Adopting A More Active Lifestyle

Every year when winter comes to an end and the sun shows its glowy face, I suddenly start to feel an urge to move and become more active. Like I’m waking together with all the flowers! Ok, that’s enough cheese for one blog post, but in all seriousness, this spring I’ve been making a conscious effort to adopt a more active lifestyle once again. For the past years I’ve lived in small spaces so hospitable weather is essential for my ability to exercise. I’m not willing to spend money on a gym membership with my current budget and there’s simply not enough room to exercise at home. Plus, I think exercising outside is much more enjoyable and healthy than doing it inside a sweaty room. So as soon as the rain, icy winds and fog go away I feel much more motivated and able to get moving! I am still an inherently lazy person, though, and I’ll find myself making excuses to not exercise. I’m too busy today, too tired, I’ve done enough already… Honestly, this post is as much a motivation for me as it hopefully is for you. Here are some tips on how to ease yourself into a more active lifestyle that’s meant to last.

Scheduling It In

Let’s tackle the too busy, no time argument first, as for me personally it’s the most used one. And easy to debunk, ha! For the past 20 years I’ve been in a dance group that practices for 1,5 hours on a set time every week, and I’ve never “not had time” to go. It’s just something I have fixed in my schedule and I wouldn’t dream of not going and letting the other girls down. Plus, even on busy days I actually have plenty of time, I just choose to use it otherwise. These days I rarely ever work after hours anymore and there’s no reason I should spend my entire evening watching Netflix. I can easily watch one episode less and use that time to exercise in one way or another. It’s all about prioritising. The best way for me to incorporate exercise into my life is to literally schedule it in, so that I know to plan the rest of my activities around it. Set days and times in the week works best for me personally, but you may want to make a bi-weekly or monthly exercise plan for yourself or choose a time in the morning. Whatever works for you!

Finding Something You Actually Enjoy

When you’ve made time for being active, it’s nice if you don’t have to force yourself to do something you don’t want to be doing at that time. A huge motivator for me has been to choose activities I actually enjoy. I’ve talked about the dance class which I love, but recently I discovered I really enjoy inline skating. It gets me around faster than walking so I have quick changes of scenery, it requires use of different muscles than usual, and it’s just really fun. Sometimes I’ll ask my brother to come over and bring his skateboard and we’ll go out together, which makes it even more enjoyable. I also greatly enjoy going on long walks with Robbert or fooling around at scouting, playing with the children (or my peers), climbing trees etc. Sometimes when the weather is nice and I have a bit of time to spare, I’ll take a longer route on my bike when I need to get somewhere, or I’ll get off public transport a bit further off my destination and walk the rest of the way. Whatever doesn’t feel like a chore and gets you moving is great!

Getting The Gear

I’ve been trying to incorporate a bit of running into my life as well. I generally don’t enjoy it that much, but sometimes I find myself in the mood for some exercise that’s a bit more intense and then running is a great, easy place to start. When I noticed I started feeling like running every now and then, I went out and bought myself some new workout gear. Knowing I have a cute, functional and appropriate outfit to wear while running is really motivating for me and makes me more likely to go out and do it, simply because I’m excited to wear the new pieces.

The Little Things

I’ve talked before about the importance of “sneaking in” a bit of exercise whenever the opportunity presents itself. A huge part of living an active lifestyle, in my opinion, is to overcome the laziness and live a more high energy life at all times. This means making small changes in your daily life, such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking or cycling somewhere instead of driving, standing up on the tube to let an elderly or sick person sit, or things you may not even think about such as drinking from a smaller water glass and getting up a few times to re-fill it, or upping the frequency with which you vacuum your house. Don’t underestimate the physical effort it takes to vacuum clean a house, haha! My point is, whenever you get to choose between an active and a comfortable or lazy option, make it a habit to choose the active option. It builds up more than you’d think!