1
00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:06,680
Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

2
00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:14,680
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

3
00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:20,840
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to exercise with a purpose. Lots of

4
00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:23,720
Speaker 1: people want to exercise more in the new year, but

5
00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:27,639
Speaker 1: when exercise makes sense in your life, you'll be far

6
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:32,280
Speaker 1: more likely to stick with it. Like many people, I've

7
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,680
Speaker 1: laughed at the widely circulated photo of escalators leading into

8
00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,159
Speaker 1: a gym. Now, I know this is partly about accessibility,

9
00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:42,559
Speaker 1: which I am a really big fan of, but I

10
00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:45,920
Speaker 1: also imagine that there are people who take those escalators

11
00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:48,599
Speaker 1: just to log forty minutes on the stair climbing machines.

12
00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:53,720
Speaker 1: Exercise can seem so removed from normal life, and so

13
00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,640
Speaker 1: when we get busy, it's an easy thing to cut.

14
00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,320
Speaker 1: Contrast the us with our ancestors who didn't have the

15
00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:05,399
Speaker 1: option to cut exercise out of their lives. They had

16
00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:09,000
Speaker 1: to walk places and cut wood and plant crops and

17
00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:13,760
Speaker 1: ring clothes without the benefit of modern labor saving machinery.

18
00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:18,440
Speaker 1: People these days whose jobs involve physical labor likewise don't

19
00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:22,760
Speaker 1: need to make time to hit the gym to stay fit. Now,

20
00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:24,960
Speaker 1: most of us aren't going to turn our jobs into

21
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,240
Speaker 1: the physical equivalent of being lumberjacks. But we might find

22
00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:33,640
Speaker 1: ways to exercise more purposefully and thus increase the chances

23
00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:37,120
Speaker 1: that we stick with it. Not because we have found

24
00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:43,080
Speaker 1: new fonts of willpower, but because it makes sense. For instance,

25
00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:46,759
Speaker 1: you know who walks briskly for thirty minutes each day,

26
00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,120
Speaker 1: People who live fifteen minutes from the station where they

27
00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,800
Speaker 1: get on the train to work. You leave the house

28
00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:56,000
Speaker 1: just a minute later than you planned, and suddenly you're hustling.

29
00:01:57,080 --> 00:01:59,480
Speaker 1: This is also why people with dogs walk more per

30
00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:03,080
Speaker 1: day than other people. The dog needs to be walked,

31
00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,720
Speaker 1: and so you do too. Now you may not want

32
00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:08,880
Speaker 1: to adopt a dog, and you may not have a

33
00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:12,440
Speaker 1: walk friendly commute, but you can still build in possibilities.

34
00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,720
Speaker 1: For instance, you might be able to literally run an

35
00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,200
Speaker 1: errand or at least walk an errand. For instance, if

36
00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:23,720
Speaker 1: I need a break and I need to mail a package,

37
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,800
Speaker 1: I'll walk to the post office. I'll also walk to

38
00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:30,560
Speaker 1: return books to our local library. My husband and I

39
00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:32,919
Speaker 1: bought a new house in our neighborhood recently, and it's

40
00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:35,720
Speaker 1: being renovated, so we are not living there yet. I

41
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:37,720
Speaker 1: will run the two miles there to check on the

42
00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:41,720
Speaker 1: property and then run two miles home. This feels a

43
00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:45,440
Speaker 1: lot more purposeful than just running four miles on the treadmill.

44
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:48,400
Speaker 1: I'm not doing as much strength training as I'd like

45
00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:51,320
Speaker 1: to lately, but I decided to cut myself some slack

46
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:54,120
Speaker 1: when I realized I'm doing a purposeful version of that

47
00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,360
Speaker 1: carrying around a twenty four pound toddler. If you have

48
00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:00,840
Speaker 1: young children, you might also figure you're out games you

49
00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:05,080
Speaker 1: can play that involve moving them and voila big biceps.

50
00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:09,240
Speaker 1: A lot of outdoor yard projects can be recast as

51
00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:16,120
Speaker 1: strength training. Gardening, shoveling, leaf breaking, stacking wood. Spending fifteen

52
00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:18,720
Speaker 1: minutes a day on those things can be a good

53
00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:21,280
Speaker 1: substitute for the gym workout and maybe even save you

54
00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:24,680
Speaker 1: some money if you otherwise would be outsourcing them. And

55
00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:27,320
Speaker 1: since they need to be done, they make more sense.

56
00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,560
Speaker 1: My family has been trying to do family walks on weekends,

57
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,320
Speaker 1: especially as the kids sports have taken a pause due

58
00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,600
Speaker 1: to COVID concerns. But we've noticed that walking briskly around

59
00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:41,240
Speaker 1: a zoo is much the same as walking on a trail,

60
00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:45,080
Speaker 1: only the kids are less aware of the exercise because

61
00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:49,080
Speaker 1: they're seeing tigers in the process. Something to keep in

62
00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:53,640
Speaker 1: mind for family harmony. In any case, if you'd like

63
00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:56,760
Speaker 1: to exercise more in the new year, see if there

64
00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:59,160
Speaker 1: are places in your life where you might be able

65
00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:03,280
Speaker 1: to exercise with a purpose. Instead of driving to a

66
00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:05,920
Speaker 1: coffee shop, you find one closer to home where you

67
00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:09,000
Speaker 1: can walk or bike. Instead of running in a loop,

68
00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,120
Speaker 1: you run to a destination for something you need to do.

69
00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:15,720
Speaker 1: And if you have a situation where your life requires

70
00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,160
Speaker 1: extra exercise, well you might do all kinds of great

71
00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:23,200
Speaker 1: things without even trying. I once met a woman who

72
00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:25,920
Speaker 1: had started working with a new team at her very

73
00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:30,279
Speaker 1: large company. Suddenly, most of her meetings were a ten

74
00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,159
Speaker 1: minute brisk walk across campus from her desk. She began

75
00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:39,599
Speaker 1: logging thousands of steps during her work days, and intriguingly,

76
00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:44,680
Speaker 1: some chronic pain she'd been suffering from disappeared. She had

77
00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,159
Speaker 1: known that exercising more regularly would help, but it never

78
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:52,800
Speaker 1: fit into her life until it had to. Maybe you

79
00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:58,159
Speaker 1: can do the same thing in the meantime. This is Laura.

80
00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:02,599
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

81
00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:12,159
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

82
00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:15,039
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything. Else,

83
00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:19,360
Speaker 1: just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

84
00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:24,279
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the number four, then

85
00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:27,720
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an

86
00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,560
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot

87
00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:34,520
Speaker 1: com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

88
00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:37,200
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

89
00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:46,120
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For

90
00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,279
Speaker 1: more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart

91
00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:52,720
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

92
00:05:52,720 --> 00:06:01,839
Speaker 1: favorite shows.