October’s here and that means winter is right around the corner so go for a walk this weekend while it’s still nice out! Plus, when you add a walk in the park (or in your neighborhood) to the Minute Movement program you’ll see results even faster.
I’m so happy that you’ve decided to see how one minute can change your life with the Minute Movement program! Minute Movement was designed to be very simple so that you can spend your time getting fit instead of planning and researching.
Step one: Set alarms or timers to remind you to complete your exercises.
We recommend setting your timer for every hour after you arrive at work (Monday through Friday). So for people who work a typical eight to five job, you’ll set your timer for 9, 10, 11, noon, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 – once you do your five o’clock movement, you’ll pack up and go home. If you have a different schedule just make the necessary adjustments. One of our awesome Minute Movers mentioned to me that she always has something going on at the top of the hour, so she sets her timer to 15 minutes past each hour instead and that helps her stay stress-free (keep an eye out for other timer suggestions coming soon).
Step two: Take a look at the exercises for today.
Each day we’ll send an email with three exercises for that day’s body part. The Peaceful exercise will be more of a stretching style and is perfect if you’re a little sore or not feeling very strong that day. Focused exercises are isometric, which means that you push against your own body weight or a sturdy object with no joint movement. And Energized movements are a little more challenging. Of course with any of the exercises, you should only do what feels right for you, push yourself but don’t hurt yourself.
Step Three: Jump right in!
We’ve done all of the planning for you. So, each time your timer sounds, all you have to do is be willing to give yourself the gift of one minute. – You deserve it. *If you are ever in the middle of something and just can’t be interrupted, simply snooze your alarm and save that exercise for the next time it sounds.Don’t dismiss that alarm though – we’ve found that you’re more likely to skip the movement altogether if you do that. That’s why we say ‘Snooze Until You Do’.
One last thing. We also recommend that you do a self test when you begin the Minute Movement program (and every month or so as you continue with the program) in order to evaluate your progress. Members can find downloadable worksheets as well as assessments that are then compiled to track your progress on the Member page.
As I sat down to write today, this quote kept coming to mind. Whenever my mind keeps returning to something I always assume it’s important so I followed my intuition. Of course, I assumed I’d reflect about how much longer we live in the modern age than our ancestors did, but I thought that I’d better do a little digging to see if that was actually true.
I found these posts (here & here) that suggest that we don’t actually live longer than the ancient ones or even our great grandparents – ‘scientists have compared the life span[sic] of adults in contemporary hunter-gatherer tribes (excluding the infant mortality rate). It was found that once infant mortality rates were removed, life span[sic] was calculated to between 70 and 80 years, the same rate as that found in contemporary industrialised societies. The difference is that, in the latter, most individuals survive childhood.’
Of course, popular belief still holds that we DO in fact live longer (and you can easily find many sources to support that).
But then I thought – does it really matter if we live longer or not? Each one of us will live for exactly as long as we live and we don’t really have any control over the number of our days. What we can control is whether we take care of our bodies well enough that they are still working properly as we near our end. Every single one of us already knows that we should get plenty of sleep, move our bodies, learn to manage stress, and eat well – and we probably all have a pretty good idea what it means to do each of those things. The question is – are you taking care of your body? Or will you feel like ole Eubie (above) as you near your hundredth birthday? Don’t wait until it’s too late – start taking care of yourself today.
How many people do you know who are alive – technically?
People who are still with us physically but are limited in what they can participate in due to health issues or physical impairment.
Unfortunately I know a few people like that – enough to know that I don’t want to live my life like that. I don’t want to live my life waiting for it to be over. I want to live my life. I want to see everything, DO everything. I don’t want to miss a minute with my loved ones – especially not because I didn’t take care of myself like I should.
I have great intentions for taking care of myself. I love to exercise, heck I even love to run for the block and a half that I can run before I’ve lost my breath (I can never figure out the breathing) and I enjoy many physical activities with my little family. But realistically, I’m in the same boat as a large percentage of Americans. I have a family, I volunteer my time in several capacities, I work too many hours and all too often I really am deciding between doing one more thing or getting a decent night’s sleep. It is far too easy to push taking care of myself to the back burner regardless of how much I desire something else.
That’s why I love Minute Movement. Aaron developed Minute Movement because he just wasn’t able to fit in time for exercise and he wondered what would happen if he started exercising while he was at work. What happened is that I noticed a difference in the way his body looked one morning a few weeks later and asked him what he was doing.
Now, even with all that we have on our plates, we stop every hour for one minute to give ourselves the gift of health. We fully intend to experience our lives in the state of being well – won’t you join us?
I turned 40 over the weekend. (Don’t worry, this story turns out okay.)
I’ve really been struggling with the pending rollover of a decade for the past year or so. I was consumed with all of the things that I thought I’d have accomplished by this point in my life (like becoming perfect) that I hadn’t accomplished, not really being in the ‘place’ that I pictured for myself, getting O.L.D.(er). Top those normal passage of years issues with the fact that this year my kids turned 16 and 13 – more big milestones – and when I look at them all I can see is my time with them slipping racing away and I just felt so sad.
Then I ran across this beautifully written post by Lindsey Mead that practically describes my very own life – and was exactly what I needed to start changing my mind.
I don’t have to be all dramatic about the passage of time – it’s going to pass anyway. Instead I can be grateful. I can be grateful for the wonderful people in my life, my material blessings, and my health (even if it’s not perfect – it’s more perfect than what other people are experiencing). I can be grateful for the time I have been given to live and to love and I can be grateful that I am still alive to turn 40.
This different mindset didn’t automatically make me happy to usher in a new decade but it has led me to some introspection (as much as I can indulge in while also starting a company, raising two teenagers, and living my otherwise busy life). Now that the ‘big day’ has passed I finally feel like I can relax again and I am beginning to look forward to this next stage of my life with anticipation and excitement .
Oh, and my awesome little family made my day so special. My daughter created something she called a ‘joystick’ that has ‘most’ of the great things about me (she ran out of room) and they organized a wonderful surprise party for me complete with a visit from my sister and niece – all the way from Georgia!
JOY!