Let’s Move: Build Exercise Into Your Day

Enjoy a bike ride while getting errands done!

Exercise Doesn’t Have to Mean the Gym!

If you enjoy going to the gym or any of the other more usual forms of exercise, there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.  But if you’re like me, that isn’t super appealing!

I’m excited to start a 4-part series today about how we can move more in a variety of fun and unusual ways.  I have found it to be much more motivating to choose forms of exercise that are a better fit for me personally.  I’m more likely to keep up with my exercising, and I enjoy it so much more!

Be sure to keep checking back each week for special posts from some experts in my favorite forms of exercise.  Today, I’ll be sharing the first part of this series with you.

Build Exercise Into Your Day

One of my favorite ways to exercise is to just build it into what I’m doing for the day.  While I know this can be easier or more difficult depending on where you live, I think most people can find at least one way to move more.

Ride Your Bike

I’m fortunate to live a very bike-friendly city that has lots of paths and bike lanes.  By using my bike as one of my main modes of transportation, I’m able to include some exercise just by getting to where I need to go.  I love when that happens!

I’ll use my bike to meet up with friends, run errands, or to head to a meeting or appointment.  I found that adding foldable baskets to my back rack made it so much easier to run errands since I can take quite a lot back home with me.  It’s also easier to bike in my regular clothes by using my step-through frame which makes it easy getting on and off my bike, even in a skirt.

Like with any other type of exercise, you’ll want to start slow.  Before trying to haul home a large load of groceries, just try riding up to the grocery store first for a couple of items.  Before you know it, you’ll be finding more and more places you can ride to!

Even if you don’t live in the most bike-friendly place, it’s often possible to make use of quiet residential streets and less-traveled roads.  I’d recommend googling to see if there are any bike bloggers or community bike shops in your area to find more info.

Walking

Living in a more dense community really helps with walking to your destination.  This will be more challenging in a suburban environment, but not necessarily impossible!

Once you start walking to where you need to go, you may be surprised at how far you can get on your own two feet.  It’s often surprising to see how many locations may be within even a mile of your home, which is a very accessible distance for most people.  One of the things I love about walking is that it gives me time to think on my own or to chat with my hubby or a friend, if they are joining in the fun.

If you’re going to need to carry a few items with you or if you’re picking up a few items from a local store, you’ll want to get a bag that is comfortable and easy to carry.  It’s also much more enjoyable if your shoes are comfortable.  This doesn’t mean you have to be limited to tennis shoes, though!  When I’m choosing my shoes, I often look for ones that I think I’ll be able to walk two or three miles in easily, and that are cute, too.

Again, I’d like to remind you to start slow.  Don’t walk to your favorite bookstore two miles away for your first outing!  Look for something closer and then start expanding.  For most people, a mile-long walk will take about 20 minutes.  Pull up Google maps and get the walking directions to some of your favorite spots.  You’ll be able to see how far it is and get an estimate of the time it would take you to walk there.

Let’s Move!

Our daily lifestyles are typically very sedentary.  By looking for ways to incorporate movement into our every day lives, we can hopefully avoid some of the risks associated with this type of lifestyle.  Let’s get moving!

How do you incorporate movement into your everyday life?  Please share your tips in the comments!

Read the rest of this series:
Let’s Move: Exercise with T-Tapp
Let’s Move: Fun with Hooping
Let’s Move: Stay Limber with Stretching

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday, Thank Your Body Thursday, Fight Back Friday, Fat Tuesday, Small Footprint Friday, Natural Living Monday.