Move More

Move your body more often each day,  in whatever way you enjoy

walking for weight loss small

 

** A clarification on movement vs exercise.

For the purposes of this program and to keep things super simple..

  • Movement = within comfort zone.  If you can have a conversation the whole time… its movement.   Example – easy – mediuwalking, cleaning, gardening, playing with the kids, just going about your daily activities
  • vs
  • Exercise = outside comfort zone. If you have to stop to catch your breath at times… its exercise.   Example – running, weights, gym session, fitness class, hills, physical labour, etc.
  • (The exercise habit will come later in the program)

Moving more each day = more calories burnt (OUT)

As previously discussed, we need to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. 7000 cal deficit = approx. 1kg of weight loss. The Move More habit is a way to increase the number of calories we burn each day.

Whilst its common for thoughts to immediately jump to exercising for weight loss, exercise takes up such a tiny portion of our 168 hour week. The move more habit is about maximising the 100+ waking hours per week by simply getting off your butt more often (not sitting).

Move more  Instructions

I would like you to increase your average steps by 2000 – 10000 per day.  If you don’t have a step tracker, then please make a conscious effort to move regularly throughout your day. This should be done in a way that feels easy and manageable for the long term. 

Example

I will add in a walk to the shops and back each day at 3.30pm.
When you think about it, you feel easy and confident.  (Habit mentality. Progress not perfection)

compared to 

I will add in a one hour power walk every day at 7pm after dinner.
When you think about it,  you feel tense and resistant. If you are honest with yourself, its probably not going to last long term.  (Diet / perfection mentality)

**This doesn’t mean that you cannot work your way up to a one hour walk, however, it may not be the right level to start at. 

Tips

You should make your extra daily movement AS ENJOYABLE AS POSSIBLE.  Please don’t consider this an optional extra, this is a MUST.  The more you enjoy and look forward to moving your body, the more likely it is to become a daily habit.

If you don’t already enjoy moving, you must link something enjoyable to it.

  • Put your headphones on and listen to your favourite music, podcast or audio book
  • Do something useful like cleaning out a room for an hour. It might not be super enjoyable in the moment, but I bet you get a burst of feel good hormones afterwards
  • Walk with a buddy or call a friend whilst walking
  • Walk somewhere with nice scenery and / or weather
  • If you have a treadmill near a screen, watch your favourite TV show
  • Say your affirmations and / or visualise your success whilst walking


Already move a lot each day?

Some of you will already have this habit covered. Particularly if you have an active job. If you currently move 20000 + steps, then I don’t want you to add more.  You might benefit more from the exercise habit (coming soon)

 


 

HELP !!  I sit in an office job all day. How can I move more?

I know it can be tough. Please look for any occasion to get up out of your seat, even standing sometimes instead of sitting will help.

  • Stand whilst on the phone
  • Have a walking meeting
  • Take the stairs
  • Park further away
  • Walk in your lunchbreak – enlist some active buddies
  • Volunteer to do errands


Moving regularly throughout the day helps us with managing our blood sugar levels

Excerpt from Dr Mosely’s book – Fast Exercise

” 70 participants were asked to sit for 9 hours straight
and drink a meal replacement drink every few hours
Soon after the drinks, they had their blood sugar and insulin levels measured.

Then they did it all over again, exactly the same except this time they were asked to walk around at a brisk pace for half an hour before they did their 9 hour sit.

They did it one more time, except on this occasion they had to get up and walk around for 1min 40seconds every 30 minutes.  (this totalled 30 minutes in total. The same time as experiment 2, only split up differently)

What they discovered.
When the volunteers got up and walked every half hour their bodies blood sugar levels went down 39% and insulin levels went down 26%.

That’s a HUGE improvement.

Managing your Blood Sugar Level (BSL) and insulin levels is so important for health and weight management.
All of our habit changes will address this.

**Read more about managing your blood sugar levels for health and weight loss HERE

** Important – don’t compensate for your increased movement

If you burn an extra 500 calories each day via moving more, then you compensate by either resting more or eating more than you normally would… All of your efforts will go to waste.

It takes hours of movement to burn off an extra 500 calories. It takes about 2 minutes to consume 500 extra calories.

Further recommended reading / viewing

#GetOffYourButt

#BodiesAreMeantToMove