I stumbled across an article this morning with the intriguing title Does Calorie-burning Underwear Actually Work?. Who could possibly avoid reading an article with a title that amazing? Not me. No matter how busy I was – I had to drop everything to spend a few minutes reading it.
My favorite line in the article?
The first question is: Do they work? The answer is: Who cares? These things are stupid.
Hilarious! I still smile when re-reading it 🙂 Unfortunately, the author then went on to say :
You need to get out there and kick your own butt with exercise, day after day, if you want to lose weight and reap all of the amazing health, psychological and performance benefits that come with it.
Which basically sounds a lot like – if you’re not prepared to spend hours (lots of them!) every week engaged in vigorous physical activity, you might as well not bother. There’s no point. And that’s what I find kind of dangerous. Such an attitude is going to stop a lot of people from even getting started with getting in shape. “I don’t have the time to spend hours a week out running – maybe I’ll start next year, when things are less busy”.
But it’s not true. If you’re currently completely sedentary – the walk from your apartment to the elevator, and from your elevator to your car in the parking garage (and back) is pretty much the sum total of your exercise for the day – then spending just 15 minutes per day on some kind of physical activity will make a difference! Sort of like the latte-factor – instead of having a $4 latte each day, put that money into a savings account, and at the end of the year you’ll have over a thousand dollars – only for physical fitness.
To be sure, that extra 15 minutes of exercise per day is unlikely to result in speedy weight-loss, or a body-builder physique, but it’s a step in the right direction. Maybe at some point you’ll find you have time for 30 minutes of physical activity, instead of just fifteen.
So, give it some thought – what small change could you make in your daily routine to add fifteen minutes of exercise? Take the stairs at work (all 10 flights of them)? Go for a walk after supper (I listen to audio books during my walk – multi-tasking at its best)? Fit in a Tabata workout before your morning shower?
Go for it! Take that first step towards better health!
What could you do to add fifteen minutes of physical activity to your daily routine?
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