Integrate

Today let’s talk exercise.

I’m not going to waste your time listing the benefits of exercise. Our one-minute blog can’t handle that long of a list. Just know it’s long.

Instead, I want challenge your thoughts on exercise.

I want you to imagine today's To Do list. Perhaps it looks something like this:

• Breakfast

• Gym

• Office Job

• Lunch

• Office Job

• Drive home

• Dinner

• TV

Pretty good day. Notice Gym (exercise) is a checkbox on the list. And this is how it is for most.

Here’s the problem.

When exercise is just a box on our list, we can very easily be active during our “exercise block” but sedentary the rest of the day.

This is especially true if you work sitting down.

If this is you, your exercise may not be doing as much as you think.

What if we thought about exercise differently?

What if exercise was something you integrated throughout the day. And what if we renamed it “MOVEMENT.” What if it became a part of our life.

It’s like faith. If I just have “Go to Church” on my to do list, but then don’t live my faith the rest of the week, what good is it?

The power of faith comes in its integration into our everyday lives.

Same goes for movement.

Logic tells us that integrating movement throughout our day is healthier than just exercising for an hour and forgetting about movement our other 15 waking hours.

In her book No Sweat Michelle Seager backs this up with research. Her research shows that we need to find “Opportunities to Move” throughout our day. Check out the book for more detail.

So how do we do this? Especially if we work in sedentary jobs?

Let me recommend one simple way. What if you set an alarm on your phone, or looped a timer that went off every 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, or every hour on the hour.

What if every time it went off, you got up, and did some quick movement. It could be as little as 30 seconds. Maybe you do some pushups, take a quick walk, or hammer out some burpies. Maybe you just stand and stretch.

The key is that the movement is done throughout the day.

Now on their own, these movements may not seem like a lot...but compounded upon each other, slow and steady...they add up.

So today, let’s integrate our movement throughout our days, weeks, months, years, and lives...one-minute at a time.