Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live. – Jim Rohn
After years of maintaining a rigid, intense physical activity routine in my career as a professional ballerina–hello, 700 ab exercises + 8-10 hours of dancing daily–I know a thing or two about body movement. Granted, while I was dancing, I tended to get a little extreme with how hard I pushed myself, but my career was my passion, my driving force in life.
Now, as a Board Certified Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach, I often hear my clients say that incorporating exercise into their daily schedules is one of the most difficult areas on their wellness journey. Not only does it seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all they desire, but many of my clients note that, truth be told, they don’t always enjoy exercise very much because it feels like just another thing ‘to-do’.
As human beings, our bodies are designed to move, yet we don’t have activity built into our days the way we used to. We no longer have to hunt and gather for our food and we have amazing technology to make our lives easier. But a lack of movement is scientifically linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety and lower self-confidence, not to mention weight gain and disease. Rationally, it makes perfect sense for us to move each day, but somehow that’s not enough. Some of us still have trouble making it happen with all we are responsible for in a given day.
Daily movement is important not just so you look great in your skinny jeans–although that’s great– but to help you show up more fully in your life.
If you’re finding it difficult to prioritize daily movement, a simple task to try is to not worry about how you can squeeze movement into your day (i.e. as just another item to check off your to-do list), but how to make the movement you choose, the most enjoyable experience you possibly can, so you look forward to it and are more likely to make it happen consistently.
5 Tips to Help You Never Skip a Workout Again
1. An Awesome Playlist
Music helps to positively distract you from your efforts (read: pain and exertion) while a good beat can help you to push harder based on the tempo you choose. Most importantly, movement helps to elevate your mood.
2. Nature
Connecting to fresh air and the world around us is so much more enjoyable than slogging away indoors. Oxygen works wonders for metabolism and time seems to go by much quicker when we aren’t staring at a timer on the treadmill!
3. Switching It Up
By choosing activities that require all of your senses, you help to keep yourself engaged in the process. Try to find different types of movement to do throughout the week to avoid boredom and moving on autopilot.
4. Make it FUN
Enough said. Make sure you actually enjoy it! This is supremely important. If your time is limited as it is, or you are resistant to moving regularly, you’ve got to find something that is pleasurable for you and suits your unique body. Period.
5. Reward Yourself Afterward
Give yourself something to look forward to by scheduling a fun, restorative or nourishing activity afterward. This allows you to celebrate your efforts and can help you stay consistent if built into part of your movement routine.
The more physically active we are, the sharper our minds, better our digestion, and more fluid our posture. These five tools are easy ways to stay inspired by your body, utilizing movement as the key. When used regularly, I’ve seen these steps transform people who “hate exercise” into body movement enthusiasts, practicing regularly.
What are your favorite ways to stay active?
I invite you to love the body you call home.
P.S. What works for one person, might not work for another. This applies to the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the music we love, the scents that appeal to us, the people we’re attracted to, and so on. Part of our journey in this lifetime is uncovering what actually works for us and no one else. If you’d like a few tools to help you figure out what type of movement works best for your unique body, click HERE for some easy ways to figure it out.