercise. Your home, your room, on the way to work or school, at work or school. Not sure where to start? Who can you recruit to help you? Does anyone you know exercise? What did they do? How did they get started?
I can almost guarantee that any question you are having about getting active, someone else also has it and there is someone out there who used to have it and then got moving. A long way to say - “ask around!”
2. Acknowledge what your physical and social capacity are to get active.
The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise (think 5-6 on a scale of 1-10 - you can hold a conversation with someone and keep doing what you’re doing and your heart is beating faster) or 75 minutes of vigorous (think 7+ on a scale 1-10, your breath is faster and harder, you may sweat and feel hotter) exercise per week.
150 minutes/week at a minimum. If you have weight loss or fitness goals, you may want to increase those minutes or the intensity of the minutes. 7 days in a week, 150 minutes = 30 minutes 5 days/week.
What will be the cue that sends you to exercise? Research shows that we build habits on cues. Remove the cues, remove the habit ….. eventually. Likewise, if you want to build habits, identify a good cue or cues. Set yourself up for success! Here are some possibilities:
Feet hit the floor in the morning and appropriate shoes are right there waiting.
Workout wear is all layed out and ready.
Gym bag packed and in the trunk of the car.
Alarm set for the time during the day that you will exercise.
After morning coffee, then hit it!
What will work for you?
3. Make a Mindful Choice based on your goals and intentions. This will be different for all of us. Not only are goals and intentions a piece of making your choice, also included will be your hopes, how confident you feel that you will be able to exercise, how in charge do you feel over this choice, what emotions come along with exercise for you? Do you harbor past memories and self-judgement over your attempts to exercise in the past? Identifying all hurdles and challenges allows you to decide what you want to do going forward.
If you or someone you love is ready to explore what factors are contributing to current behavior and implement a behavior change, reach out to a qualified, certified health coach for guidance and support to your goals.