Activate Your Environment

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In the meeting this week we focused more on just getting started. We discussed things that we could do to our own environments right now that would help encourage us to move more.

So let's talk about your environments.
• What small changes could you make inside your home that would encourage more activity?
• car?
• workplace?
• garage?
• yard?

Let’s bust those excuses. Maybe we need to put our tennis shoes and a pair of workout clothes in our car, in a locker at work, or even in the middle of the floor in the living room.

Maybe we could actually pump up the air in our bicycle, dust it off and set it out more in the open in the garage.

Do you need to uncover your treadmill or workout equipment? Is it covered in clothes and dust?

What about those commercials, could you squeeze in time there to just get up and walk around versus fast forwarding through them.

Do you need to hide the remote, so you are forced to get up off of the couch? Park further away, take the stairs instead of the elevator. Every hour take a 5 minute break to walk around.

You have to start somewhere. Simply strive today to move more than you did yesterday. Each day become more aware of how often you are sitting still, and make an effort to decrease that amount of time tomorrow.

"Working out can be a pain, but the truth is sometimes you have to do stuff you don't want to do to get where you want to be. The key: just getting started."

- Marlen Esparza, Olympic boxer

This article from the Weight Watchers website does a great job of summarizing what we talked about in the meeting room on Saturday, July 21, 2012.

Move More — For Good
Ways to make activity a lifelong habit and setting up your environment to activate your activity level.

You've heard it a million times: Consistent, moderate exercise is a key component not just of weight loss, but of good health in general. It can help reduce your risk of developing cancer, heart disease and diabetes. And there are plenty of feel-good benefits too. It helps to relieve stress, boost your energy, and improve your sleep.

But you already know all this, so why is it still so hard to get out there and get going?

Motivated to move
"No time" is a popular excuse, but what it's really about is a lack of motivation. You've probably heard your Leader or other meetings members talking about a powerful solution to this problem called Motivating Strategy from Weight Watchers Tools For Living.

Motivating Strategy helps you use your imagination to determine the goals you really want to achieve and then take steps toward them — whether those steps are tracking PointsPlus® values, eating more fruits and vegetables, or exercising.

It works because it connects you with an action's positive results. For example, use a Motivating Strategy to find the motivation to be more physically active, and you'll envision what it feels like to be a physically active person — what you look like, the things you get to do and wear, the way you spend your time and relate to others.

Once you're motivated to be more active, it's time to take those crucial first steps. Here are some tips for getting started:

1. Choose activities that you actually enjoy. You're not likely to keep up any exercise you dread doing.

2. Start small and work your way up by increasing your intensity or the amount of time you spend doing the activity.

3. Think about the season. Now that summer is here, how can you take advantage of the nice weather?

4. Buddy up. Do you have any friends or family members who are also trying to get fit? Can you do an activity together?

What do you need to have in place to get started today??

" Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better."

- John Updike