5 Easy Ways to Meet Your 150 Minutes

If you’ve been listening to our endless positive preaching you know by now that adults ages 18-65 should  be getting at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity per week to receive any of the great health benefits from exercise.

Two and a half hours can seem overwhelming when you feel like you can’t find the time, money or sheer willpower to do it.

So, here are 5 easy ways to sneak in your 150 minutes through the workweek, without even noticing it.  And don’t forget, even 10-minute increments count!

• 30 minute walks at lunch. Pretty self-explanatory, do this every day at lunch, Monday through Friday and you’ve done it!
• Hop off the bus/car/train early. I’m lucky enough that my commute to work is pretty short, about 5km. Typically I cycle to work and home, which takes care of my 30 minutes/day, five times a week. But as a fair-weather cyclist I prefer to take transit through the winter. If I’m feeling ambitious, I walk home which takes me about 45 minutes, or I get off a few transit stops early so I’m walking for at least 30 minutes. Done.
• Phone Chill. The term sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s a term I’ve coined for catching up with a friend over the phone when you’re too lazy to actually meet up. Phone chilling is working really well now that my best friend (who lives over a two-hour drive away) is getting married in the fall and I have newly acquired maid-of-honour duties. On Wednesdays I wake up at 6:45am, bundle up, plug in my headphones, call Sarah and go out for an hour-long walk. I feel safe talking on my phone when it’s still dark out, and we get an hour to catch up and the sun hasn’t even come up yet! Plus, I’m super energized for the rest of the day.
• Youtube it yourself! Try an at-home workout from Youtube. Set aside thirty minutes and feel the burn with a ballet barre workout, a bit of yoga for stretching and lengthening your muscles, or try a quick high intensity body-weight workout. There are plenty of choices!
• Schedule it in. If we don’t make time for it, it’s because exercise isn’t high enough on our laundry lists of priorities. If you schedule short exercise breaks into your day, it’s easy to treat like any other appointment.

Don’t forget that the secret to change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old habits, but on building the new. The small changes you make now will eventually add up to big impact. Hang in there!

Used with permission from Participaction