“I know I should exercise… I just don’t have time.” How often do you hear this? Or say this?
Between work, family, appointments, and just trying to keep life moving, carving out an hour for movement can feel impossible. But here’s the truth: it was never about finding that perfect hour. It was always about making the commitment to at least a few quality minutes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov) reports, “Adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week.” That number sounds big, until you break it down. That’s just over 20 minutes a day, and even that doesn’t have to happen all at once. Movement in the NEK doesn’t always look like treadmills and weights, and we know this! It’s walking the dog before work, even when it’s still cold out. It’s stacking wood, raking leaves, and shoveling snow. It’s taking the long way instead of the shortcut because Vermonters always take the scenic route over the short-cut, right? This counts!
The World Health Organization (www.who.int) emphasizes that any physical activity is better than none, and more movement leads to greater health benefits. This matters more than we think, because movement isn’t just about your weight or appearance, it’s about function! People who can move, and choose to move more, are often better able to get up off the floor without help, keep their balance as they age, reduce their risk of heart disease and diabetes and manage stress. The Wellness Center, The Director, Mary Hoadley is often praising her participants that they aren’t just making a quality decision to show up, share their time and energy, but to “invest in their own independence,” which is entirely true of the movers.
The Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.org) notes that regular physical activity can improve mood, boost energy, and even help with sleep. Yet, something we don’t talk about enough is it helps you feel like yourself again! One of the number one reasons people often feel uncomfortable in their bodies is they aren’t feeling like they used to. For whatever reason, age, recovering from an injury, having a baby, starting a new job, there are so many reasons and circumstances that can change how we feel in our bodies. When we start to feel different in our bodies, this can feel extremely uncomfortable, we can lose our trust in our bodies, our confidence can fade, if we aren’t able to move in the same ways, etc., this can feel heavy. The good news is when you start to make a consistent effort to move your body that heaviness releases quickly. Often within 10-14 days you’re feeling more energetic, more confident, self-pride, better sleep, and instantly can feel your self-worth growing. You feel lighter when you feel like you!
The real barrier here isn’t time. It’s all-or-nothing thinking. We’ve convinced ourselves that if we can’t do a full workout, it’s not worth doing anything at all. That’s the lie. That lie has brought many of us to feeling uncomfortable in our own skin, missing out on activities and past-times because we don’t want people to judge our bodies (when really we are the only ones judging), wearing clothes that hide our bodies instead of what we “really want to wear,” feeling nervous about or even worse, skipping medical appointments for fear of our weight or what the bloodwork might say, and the list goes on and on. In addition, we’ve lied to ourselves so much that we don’t have time to move our bodies, but now we spend that time in waiting rooms, doctor’s appointments, pharmacies, and wondering, how did I get here? There is good news. It’s never too late and you do have time!
Get real: you never needed an hour! Most professional fitness classes aren’t even an hour anymore, partly to fit better into people’s busy lives and because we know that working smarter isn’t just working longer. Try this instead: “Movement Snacks.” These are just small bites of dedicated movement that you can build into your day in a realistic way: a 10-minute walk after dinner, Stretch while the coffee brews, Park farther away on purpose, Stand up and move every hour (set a timer). Pick three things you CAN do and let’s say they are 10 minutes each, that’s 30 minutes! If you can do this 5 days a week: perfect! Everyday? Now you’re exceeding the recommendation. See how easy it CAN be.
What will truly make this easier is having a partner! Ask if any coworkers want to join you in a class at The Wellness Center. Or, reach out to an old friends, as adults it’s harder to maintain friendships, moving together gives you a chance to reconnect, see if an old friend wants to join too! We believe in this so much, if you reach out to mhoadley@nchsi.org we will offer you are a friend a “buddy pass,” to The Wellness Center for the summer session (afternoon classes only…sorry the daytime is almost sold out) as a bo-go! You and a friend can sign up together and pay the price of one person!
This is what community looks like! Don’t we all want healthier communities? Here in Vermont, movement is part of our lifestyle, we just don’t always recognize it as healthy. The Vermont Department of Health (www.healthvermont.gov) continues to prioritize physical activity as a key factor in preventing chronic disease across our state. But prevention doesn’t happen in big, dramatic moments. It happens in small, consistent ones. For most of us that’s just being honest. We don’t need more time; we need a new way of seeing the time we already have. Because the lie, “I don’t’ have time,” is costing us our health.