Happy and Merry Walking

Happy and Merry Walking.

For our family, and many other people, ‘tis the season of the trifecta of holidays: Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas.  In my family we have a few birthdays thrown in there, too, along with Baptism birthdays. (We have a tradition of celebrating with Baptism brownies.) Wow - that’s a lot of celebrating...with a lot of extra calories. With the time change making dark arrive earlier and the cooler weather this season of the year becomes a time of less activity too. So how do we counter the decreased activity and increased calories, which ultimately results in the rising of the scale?

For now, I want to give you some ideas for increasing activity.

Any time a change occurs in your life, evaluating your exercise plan can be helpful.  My husband and I were very faithful with both our walking plan most days of the week and our weight lifting plan 2-3 times per week.  But suddenly with our move to TX, the change in location, the change in schedules, and not having our usual YMCA to lift weights, we struggle to exercise like we did before. So we are having to examine our exercise plan.

Use these PACE tricks to set yourself up for successful exercise in this happy and merry season:

-Plan your exercise ahead of time. On Saturday or Sunday, look at your upcoming week’s calendar and schedule when you’re going to exercise each day.  

-Ask someone to be your accountability partner. Once a  week this accountability partner asks you 2 questions.  “How many days did you exercise last week?” and “How many minutes did you exercise last week?”

-Find a co-exerciser. God created us to be in community. Just as in every part of life, we need to have people to encourage us along the way. Ask people with whom you would like to spend more time, to walk or go to the gym with you.

-In your day, every hour try to get some activity. Recent research suggests that if you take 13 minutes an hour activity break, at the end of the day you’re actually just as productive as if you worked 60 minutes straight through every hour. Set your phone alarm for 60 mins; when it rings get up and move around even for several minutes. Reset your phone for another 60 minutes. If you did 5 minutes for each hour for 12 hours, you would have 35 minutes of activity daily and better health too!

In addition to PACE, set a goal for yourself. Perhaps it is a step goal of getting at least 10,000 steps 5-6 days per week if you have a step counter. Or maybe your goal might be 150-200 minutes of exercise per week. Often having a larger goal like training for a 5K or 10K walk or run can be motivating.

If you happen to be in the Austin area, please join me at “Walk with a Doc, The Path to a Healthier You”, Saturday, November 10 at 9:00AM, Baylor Scott & White Clinic, Main Entrance 3108 S. Ranch Road 620, Lakeway, TX

Don Your Exercise Shoes

What are some follow-up take home points from the Exercise ON Challenge? Continue reading here http://blog.cph.org/everyday-faith/don-exercise-shoes/

Karen Sue Murdy December 16, 2016

Don your exercise shoes and hit the shoveled sidewalks, indoor mall, or exercise club—any place you can exercise! It’s December, and although the Exercise ON Challenge is over, hopefully your daily exercise is not. (Read previous posts here, here, here, and here to learn more about the Exercise ON Challenge.)

What are some follow-up points for the Exercise ON Challenge?

Capitalize on every exercise opportunity—even the brief ones!

I’m happy to say that my husband and I both exceeded the goal of 1,350 minutes of moderate aerobic-type exercise! Although I’m an on-the-go, can’t-sit-still girl, my husband is a just-let-me-read couch potato. From the beginning I knew I would get my exercise minutes, but I had my doubts about him. However, before work, he was out walking for 10–15 minutes. For a little break from work, he would walk around the parking lot for another 10–15 minutes. Before hitting the couch in the evening, he’d grab a quick walk around a few blocks. It all added up! And he surpassed his goal.

Bask in the multiple benefits of physical and mental exercise!

Deb Burma reports, “What a fun challenge for me, personally! I found increased energy and I received encouragement, realizing that with the accountability of others added to my own personal goal, I could give priority to wellness even during a busy season.”

Increased energy. Wellness. Isn’t that what we all want? Exercise provides so many health benefits, including improved cholesterol, lower blood pressure, controlled diabetes, reduced stress, better memory, and more. And especially in these winter months, exercise helps with seasonal affective disorder.

Keep track of your exercise minutes.

Research shows that an exercise diary increases your chances of long-term exercise success. Another participant replies, “I always track my steps on my Garmin, but don’t have the exact time for biking. I walked 185 miles and estimate I biked at least 400 minutes.” She certainly met the Exercise ON Challenge. In addition to a variety of mobile apps for keeping track of your exercise time, here is a resource with several different exercise logs to download for free. https://www.wheatridge.org/logs

Ask someone to be your accountability partner.

One woman responded, “I started off really well, then life got in the way. I find it hard to stay balanced when there are so many demands.” Thankfully she, too, learned from the Exercise ON Challenge, and now a friend is going to come alongside her to support her efforts. Invite a friend to be your accountability partner. Each week your accountability partner simply asks, “How many minutes did you exercise last week?” Knowing you will be answering that question encourages you to exercise. In addition, it will open doors to dialogue and brainstorm about how to overcome barriers to exercise.

These four points can also be applied to our “spiritual exercise” of reading the Bible. Capitalize on every Bible reading opportunity—even the brief ones. Each morning before our boys dash off to high school, we read a Bible verse and say a quick prayer with them. Sometimes I will also text them a Bible verse that applies to their day. In the evening, we plan a time for family devotions including a Bible verse, discussion, and time for everybody to pray. Bask in the multiple benefits of reading the Bible. Receive God’s peace, joy, strength, and so many other benefits. Jesus declares, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Keep track of your Bible reading. Keep a journal. An excellent resource is The Lutheran Study Bible: Journal Edition. Ask someone to be your accountability partner. Paul tells us, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Even at this busy time of year, grab your exercise minutes, both physical and spiritual, so you can enjoy abundant exercise benefits. Mary, the mother of Jesus, did not need to keep an exercise journal because physical exercise was so much a part of her everyday life functionally. (Did you know that historians think the distance from Mary’s home to Elizabeth’s home was 70–100 miles?) As she traveled that distance early in her pregnancy, she probably walked most of those miles! Since I don’t need to walk 100 miles this week, I will be writing down my exercise minutes to keep me on track! And with Mary, I will be basking in the joy of the birth of the Savior of the world.

Scripture: ESV®.