Add more activity to your day
Specifically, NEAT movement, which stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which includes all the activity you do throughout the day that isn’t structured exercise, sports, sleeping or eating. For example, the day-to-day activities you may not even think about, such as walking, cleaning, going up the stairs not the lift and even fidgeting.
While these activities might seem insignificant when thinking about calories in and calories out, NEAT can account for 6-10% of total daily calories burned in sedentary people and up to 50% of daily calories burned in active people.
Forget how you look for a second. Is your weight-loss goal motivated by long term health? And I really hope your answer is yes after the past 5 weeks.
Maybe you want to take care of your body, keep up with your children or improve your mood? Exercise is key for so many health reasons regardless of weight or how you look. You’ll sleep better, feel better, manage stress better and reduce your risk of chronic diseases and long term health issues.
My personal motivation to move more is to push against the ageing process, hence why I’m so big on muscle building, mobility and managing stress (though, being strong enough to lift heavy things without needing help from my husband is also very motivating!)
It hasn’t always been this reason, for a long time it was so I could run around with my children, keep them active and be a good role model for them. I set myself a non negotiable reason why I make no excuses to exercise. What’s your non negotiable reason to keep moving? Don’t have one? Ask me to help you set yours.
I find that when people only exercise to lose weight they’re not likely to enjoy it or stick with it. If it doesn’t lead to quick weight loss (and we’ve already learned it probably won’t), it’s easy to give up right away.
Exercising to lose weight also makes it seem like a punishment, rather than treating it as something positive.
Exercise to build muscle, which requires more calories and will increase your metabolism plus make you look good!
Sometimes you’ll move more and sometimes less, that’s ok. Walk. Park further away. Take the stairs. Don’t get discouraged too quickly if you don’t see or feel results right away. And while it may not be the key to losing weight, there are so many benefits to movement that are either hard to measure or don’t come quickly.
Just be consistent with your movement.