Exercise is a celebration of what our body was meant to do
“Exercise is the celebration of what your body can do, not punishment for what you ate.” – Coach Ramon Vega
As a younger person, I took exercise for granted. I never dreamt of having mobility problems. I did (AND before the age of 60).
Ever heard of Blue Zones?
They are several areas dotted around the world where there is the largest number of centenarians. They have been studied in detail, in particular by Dan Buettner.
People in the Blue Zones such as Ikaria and Okinawa, don’t engage in formal exercise such as classes, running, weight training etc. They live in environments that nudge them into moving every 20 minutes or so.
Most people have active jobs or hobbies, or farm for sustenance etc, they walk where they need to go, often up and down hils, they chop firewood, carry it home, etc.
This is NEAT(non-exercise activity thermogenesis)…in other words, not formal workouts or routines. It’s the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or formal exercise.
NEAT really should be the majority of our energy output….but it modern society this is often not the case and that’s exactly what happened to me.
I changed my life from walking around on a busy older people’s ward to working in a group therapy setting away from the hospital.
What changed?
I was walking less
I was treating myself to bakery goodies at Birds( if you know you know) instead of a hospital canteen dinner
I was no longer lifting people
I was sitting for 90% of my shift
Small changes but they added up fast.
How did that affect me?
I gained weight
I lost muscle
I started buying ‘slimming’ magazines
I started eating more mindlessly
At no point did I consider the long term consequences of my lifestyle change from busy, heavy ward work to a group work setting and how my life would be affected by that decision.
Back to Blue Zones and how I use their movement principles in my life
Learning about the Blue Zones really resonates with me and so I wanted to emulate them in my own daily life.
Movement is a biggie for me.
I use my alarm clock!!
I basically became a lazy person in terms of activity and then as I gained weight it was even worse.
It became a vicious cycle, an endless rollercoaster than never stopped.
Working from home I could very easily sit on my bum all day on the computer sorting marketting, blogging, social media as well as calls.
I now set a timer to alert me to get up and move a round and I attach a purpose/jtask to the timer.
Now:
I’m keeping mobile
On top of the physical tasks such as gardening, cleaning, shopping etc
Have more energy
I’m managing stress
NEAT really is having a good effort
