Hi everyone,
I just looked at the Health section in today's Washington Post and there's an article about a free website that 2 friends put together called www.squeezeitin.com.
One woman has a background as a certified fitness instructor and the other had TV production experience, so this makes for a great blending of talents for this site.
The website's goal is to show us how we can 'squeeze in' exercise in our already over-packed, busy lives. Many of their suggestions may be something you already do, some may just seem just plain silly, but you may find a few new ways to just kick things up a notch!
I've just started to look at it, so I don't have any strong opinion yet. Would love to hear what anyone else thinks and if it inspires them at all!
Enjoy an Abundantly Healthy and Happy Tuesday!
Love - Gerri
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Thanks for posting this link, Gerri! This is what I've already been doing for a couple of months now -- didn't know there was a movement afoot to support it. I've only just begun, but already I'm feeling a big difference.
ReplyDeleteI work from home and juggle many different tasks in a given day, including motherhood and myriad other things in addition to my work. As life has gotten busier these past few years, it's been less and less doable for me to spend 10 minutes getting ready to exercise, then 45 minutes to an hour exercising, and then another 15 minutes cleaning up and changing clothes to get back to work. My workouts fell by the wayside as a result -- and so did my health.
I'd found a million excuses not to exercise, and I noticed that most of them had to do with logistics and inconvenience. I decided to try relocating a few simple pieces of fitness equipment that I actually LIKE to use to the place where I spend most of my day -- my office. I figured if I could change the way I thought about exercise, I might open up some new, clear space within me:
-- I moved my favorite exercise band from its dusty shelf in the living room cabinet to a hook next to my office desk. Now I just swivel my office chair in that direction, pick it up, and do a few sets of arm, shoulder, and back exercises several times a day. Great for people like me who sit at a computer all day.
-- I moved my aerobic step platform into my office, from its lonely home in the closet. I’ve propped it against a wall, where it takes up very little space when not in use. When I'm ready to use it, all I have to do now is lower it onto the floor, turn on a 3-minute song, and step to the music several times a day. It makes a great transitional activity between tasks – shakes out the energy and helps me shift the mental gears as well.
-- I keep my mini-trampoline propped against a wall in the living room (no space for this in my office). As with the step platform, I can lower it onto the floor in seconds and bounce to a song or two on the radio. My favorite use for this technique is when I'm “revved up” or thrown off center in my attitude during the workday – I can pound out that energy on the trampoline and come back to the desk more centered and focused! Tremendously effective way to discharge any kind of energy I don’t want to hold in my body.
-- I bought a fitness ball and keep it nearby in a corner of my office. Sometimes I sit on it to work instead of using my office chair, and also, several times a day I get up and just wrap myself around it and stretch. Again, a great counterforce to the dread body scrunch that happens from sitting at a computer. I can do ab work on it, wrap around it frogwise to stretch, or lie face-up on it for a wonderful chest and shoulder stretch.
-- I also recently bought a Danskin Now “magic circle” (similar to the one Pilates makes) for upper body work -- my weakest area. I keep it tucked in the leg space under my desk where I can easily pull it out a couple of times a day and use it. I love this little piece of equipment – it was inexpensive, it’s lightweight yet effective, and some of the basic exercises you can do with it are printed right on the plastic of the circle – so you don’t even have to pull out the exercise chart or put in the DVD that comes with it.
I discovered that addressing my challenges squarely, changing my thinking process around them, and making some simple changes have made a huge difference.
I have a ways to go before I'm where I'd like to be with my fitness, and now I know there are ways I can get there!