Thrive series: Moving is the new exercise

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You're listening to the healthy and thriving career moms podcast where every week you will learn about healthier habits and hacks to create and support a healthy and thriving lifestyle as a busy mom. I'm your host Wendy and I truly believe that the best gift you can give to your family and the world is a healthy thriving you.

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Let's dive in so hi lovely and welcome back to this episode of The Thrive series, which is all about ways that you can boost your energy with exercise. Now, I can actually already see the eye rolls through the mind when I mentioned the dreaded exercise word, because I can probably guess that you're already thinking come on Wednesday I spent time at work.

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I'm very kids, changing nappies, doing all sorts running my teenagers around whatever life stage you're at, where am I gonna fit in time to exercise? I know for me, that exercise is key for me to be that energized, healthy and happy moment that I aspire to be. But I also know it can seem so daunting, and some days it doesn't always happen. But I just wanted to offer a reframe on this topic today. When I use the word exercise.

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I want you to think of that more in terms of moving because I think I don't know about you when I think exercise I'm like, oh I need to be running and I need to be doing this and hit classes and all the things and all these mummies on Instagram and look at the flat tummies and they six packs and raw you know and that comparison kicks in. But honestly guys, it is truly just about moving our bodies more there, obviously as countless research and articles that express the importance and

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the health benefits of movement. And I don't want to sit here today and give you all of that because we know what we know. So what I want to do is help you as to how you can do it rather than an or if you identify why you might not be doing it, but I just wanted to say the only kind of facts and figures I want to offer today. Is the fact that as a society we have become so sanitary. When you think about our ancestors and roaming the plains and hunting for food and moving, moving, moving, moving, moving constantly, all day every day getting out of the way of other predators coming to them.

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The only time they would sit down would maybe be in their caves at nighttime. But you think about our lifestyle. Now we sit we absolutely we sit all day long. Well, some of us don't. If you're a busy mom, you're moving a lot more than you realize, which is why having a nice tracker on your wrist will show you just how much you move. But really if you think about the fact that the National Health Service here in the

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UK recommends that we need to be getting around 30 minutes of activity, movement, exercise, whatever you want to call it into our day every day is actually how we can do that. It's really not as much as you think. And there are some sort of easy workarounds that we can use to incorporate more movements. So I think again, it's that reframe of thinking, I've got to do like a 30 minute workout to well actually if

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I just move more in my day to day walk to fetch the kids, walk up those stairs, park my car further away at the supermarket so I have further to walk all those steps are going to add up. And that's why I love having a tracker because I think for me if I can just target myself to hit those 10,000 steps a day. I'm doing so much towards my health and well being but the biggest reason for keeping exercise in my daily routine as a busy mom is ultimately to reduce stress.

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Yes, I love the benefits of how you know makes me feel in love but ultimately, it improves my mood. It boosts my self confidence and it definitely increases my energy and my productivity. So what can you do this achievable in your life? Because if you're feeling overwhelmed or overly stressed, adding unrealistic target exercise goals is not going to assist you in any way. What I would suggest is chase the joy Pick something you enjoy and build it up slowly and incrementally.

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And that could look like you just may be committing to one Pilates class a week. I'm just picking that as an example. Something that you're gonna go and do it on the calendar. So you can organize that with whoever's going to be covering childcare or just to be able to have that time for you to work on your well being and your self care. So here are my three top tips to keep you moving and energized. And then I just want to suggest that you find the thing that works for you and start to

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benefit from that because as you know, I'm all about the small compound effect of the Healthy Habits not about trying to boil the ocean. Just pick those two to three things you can do right now that's going to start to have that benefit from that consistent use of those ideas and those little reframe that little one degree shift in your life. So number one is be accountable to get something that makes you accountable for movement.

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So I absolutely love my Fitbit. I now have migrated to an Apple watch that I absolutely loved the simplicity of the Fitbit, I have that to really just essentially track my state count. And what I love as well is the exercise app. So tracking different things. I was actually out the other night for a friend's 40th And I actually activated my app on the dance floor to the dance movement tracker because I was like, I actually want to see how much movement and how much I'm getting out of this dance session right now. And actually, I was blown away.

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I think I've burned something like 200 calories. Not that I'm about calorie counting. But I was shocked. I was like this is great. I basically just need to go out every night. I enjoyed it so much. So how can that translate in your life? Well, I love a kitchen Boogie with my family. We love having a dance off in the kitchen, because that's something we enjoy doing. But even just to have that tracker of making sure that I get my 10,000 steps a day. It's probably a lot easier than you think that you've

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actually got to have it there to track and I was actually chatting to a friend's husband the other day and he was saying about how he wanted to get fitter and healthier and he actually used to play a lot of rugby back in the day. It was really fit and healthy. But over the years I mean his job. He's got a very important high level corporate job and all he does all day long is sit on calls and meetings. I say to him honestly the best thing that you can do get yourself a Fitbit and start tracking your steps.

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And actually what I tend to do now is I do a lot of my calls with either my team or catching up with friends. I do walking dates, so either meeting someone in person or catching up with them while we go for a walk together because I think well it's a double whammy and feeding my soul. And I'm also feeding my body through that movement and not just sitting there on the phone talking to them. Because number two, setting is killing us. Our lives almost demanded of us sitting in front of our desk,

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ay long. I reckon in the next: 1020

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We're going to have standing meetings. I know some a lot of companies have adopted this already. I actually when I do have meetings or when I record my podcast, I will stand up or just because actually if you sit down you end up actually taking so much longer than you need to because standing you're burning calories, you're burning energy. It's so much better for you than just sitting sitting sitting to try standing when you take your calls. See if your work will assist you with a standing desk

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or set a timer for every 25 to 30 minutes to get up and move. Walk around your garden. Go and stand outside barefoot in the grass. You got all those lovely probiotics coming up through the soil through your feet into your body walk to get some water or a cup of coffee or your lunch or picking up your child or whatever it is just focused on moving so rather than to get up by exercise and you're putting all this pressure on yourself, think I just need to move. I just need to move.

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And number three find the exercise that you enjoy. I've already touched on this but as much as as busy mamas are so knackered that we can't even think about going for a walk let alone a run. We may have to force ourselves initially because our body will respond to the movement and the exercise by balancing our moods reducing our cortisol and helping us sleep. So it might be that in order to start a movement routine, it might not be something you feel like doing, going for that walk or going for that run or doing that dance class or that

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Pilates class or whatever it is or you know, nowadays you can just get so many free things online where you can download a class. It was brilliant. The other day actually, I was looking at Insta story and our friends two little girls were doing this ballet routine in front of the TV and I was like oh what's that? I need to get my little girl Jessie on that. And she just said Oh, you just type into YouTube like free introductory ballet class.

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And you know, she's like it's 15 minutes for me and the girls were doing their ballet but obviously you could do it along with your kids as well. So you're all getting some exercise. So I love so much about LockDown. With Joe wicks and how he did those daily exercise sessions for the family. Get your kids involved. And you know, my husband and I do a lot of home working out so I know it'll go off and we'll say, Oh, Mommy, I need to do my exercises and she'll go and get the weights and then I worry that she's gonna knock us off out with one of them.

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But, you know, then she'll start lifting the weights and doing things and I just think, gosh, she's learned that from me and she gets out my yoga mat and she pops out on the floor and she does your stretches and I just think oh my goodness, like, I'm so proud of the fact that she has had that exposure and examples. So just think there's little eyes always watching us. So do what you enjoy, guys if Pilates is your thing, great. If not, don't stress.

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I have recently taken up paddleboarding as I mentioned and I love it. I look forward to doing it which makes me want to stick with it. The other activities are things like hula hoop, go for a walk with your friends run around with your kids get a skipping rope Oh my goodness. Did you know that skipping uses of a whole body. You don't have to do it for much time and it burns a lot of energy is relatively low impact and it doesn't leave you

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what for the next day. So honestly give skipping rope is the cheapest piece of exercise equipment you will ever invest in dance even if you're jumping around and muddy puddles to Peppa Pig or embarrassing your teens trying out the latest tick tock routine like just get up and move. So some of the exercises that I personally really love are HIIT training. And I love these workouts because it's a combination of short bursts of intense exercise with periods of rest in between.

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So your heart rate goes up about 80% And then you rest and then hit training is especially useful when you have a busy schedule because it needs no equipment and can be done in sort of 15 to 30 minute slots. So you can again like go to a class or you can get one online like nowadays when I see gym classes are an hour long I just think oh my goodness who has the time seriously. And another thing I just wanted to

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recommend as is thinking about incorporating more weight training as a busy mom because there are so many benefits of weight training and no you won't build muscle that makes you look like a bodybuilder. But honestly building muscle though promotes fat loss. It builds and strengthens muscles which you're going to need to carry you into the later part of your life when you're going to need strength. As you get older. It also sort of builds bone density and can prevent bone loss.

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So especially if you've got a history like I do in my family of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, it is so important for that. Now, if you're starting from scratch, I really want to recommend that you seek professional guidance and help so speak to your doctor. Did you know that the NHS has free resources and advice for exercise, you can download the couch to 5k app which is a great fantastic tool which I know has helped so many of you to actually go from being very sedentary to actually

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running your first five kilometer which I think is amazing. The other thing that I use and advocate for and have done for the last two years is a personal trainer. Or you might think oh my goodness when Eli that seems very luxurious and very celebrity to have a PT but honestly my husband and I share the session and it has really kept us disciplined it has helped us build stamina. It has helped us build muscles having that exercise plan and someone to be accountable to you. So that's just something

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that's really worked well for us and you can go to any gym and you know there's lots of personal trainers who may be sort of doing the initial training. So they are looking to build up the hours they might not be as expensive as more established pts. But that's just another route that you could go down to really help you to incorporate and trust me when you're paying out that money. You move. You stay accountable. You keep your fitness up between sessions, it has been the absolute best investment.

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But with all these tips, I want you to remember my mantra above all else which is progress over perfection. So show up for yourself every day. Not every day is going to feel good but the consistency will reward you and also just to consider that if you are looking for results in your health, that it is that combination of your

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movement, your exercise, your nutrition, your sleep, all those things combined, that is going to ultimately and lead to more healthy lifestyle and just increased energy all around. So I hope that has inspired you today. And I look forward to talking to you on the next episode. Take care lovely

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Are you ready to start will reset your healthy habits but maybe you're short on time or you're just not sure where to start? You're exactly the person I've created by thrive and five mini course for reset your healthy habits and just five minutes a day so you can start to thrive in all aspects of your life and health. And the best part is it's totally free to get it go to Wendy Griffith dot code at UK forward slash Dr and five or go to the link in my show notes for more information.

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Thank you for tuning in today. I'm so grateful for you. If this episode has resonated make sure you visit Wendy Griffith dot code at UK to discover more of my content and my fantastic free resources to support you in private. Or if you'd like to continue the conversation further. Drop me a DM by Instagram at when you break up live healthy. I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, keep thriving.