We are closing out our Get Active month. If you have been following along, you already know I have been challenging you to move after your meals.
Take a walk. Stretch. Dance in your kitchen. Just do not sink back onto the couch.
I walk after both of my meals, and I hope you have started with one.
Now maybe you are thinking, “But I hate exercise.”
I hear you. You may remember I said I would take every benefit of exercise without the exercise, in a heartbeat. That is still true.
You know you should move more. You have known it for years. And you just do not want to.
So try this instead. It is called exercise snacking.
✓ A short burst of movement — a minute or less
✓ Sprinkled through your day
✓ No gym. No workout clothes. No hour set aside.
Take the stairs, and take them fast. Do a few squats while the coffee brews. March in place while you wait on hold. Walk quickly to the mailbox and back.
Then get on with your day. That is a snack.
Does it work? The research is encouraging. One large study followed adults who did not exercise at all. The ones who worked a few short, hard-breathing bursts into their ordinary days, like climbing stairs or hurrying to catch a bus, had a lower risk of dying early. That study shows a link, not a guarantee. And in a small study, people who did not exercise climbed stairs in short bursts a few times a day, a few days a week, for six weeks. Their fitness improved. The gains were modest, and modest is a fine place to start.
If you have a heart condition or you are new to exercise, check with your doctor first. Then start gently.
The research behind this:
Stamatakis, E., et al. “Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality.” Nature Medicine, 2022.
Jenkins, E. M., et al. “Do stair climbing exercise ‘snacks’ improve cardiorespiratory fitness?” Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 2019.
You do not have to like exercise to take care of your body. You only have to move a little, in the middle of an ordinary day.
Here is a verse I love for this. Moses spoke these words to the people of Israel, standing at the edge of the Promised Land, just before they crossed in.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Deuteronomy 6:6–7
Obviously, Moses was not talking about exercise. He was teaching a people how to hold on to the words of God. And he did not tell them to do it in one big gathering, once in a while. He told them to weave it through the whole day. At home. On the road. At bedtime. At sunrise. Small moments, over and over, from morning to night.
What is true of following Him is true of how you care for your body. It does not have to happen in one big block of time. It can happen in the ordinary moments of your day — the stairs, the kitchen, the walk to the mailbox. Small moments, over and over, add up.
This is what our Get Active month is all about at Weight Loss God’s Way. We started with walking. Then we added strength. Today we close with the smallest step of all.
This Month’s Practice — Get Active, God’s Way
Weight Loss God’s Way is not a diet or a weight loss guide. It is a movement — changing the way women approach their health and their weight-releasing journey. We change small habits one or two at a time. That is the Breakthrough Method — no vows, no overhauls, one principle practiced until it holds.
Your one step this week: move after one meal a day.
Walk, stretch, or dance — anything but the couch. Then, sometime today, try one exercise snack. The stairs count. So do squats at the counter. Pay attention to how you feel afterward.
Imagine a whole community of women who stopped waiting for the right workout, the right gym, and the right hour — and just started moving in the middle of ordinary days. That is who we are becoming here.
Have you ever wanted to be a Christian health coach? God has put it in your heart to serve, and you have been on your own health journey — why not invite others along? Registration is now open for our winter cohort.
Moving a little at a time with you,
Cathy
