Day 18: Burn More Calories With Micro-Exercise | 30-Day Weight Loss-athon
Welcome to Day 18 of the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon.
All tasks in the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon are adapted from my 52 Weight Loss Missions program.
Read the steps first, then take 10 minutes to think about them and take action. Ready?
What You Need:
- A willingness to move it, move it.
Step 1
Doing your weekly 30 x 3 exercise sessions from Day 5 is great – it raises your heart rate, gets you sweating, and can burn lots of calories.
But there are many ways you can get micro-exercise into your day, too. Some people call it incidental exercise. I like to think of it as lifestyle exercise – something that becomes part of your lifestyle.
Each nugget of micro-exercise can seem tiny – and it’s good to think that way, so you’ll feel inclined to do one every chance you get.
But the benefits aren’t so tiny. Not only do the weight-loss calories add up, but by taking opportunities to move, you form a habit of moving.
So as a first step, open your mind to the ways you can add micro-exercise to your life. They don’t take a lot of effort, but they can add up to a lot of calories, taken together and over time.
Step 2
Next, let’s consider the myriad ways you can add micro-exercise to your daily life. Here are some:
- Take stairs rather than escalators or elevators (There are so stairs in your building – find them!)
- Don’t use remotes – get up and press the buttons
- Go talk to your colleagues rather than emailing them (bonus: you may save time on back-and-forth emails)
- Walk to work
- Walk the kids to school
- Wherever you go, move a little faster and more energetically
- Get off the train or bus one stop earlier and walk
- Park farther away (from the restaurant, shops, appointment) so you have to walk (bonus: parking may be easier at a distance)
- If at a dinner party, help to carry dishes to and from the table
- Put a bike or treadmill in front of the TV and move while you watch
- Do sit-ups or push-ups during ad breaks
- If you tend to have inactive weekends, make a project of doing chores, repairs or other household tasks
- Walk, cycle or run to the library, to pick up the kids, do errands, etc.
- Walk around the house while on the phone
- Play a game outside with the kids
- Take the (neighbor’s) dog for a walk
- Stop asking the kids/your spouse/your PA to pass you things, get something from over there, pick you up a coffee or go out to get your lunch – it’s annoying to them, and it denies you the chance to burn calories
- Put more energy into the housework – vacuum, hang laundry or dust with vigor
- Put more energy into the yard work – I don’t really know what goes on out there, but do it with a good posture and sense of speedy purpose
- Put more energy into your, um, love life – do it more often or with more sprightliness
- Wash the car faster and more energetically
- Do some gardening – the kind where you have to cart stuff around, dig holes, squat, wheel wheelbarrows and such; pruning bonsai doesn’t count
- Switch from passive to active family time – instead of watching movies or playing computer games, go for a bushwalk, play in the park, ride bikes together, or play fitness-based console games.
Hint: Use a pedometer for extra motivation.
There’s something about tracking anything that makes you want to do better at it. Using a pedometer can help motivate you to take extra steps throughout your day. So if you’re looking for incentive to move more in your daily life, it’s worth a try.
Step 3
Choose at least three forms of micro-exercise, from my list or add your own, that you’ll commit to doing as a new habit.
What will you do for your micro-exercise?
Check in!
And you’re done!
Be sure to leave your comment below to check in and stay accountable. If you’re reading this by email or in a reader then please click here to leave your comment.
See you tomorrow!
My three micro exercises will be taking the stairs at the office (six floors of steps three times a day will add up), walking errands at lunch (there is both a Subway and a Walgreens within a mile of my office and I visit both once every two to three weeks and something I call GOYBAD (get off your booty and dance): when I need a work break or feel I’ve been sitting too long, I pull up a music video or zumba video on youtube and dance (or just move for the entire song).
I’ve been doing this one for years! Parking way out in the lot (more so now because I drive a full size pick up truck, and I’m too afraid I’ll hit another car if I try to squeeze into a space closer!) and take the stairs whenever possible. I’ve also been known to dance while I’m in the kitchen cooking dinner!
Pedometer has been “cheating” me out of steps! Think I’ve figured a way to wear it so that the 6 steps up to the bedroom and bathroom and 6 steps down to the laundry – both from the first floor— will COUNT! Am parking further out in the lot when shopping. With settling into our home after 8 months away– I’m finding plenty of extra motions to help burn calories! Like up and down the step stool to take down and put up new window dressings.
This one I haven’t started yet but I’ve been thinking about which…so today I choooooooooossssseeeee walking the building and climbing the stairs while I am on hall duty at work, rather than just patrolling one hallway. I attempt to vaccum the den and entrance hallway every night….two birds one stone. Lastly, I will walk to colleagues to ask questions about students, curriculum, meetings, etc.
Hello to everyone: You are well on your way to a healthier you. Yes, it is important to take steps instead of the elevator. Make sure you are capable of walking steps. Where I live we have cement steps. If you’re walking in a walker, using crutches or with the aid of a cane your doctor may not want you climbing steps [I don’t want you to fall and end up with broken bones.] Elevators will be best for you. – If you’re physically fit take those stairs. I’m proud of all of you and please keep posting to stay accountable. Good Luck.
One micro-exercise I’ve committed to is taking the stairs at work, EVERYTIME. I’ve also started walking the dog more regularly, good for both us.
I shall do more gardening, walking the dogs and exercise in front of TV with my pilates ball- you can sit on it while watching TV- great for the core muscles and stretching…
With 2 little ones in a 2 floor house I think I do already a bit of up and down the stairs every minute. In fact is hard for me to find any time to sit down. But still good the trick of doing some abdominals during the ad breaks in the nights (that is the time when I usually run to the kitchen to finish cleaning and washing the dishes, so it is not really dead time, just more of a “change of activity”).
just danced for a while at the cold chisel concert, how many calories did I burn off I wonder.
These are great ideas! Although I think I get more exercise lifting and carrying my one year old than I do during my “designated exercise time” 🙂
Lots of these to do. Park farther away, bike in front of tv, and active family time. I will also work on getting up to get things myself more often.
I like Words with Friends but don’t have the phone capability so I use my laptop. I put it on the counter so that I can pass by and play throughout the day. As I play I “SQUEEZE, RELEASE”,”SQUEEZE, RELEASE”, Sh..I am sharing a secret. 🙂
for those with small children, I always loved to put on a Wiggles or Hooley Dooleys CD/video and dance around the room with the littlies!
I usually use the stairs at work unless I have a heavy load of things to carry. When I use the train I try to use the stairs and not the elevator or escalator, need to do it more. I’m adding 5-10 minutes to my bicycle ride to school – it is a 5 minute ride. Already hang all my wash since no dryer. Do want to find some exercise I can do while watching tv. We have an exercise ball in the living room just need to put it to good use.
I have decided to spend less time sitting in front of the computer and made a list of extra things I want to get done around my house. I will stop asking the kids to take things upstairs for me and start doing it myself. I will say my favorite exercise is my, um, love life =) taking it up a notch works for me!
I’ve actually been doing some micro-exercises already. I’ve been taking the stairs more at work, walking around the block to get to my car after work, and my favorite is doing the “cha-cha” as I’m working in the kitchen.
and while sitting in my desk chair reading this, I’ve been pumping my arms as if power walking, while using leg and pelvic floor musclies to lift my bum slightly up and forward in my chair.
I have started dragging (and this morning it was literally dragging) my dog out for a 10 minute walk before work. I have always parked far from the doors when shopping so I will continue to do that. And I need to get up during commercials to do some exercises.
Since I mostly work from home, micro-exercise is critical. I’m using a Fitbit to track steps (got it right when this challenge started) – to add steps, I’ve started marching in place or walking in circles while I brush my teeth. I force myself to use the upstairs bathroom to get in more steps and stairs every day. I do walll push ups or stretches while my lunch is microwaving. All little things, but it does all add up!
well that works. I got 4,000 steps done just in one phone call and that was a half hour one. very impressed, got to chat to my sister and work off some fat. I am up to 13,670 steps today and I have a bin full of what was clutter. yay and the recycling bin too!