laparshall

Do you like walking in the parking lot at work during your lunch hour? The thing I have learned about activity is that I have to do something that I like, something I find fun. Bowling is a fun activity, swimming, riding your bicycle, playing with your child or grandchildren; walking up and down stairs, walking the dog, throwing Frisbee with someone or with your pet. The trick is, it has to be fun or else you won't continue to do it. Once I figured that out, I started to look at activity in a whole new way. I love to walk with my dogs, but they are both white and we don't have sidewalks where I live, they get filthy when I walk them in the road. So I am saving that for the summer when it dries up around here, Michigan winters are cold, so bikes have to wait too. I have found Wii Fit Plus, that is so much fun, you can usually find an open swim at the local high school or YMCA, go bowling, golfing. There are so many ways to treat yourself and get in exercise at the same time. We just don't think of those things as exercise but any movement at all is good. Walking in place while you are brushing your teeth or doing dishes. Making several trips to put one load of laundry away. Change up what you do, and be creative in finding new ways to get in movement every single day. Think of it as a game and I'm telling you, you won't detest it after 6 days of doing it. Any movement at all counts. Even if it is only for 5 mins or 10 mins. That is more movement that what I was doing when I started. If you do something for 10 mins. 3 times in a day, that is 30 minutes of working out. It counts. It is burning calories. And when I began to accomplish 5 minute workouts in my chair at work, I felt really good about myself. My self-esteem started to build. Start out slow and don’t do too much. You don't need to feel pain, in fact, you shouldn't. Just get off the couch and start moving. And most important, do what you CAN, and don't worry about what you can't. No one cares about what you can't do. They care about what you can. Your brain hears that negative talk too. So say positive things to yourself about activity. I promise it gets so much easier. And then you start seeing your body getting toned, your clothes starting to fit better and before you know it they are falling off you. Losing those inches is a beautiful feeling. That is some great motivation. Be kind to yourself too, give yourself some positive reinforcement. Go Me!!! I did it! I started! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. I'm looking slim today. It's ok to be nice to yourself and to say nice things to the person looking back in the mirror. Go ahead and try looking in the mirror and telling the person you see, how proud you are of all of the efforts you have made, and how worth it you are to spend a little time each day taking care of yourself. Just thinking about eating right and exercising is a positive thing. Pat yourself on the back.


I hope no one minds this long "lecture", it is just that when I got the vision of walking around a parking lot on my lunch hour, I cringed, our parking lot it very ugly. To me lunch hours are for eating lunch, and for taking time for yourself to relax and regroup so that you can make it through the rest of the afternoon and be productive on your job. A little walk is fine if it is to clear your head and pamper yourself. So if you are going to love taking that walk around the parking lot, then go for it. But keep looking for other things to do so when you get bored doing that you can switch it up. Linda