Monday – Exercise and Movement. What’s the difference?

Healthy nutrition

Today might be a  “fat flush day” for you (low carbohydrate day)

If you had a higher carb / higher calorie intake over your weekend, then this lower carb / lower calorie day is simply to balance out your week. ** Remember we talked about it in the “planning your week video”

Please include one handful of a protein rich food and as much salad and vegetables as you like at each meal today.

Fat Flush suggestion for today – Vegetable frittata

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Happy Exercise

Why not try something different this week?  Try out a new class in your local area. Let us know how you go by posting over on the closed Facebook page.

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HOT tip

No motivation to exercise? Yeah, me too sometimes. I have recorded the exact script that I tell myself to get myself to exercise when I have zero motivation to do so.

How I get myself to exercise audio.

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Hot lesson

I am sure there are many definitions for exercise and movement. However, for the purposes of this program, I want you to use the following explanation.

  • Movement is within your comfort zone. ie – you can hold a conversation or sing a song. You are probably using your muscles, but you are not overloading them.
  • Exercise is outside of your comfort zone. You can say a sentence or so, before you need to catch your breath a little. You may also be overloading your muscles.

The below video demonstrates this..

 I believe that movement is more important than exercise in regards to fat loss.

After all, there are 168 hours in a week. I can assume we are awake for more than 100 of those hours. We have MUCH more opportunity to move than the few hours per week we spend exercising.

Think of it like this…

  • Sitting / lying burns approximately 1 calorie per minute
  • Moving burns approximately 4-5 calories per minute
  • Exercise burns up to 11 calories per minute

** 65kg woman used as example and approximate numbers only.

You can see exercise burns more calories PER HOUR than sitting or moving, however  we have such limited opportunity to do it. Maybe 3 – 7 hours out of our 100 or so waking hours per week.

We have so much more opportunity to MOVE.

30 – 60 minutes of exercise a day does NOT give you a leave pass to sit on your butt for the rest of it.

Our bodies are amazing machines. They are designed to move, bend, stretch, jump, run, pick things up, push things, pull things………. You get the picture.

Wear your pedometer – at least 10,000 steps per day for good health.

From this lesson onwards, I want you to look for new and creative ways to move more.  

Here are some suggestions to get you started.

  • Walk to the shops or work where ever possible
  • Park further away from your destination and walk the rest of the way
  • Take the stairs instead of the lift
  • Put some oomph into your housework – instead of looking at it like a daily chore, you can think to yourself “Great, I get to move for an hour and get me closer to my goal”
  • Get outside in the sunlight when possible – low vitamin D levels are a real problem for many at the moment.
  • Play with your kids
  • Meet up with friends for a walk and chat instead of coffee and cake
  • Set reminders on your phone or computer to get up and move / stretch every hour or so
  • Get up and move around while you are on the phone
  • Stand instead of sit, where possible
  • Dance around the house to your favourite songs (the kids and neighbours might think your nuts, but you will give them a good laugh anyway)
  • Hide your remote control and actually get up to change the channel. (Now your kids will REALLY think you’ve gone mad)
  • Do some gardening
  • Clean out a cupboard

Last note.

Just as exercise doesn’t give you a licence to sit for the rest of the day, the opposite is also true. Moving a lot throughout your day (inside comfort zone), is NOT the same thing as exercise.

We need some of both for health, fitness and wellbeing.