During the course of a day, you may or may not realize there are opportunities abound to grab a few reps of exercise to work your body. There are a variety of choices you can make to burn an extra calorie and activate your muscles for better long-term benefits. Of course it’s all about seizing the moment. I wouldn’t suggest to drop and do 10 push-ups in the middle of a meeting, or to jog around the parking lot in 95 degree weather in your suit (sweat, sticky clothes the rest of the day, and maybe even smell).

Here are some suggestions based on the various things I may do during the course of any given day to “add-on” to my regular healthy lifestyle routine. Some I may need to be in a more casual dress just in case I do sweat a bit. Any many of these I may repeat, and the number of reps isn’t fixed. These probably seem obvious to some, but it’s a matter of actually doing them instead of thinking about it. Just keep in mind that if you do exercise regularly, you don’t want to overwork a particular muscle group. For instance, if today was “ab day”, I may not do any extra ab work today or tomorrow (rest is vital for muscle recovery).

• Don’t look for that parking space close to the entrance at the mall/store – just park and walk.
• Drop and do those 10 push-ups in your office. Vary the type – narrow, wide, sphinx, etc.
• You can squeeze in a few ab routines during the day – crunches, plank for a minute, leg raises, oblique raises, etc.
• Do 30 squats and 30 lunges (each leg) – make it more interesting and grab something around you that weighs a few pounds (or is just plain heavy).
• Do a wall squat for 60 seconds.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator/escalator. If I’m going up several floors, I might jog up skipping a step.
  • Another stair routine – I’ll walk up stairs squatting down with each step to better engage the leg muscles.
• Take a 10 minute walk during a break or at lunch. Walk at a faster pace to increase your heart rate.
• I have a mini cycle under my desk – I may “bike” for 5 minutes while on the computer. I even saw a fitness band exerciser that attaches to an office chair.
• Press your hands together and apply pressure to engage the chest muscles – hold for 30 seconds. Vary the position – in front of you, over your head, etc.

You can find many other examples of things you can do during the day. Here’s an article in the Washington Post:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/health/workout-at-work/. The Mayo Clinic has suggestions: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/office-exercise/SM00115

The above does not replace or act as a regular exercise routine, it augments it. But it’s these little movements and “extras” you can incorporate into your daily routine to help stay fit, have some fun, all which continually make you think of being active.

I’m going to go against the grain a bit on “Motivation Monday”. Motivation Monday, a common motivational approach to getting people to get into a habit of working out, eating healthier, or in general to break bad trends. Like a New Years resolution, I feel with many people, Motivation Monday is almost like a fad start to something, which is why you hear about so many people falling off their resolution band wagons. If you focus on a start of a week approach, you’ve compartmentalized your focus to a week, and may find yourself fighting to stay on track for the rest of the week. It can become cyclical, every Monday picking yourself up for the previous week where you slid a bit.

Try looking at your overall health and nutritional goals as a life experience, not bound by a calendar, or a scale, or any other mental restriction. Being healthy is something you should strive for everyday, for life (thus the term Healthy Lifestyle). Dedicating yourself to anything, whether it be your health, or your work, or anything else, requires some tough mental work to be successful. The key is to continue to train yourself mentally with your approach, until that magical moment in time when whatever you are working at flips from being a chore to being a regular part of your daily routine. It took me over 5 years of continually working at this approach with regards to my health, but it’s been now 20 years where exercising (and more recently smart nutrition) has become something I barely have to think about anymore. It’s almost as if I’m on auto pilot, and that’s because I understood that the healthy lifestyle has no end point (well, until the ultimate end point of my life). I will sound repetitive, but my mantra is if you live the healthy lifestyle, your body will follow.

If you’re looking for motivation and inspiration to get yourself out of a rut, or to lose some weight, or just to generally feel better, try to look at the bigger picture. Sit back and take a more patient approach, and begin to piece together your healthy lifestyle one day at a time. Don’t be discouraged if a date on a calendar passes and you didn’t reach a weight you set for yourself (that’s just a number). The key is to be able to look in the rear view mirror and see that you continue to push yourself each day to exercise and eat healthy. There will be blips. Your chart of progress will probably look like the stock market (ups and downs), but over a length of time as long as the trend is up, that’s all that really matters.

I made a short video on the topic: