Move Your Body

Let’s face it: trying to follow all of the “golden rules of health and fitness” can be not only intimidating, but unrealistic, too.  Most days it feels as though there are not enough hours in the day between work, household responsibilities, cooking meals, and if you have kids?  Forget it.  You feel proud of yourself if, after a long tiring day, you dragged yourself off the couch to take the dog around the block for 10 minutes.  I couldn’t make it to the gym today but, hey….this has got to be good enough.

There is a lot of information out there about what we should eat to be healthy, how much we should work out, how much sunscreen we should apply at ALL TIMES in order to avoid the sun’s damaging rays.  It’s a lot to keep in your head, and if you fall short (which we all do), you end up feeling more guilty than anything.

That’s why I breathed a sigh of relief when I read this article from Prevention magazine.   It’s a quick read and you’ll be glad you checked it out.  How can people who are busy or just plain unmotivated still reap the benefits of healthy eating and exercise?  It can be done!  The key message here:  believe that every little bit counts.

Here’s an example.  The “gold standard” of daily fruit and vegetable consumption is 9 servings.  I don’t know about you, but when I see something like that I picture myself eating a piece of fruit or a veggie once every hour while at work.  People would think I was nuts…and beyond that, it would just never happen.  Of course you could double-up your servings during a meal…but even that would be a challenge.  So how can you ever feel like you’ve getting enough fruits and veggies to make a positive impact?  The article says that actually, 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day is “good enough.”  Anything on top of that is gravy.  So sure, strive for 9 servings.  But if you make it to 5 you’re still doing alright.

Here are some other interesting health mantras that the article explores:

Cardio – Gold standard is 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.  Good enough?  17 minutes a day – broken up throughout your day if you need to.

Sunscreen – Gold standard: Apply SPF 30 or higher several times a day.  Good enough? Throw on some moisturizer in the morning that contains SPF 15 (unless you’re spending the day at the beach, of course.).

Strength training – Gold standard: 2 or 3 times a week.  Good enough?  Once a week.  (A little digression here: I recently starting taking a half hour strength conditioning class at my gym once a week.  I’ve been attending consistently for about six weeks and have seen marked improvement in my upper and lower body strength.  I’m able to lift more than I was at the beginning of the class, and I surprised myself at how many push-ups I could do without fatigue during last week’s class.  I’ve been getting a few compliments here and there that I look “tone,” although I actually haven’t lost any weight.  Again, this is only a half hour class once a week.  Case in point that every little bit counts.)

Read more here – you’ll feel better about the small improvements you can accomplish throughout your day in regards to your health and overall fitness.

Info courtesy of “Unmotivated?  Nine Health Tips for the Lazy Girl,” by Camille Noe Pagan, Prevention magazine