Happy New Year!! Challenge #1

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday season and I'm excited to start up the blog again. New year, new ideas...I will be starting a weekly challenge that you can attempt and I'd love to hear if you complete it and how it went! I want to keep them all small and manageable so that you are actually becoming healthier and more fit throughout the year rather than getting burnout in the beginning and losing sight of that New Year's Resolution.

This week's challenge is about getting started. This is the first hurdle to overcome and the place where MANY people get stuck. The challenge that I'm going to give you is SMALL and some people might think insignificant, but if you do it, you will be GETTING STARTED :)

Challenge #1 (Individual Challenge; Family Challenge Follows)

Each morning this week, think about your day and schedule in 15 minutes to do some sort of exercise.

This can include taking a walk during your lunch break, taking the stairs all day instead of the elevator, stopping by the gym for a short visit after work, walking the dog after work, doing jumping jacks in your living room - ANYTHING that gets you moving qualifies for this goal. It may help to think of a few different ways to incorporate this today and mix it up throughout the week. There is a second part to this goal.

During the 15 minutes, reflect on the fact that you are doing something to make yourself healthy. Think "This is great - it's only 15 minutes and it feels great to be doing something nice for myself."

This will be an on-going theme, but in order to make a lasting change, you have to be able to incorporate healthy habits into your identity. If you are successful, later this year, you will find yourself thinking "this is what I do" or "this is a part of me" when you go to exercise. It will be hard or frustrating if you can't go. Remember the 'brushing your teeth' comparison I made several posts ago...you wouldn't like it if you couldn't brush your teeth for a day or shower. This is how ingrained you want your healthy habits to be.

Family Twist:

Same challenge, but add your family. Take a walk after dinner, have a dance party with your young kids, go to the gym with older kids, take the family to the playground, play tag, have races in the yard, etc.

Then talk about how it is important to take a little time everyday to get your body moving and your heart rate up to avoid health problems. It's ok to be honest with your kids and to tell them about what being inactive does down the line. They will thank you for it later when they are healthy, active teenagers and adults and feel great about themselves.

Good luck this week and take the challenge!! If you think it is too easy and you are already ahead of the game, great! I will have more challenges for you soon. See you tomorrow!