Life’s comforts and technology have made most of us lead a sedentary lifestyle which is one of the prime reasons for the alarming rate of obesity in Urban cities .Changing a habit which has made you comfortable is not a day’s job but with small changes and focus, one can move away from leading a sedentary lifestyle irrespective of the kind of work you do or planning to do. I am aware of the havoc that a sedentary lifestyle can play with one’s health. It can affect our mindset too which is the worst thing that can happen to a person.
By moving away from a sedentary lifestyle the advantages are many but to put this in words you will obviously become healthier, develop an empowering habit, help you manage your thought process better, increase your appetite, reduce your stress level and probably bring out the warrior spirit in you. Now everyone has a fighter in us. I believe that by doing regular exercise one can develop it, nurture it and make use of it to overcome life challenges. Well if you are ready for it lets jump into how you can go about doing this
Begin small: Many people make the mistake of starting too hard. They get burnt out or injured within a couple of weeks. This change is designed to get you running for life. If you have lots of enthusiasm when you start, that’s great — but you MUST rein it in and start small. That enthusiasm that you have to hold back will keep you going for much longer if you don’t spend it all in the first week.
Increase gradually: One mandatory rule is to begin gradually and increase the pace as the days/weeks goes by. I have gone through the rut and know where the nasty corners are to be avoided. It takes awhile for your muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints to adjust to the stress of being active and if you progress too rapidly you’ll get injured. Increase but very gradually.
Enjoy yourself: If you don’t enjoy yourself, you’ll never stick with it. Try to have as much fun as possible. Enjoy getting fit and healthy! Enjoy burning off your fat! Enjoy the sweat! Enjoy the relaxation of burning off stress! Being active should be fun not torture. Yesterday I bumped into my school friend and his wife. I stood and spoke to them all the while in spite of both of them reminding me to sit and talk couple of times during our conversation .The idea here is that standing does burns more calories and works the muscles more than sitting.
Some of the things which you can incorporate in your daily life irrespective of the nature of job you do have are –
Start walking: For beginners I recommend a walk for 15-20 minutes even couple of times a day. This could be done preferably first thing in the morning to make it a daily habit. By walking in small bursts of 15-20 minutes at different times in a day is a smarter strategy to burn more calories as each one of us burn more calories at different times of the day. We cannot assume any one time is right for us. In a 24 hr day if one should manage 2-3 fifteen minute slots for walking since it is the least one can do for himself/herself. Be creative and figure out ways to clock this time spent walking.
Work standing: I know this sounds stupid. It did initially for me but when I realized that I work for 8-9 hours every day and mostly in front of the system or on the phone it was way too much of sitting around which does more harm than good. So I devised a way to stand and work for about 40 -50% of my time. Whenever I am on the phone I stand and talk. I also work on my laptop standing now for couple of hours. In fact right now I am standing as i type these words. The idea is that standing burns more calories and makes you work more. Be creative and figure out ways to stand and work in your own work environment. Remember if you really want it you will eventually figure out a way.
Lengthen the walking steps: Eventually once you become more active then you will begin to love this so much especially with the results you are seeing that you will want to up the antennae. Then it is the time to pick up a pedometer and see if you can make it to the recommended 10000 steps. yes the figure is right. Now do not be defeated with the numbers. I have many clients who were not even doing 1000 steps a day and are proudly taking 10000 steps now. To put a figure it is about 8 Km in a day and if one walks in a good pace one should be able to do in about 75-90 minutes .In 15 hours of awake time you can fit this in eventually if you do bring out the warrior spirit in you which is the icing on the cake.
Remember as we move more and more towards being technology dependent we are worsening the situation and the only way to move away from a sedentary lifestyle is to be more creative and persistent. I hope I did manage to work on some of your brain cells which is the purpose of this blog. As usual do reach out to me on my Facebook Fan Page or mail id coach@satishrao.in in case you have any additional inputs or even do not agree with my thoughts then you do know how to reach out to me.