Today’s weight loss guideline is a simple but effective one: take the stairs. Many of you would say that “working out” or exercise is difficult for you and come up with all kinds of excuses, some legitimate and some downright…uh, you know (trying to keep this family-friendly). The reason I know this is that I came up with them all myself at one time (well most of them, I realize there are a few gender-specific excuses that I couldn’t have used).
In time I would encourage you to make official exercise (or “working out” a priority. In my opinion, however, committing yourself to staying active is the beginning of a healthy lifestyle. Working out is great and I highly recommend it. The best way to work toward this is to make minor changes one step at a time (pun intended). The more active you become the more energy you will have and the more inclined you will be to build on it and stick to an official fitness program (like P90X or 10-Minute Trainer).
I am not going to go into the whole “microwave society” or how we want everything right now and look for the easy way out of everything. Inventions like elevators, escalators and drive-throughs, however, do encourage our sedentary (political correct term for lazy) lifestyle. They make it easy on us…too easy! I challenge you to rise up against these inventions of inactivity and get all Amish about it. Technology schmechmology!
Need to chop wood? Ditch the chainsaw (turn it off first) and grab an ax!
Out of butter? Then churn it!
Want to keep a journal? Grab a pen and…nevermind!
Ok, maybe that was going a bit overboard, but it’s about finding those small things that you can do to train your body to be more active. A few (realistic) examples might be:
- When parking, don’t look for the closest parking spot. Park farther away so you’ll have farther to walk.
- When eating out, don’t use the drive-through. Park and go inside. I’ve found that often times you’ll get your food faster than those who took the drive through anyway…but that’s not why we take the drive-through, is it?
- Walk the long way to get somewhere. I used to work in a hospital. If I went somewhere I actually mapped out the longest route possible to get there. Sometimes I went up two or three flights of stairs to go to the bathroom.
- Consider walking or riding a bicycle instead of driving.
- Here’s a completely hypocritical suggestion: Use a push-mower (or even a push reel mower). I really hate to mow and I just bought a riding mower…but hey, I already lost a lot of weight and stay very active in other ways, so I can be lazy on this one!,/li>
This week try to find at least 3 things (either from the list or make up your own) that you can do to train yourself to be more active and then do them. Please let me know in the comments section what you picked and keep me updated on how you’re doing.
Also if you at any time have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment or use the Contact Form to drop me a line.
Previous Weight Loss Guidelines
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