Inertia is a terrible thing. It is also a wonderful thing. A body in motion tends to remain in motion, but GETTING going can be really difficult! Here are some low-commitment, low-stress ways to break the cycle of sitting on your ass and wishing you were living more healthfully. :)
1. For a week, while at work, set an alarm to go off every hour. When it does, do 2-5 minutes of stress-relieving activity (roll your neck around, stand up and stretch, massage your hands, take some deep breaths). Spent on a regular basis, even this small amount of time will connect you more with your body and keep muscles and joints from locking up. You'll feel much more inclined to move after work if you've kept moving during the day!
2. Think about six things you want to do that are active...these can be first-time things or favorite things. Have you always wanted to canoe around Greenlake? Do you love hiking Mount Si? Write these ideas down, then figure out which of them you want to do this month, which one next month. Put them on a calendar and get excited about them. You'll find yourself behaving differently knowing that fun activities are waiting for you for the next half a year...
3. Each day for a week, take a look in your fridge/kitchen cabinets. Find something that you know isn't good for you and throw it away. Sometime that week (you don't have to do this once a day) buy something you know is better for you to replace it. One of my favorite rules of thumb for shopping in grocery stores (learned from my friend and nutritionist Aimee Gallo) is this: stick to the edges. In general, the perishable stuff is there (deli, dairy, breads, meat, produce) while the stuff with lots of preservatives (box cereals, canned vegetables, candy and chips) is up and down the aisles.
4. Get up five minutes earlier for a week. Spend those five minutes doing something nice for your body or mind. Meditate, do some Sun Salutations, roll on a foam roller, stand outside and take long slow breaths while you take in your environment. Five full minutes, at some point before you start your day.
5. Put a piece of workout equipment in the middle of your living room. This could be a yoga mat, a couple dumbbells, a treadmill, a medicine ball. Seriously, put it smack in the middle of the space so that you almost trip over it (but don't do that). If you have to walk by it all the time, or look past it in order to watch TV, you will use it. You might even pull out some other stuff and use that too, or inspire someone else in your family to use it. If it starts to become part of the background clutter, switch it out for something else!
Try one or more of these and see if you feel the wheels being greased at all...and let me know what your experience is! :)
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