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Stepping Up!
As we see the first day of spring on the horizon, it’s interesting to find the month of Ramadan, this year, also starting in the same week, both representing new beginnings.
23rd March may be the anniversary of lockdown, so exorcising the nightmare thing forever, by marking it with the start of this year’s 28-day challenge, might be the wisest move we could make.
..…and talking of moves, walking is probably the most basic, fundamental thing that nearly everybody has the ability to do. It lowers your risk for major diseases and helps control weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. Walking even curbs the urge to over-indulge, with a simple 15-minute stroll reducing chocolate cravings. Plus, walking is gentle on the joints and there’s no learning involved to do it properly or safely.
Whether you’ve been able to take your regular walks during the winter months or not, the longer days now are bound to be more of an incentive to get out there…..and if not, we can still get those steps in while indoors, whether we’re at work or at home. A few simple tweaks and you can incorporate plenty into your daily life.
Squeeze in more steps every day, this way:
- Start talking and stop texting – instead of yelling down the stairs, go and find them. Face-to-face is so much better. Replace the e-mail or phone call at work and have a wander over to see them. Look for every opportunity to collect more steps.
- Get or borrow someone’s dog – dog owners are four times more likely to meet their recommended exercise requirements than those without dogs, taking almost 3,000 more steps a day! Volunteer at an animal shelter and help yourself while helping a little animal – they deserve a walk as much as we do.
- Create some competition – recruit family and friends or colleagues for a walking challenge. For at least eight to 12 weeks (or a mere 28 days!) set a goal and give some intermittent prizes. At the end of the challenge, whoever has the most steps wins a gift card for their favourite restaurant or a celebratory get-together in their honour: a great way to get something positive out of a competition and still be supportive.
- Have mobile meetings – have a headset on and keep moving. Walk indoors and outdoors during calls and see if you can host walking meetings with your colleagues. Disrupting sedentary behaviour is really beneficial and, as long as you notify people in advance, having a meeting in motion, with the appropriate dress code in place, will certainly add some much-needed oomph into an otherwise potentially boring sit-down affair.
- Design an indoor circuit – rack up steps without leaving your home or office by committing to climbing the stairs a certain number of times a day. This is an incredible way to develop endurance, power and strength – the main reason why housework is such good exercise. How about running on the spot (or on a treadmill)? Shadowboxing and dancing? All great fun and sure to get your heart rate up.
Ramadan Mubarak, dear friends – here’s to another 28-day challenge enabling you to think, create and inspire yourselves towards even more transformative habits for a lifetime.