I don’t know about you, but worrying about getting enough exercise plagues me daily.
I’m not a gym-goer, although I have made many large donations to several fitness centers with all good intentions that panned out as two trips around the circuit in order to justify the chocolate banana smoothie I sculled afterward.
Obviously the more exercise you can do, the better off you’ll be. I, however, am looking to find the least I can do to keep my heart beating and these joints moving.
After scouring the internet for doctors’ opinions, the general consensus seems to be that 20-30 minutes a day of moderate exercise at least 5 days a week, may not take pounds off of you but it will make a real impact on your cardiovascular health. In fact, you can reduce cardiac risk by 30 – 50 %.
So what is moderate exercise? Can you include reaching for the remote or walking back and forth to the fridge? Probably not, but just walking at a reasonable pace is going to make a difference, so anything you do that is more vigorous is even better.
Find what you like:
I suggest you really think about what you like to do. I don’t mind walking but I prefer to do it on city streets where I can be distracted by shop windows (like a crow is drawn to shiny things) instead of in nature. Stick me in a city I’ve never seen and I can go for 6 hours!
Are you competitive? Perhaps a game of badminton or hitting a tennis ball against a cement practice wall would break things up a bit. Sometimes I put on the music at home and dance for half an hour. Breaking out my old disco moves can be really inspiring and reminds me why my ex was embarrassed to take me to clubs.
Whatever floats your boat is great, just do it consistently. Really, 20 – 30 minutes is nothing. It’s the time it takes to bake a dozen muffins…mmm muffins…gotta run!
