The Secret to Starting + Maintaining an Exercise Routine

Sheri Davidson: 0:23

Hi friends, welcome to the wellness inspired podcast. I'm your host, Sheri Davidson. And as always, I'm here with my co host Finn. And for those of you that are new to the podcast Ben is my terrier mix, rescue dog and very loyal companion. And today I am super excited about because we are going to talk about one of my favorite subjects, that little wedge of the health and wellness world called Exercise and Movement. But first, a teaser for an upcoming episode. Are you familiar with Fung Shui? Fung Shui is the Chinese art and practice of spatial arrangement and orientation in the relation to the flow of energy or Qi, to create a sense of balance and harmony. One important goal of Fung Shui is to promote health and wellness by improving the flow of energy in your environment. Now, Fung Shui can be very complex, especially in classical Fung Shui. In fact, I started studying it while it was in Austin, because of my design background, I thought that it would be a good fit to, you know, continue to do what I love to do in the design world, and also my Chinese medicine. But what I found is that it was a whole nother career. And I wanted to focus my attention on traditional Chinese medicine. So I stopped practicing in Austin and continued on with Chinese medicine. But I still find it incredibly interesting. So I invited Frankie Hickson, a Fung Shui practitioner in Houston, onto the podcast to talk about the benefits of Fung Shui for health. So please tune in. Also, I have a race coming up June the fourth, I'm heading to Durango, Colorado for 30k, which is about 19 miles. It's an inaugural race called the skyline. I'm going with a couple of friends. One is doing the 50k, which is about 32 miles, and the other one is doing a 5050 mile race because she is training for a bigger race in October. So that will be coming up. I'll have a I'll have an episode, my running adventures and this will be the one in Durango. So super excited to share that with you. And I'm really excited to see how this race will go. Last time I ran an altitude was Bryce Canyon 50k. I didn't do very well, I completed the distance. But it was really, really rough. When I got to about seven 8000 feet, my heart started racing so fast, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. And I started having a lot of anxiety. I thought it was all the caffeine I was consuming. I had caffeine in my hydration pack. I had caffeine and some electro pills. Sorry, electrolyte pills, I had caffeine in my goos. So I was consuming a lot of caffeine. And I thought that that's what was making my heart race like that. So I stopped drinking and I stopped eating, which is not a good thing. I felt like I was moving at the speed of a sloth. And at the last aid station before the finish line, I was about to quit. But I sat there, I had some water. And I started coming around, I started to recover and I was able to complete the distance. So this time, I decided to do the 30k to see how how I respond. And I believe we start around seven 8000. So it'll be interesting. I'm not going to have as much caffeine. I've been taking a lot of Chinese herbs, because that's what I do. I'm doing everything I can to prep for for this race. So we'll see what happens and I can't wait to share my running adventure with you. So that's coming up too. And for those of you that are new to the podcast, I talked about my running not because I want to inspire you to go run. But if I do, if you find it inspirational, fantastic. And I'm here to answer any questions, I talk about it in hopes that you find an activity that gives back to you the way trail running gives back to me. We'll talk a little bit more about that a little later on in this episode. So I think that is a great lead into this episode on exercising and moving your way to optimal health. Are you ready? All right, let's do this. Most people give highest importance to financial wealth in their life. They say money is freedom. And there is a lot of truth to that. However, I believe your real wealth and freedom is your health. After all, what good is wealth if you're too sick to enjoy it? And what is the point of being free, if you're unhealthy and able to take advantage of your freedoms. So for me, health is wealth, and health is freedom. It's the freedom to live my life the way I want to, without being constrained by illness. It's the freedom to travel and explore to new places without being limited by my mental and physical condition. I am free to pursue my passions and my dreams, without having to worry about my health. It's a real gift, and one worth the effort. So if you ask me, health is the ultimate form of wealth and freedom, and it is essential for a happy and fulfilling life. And one of the best ways to improve your health tested time and time again, is to exercise and move daily. Exercise and Movement, keep your body strong and healthy, and it can prevent diseases, giving you the freedom to live your life. Now, I know you've heard all of this before, but it is one of the most important steps you can take at any age to improve your health. It prevents many chronic health conditions like cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular disease is the number one cause in the United States of premature death. And I want to share some stat from the CDC. It's startling, not to be doom and gloom here. But these are the facts and we can not overlook them. More people died of heart disease than COVID in 2021 person dies every 36 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease. That 659,000 people in the United States that die from heart disease each year, one in every four deaths is from a cardiovascular disease. And from a financial perspective, heart disease costs the United States, about 363 billion of the 4.7 trillion each year. And this number includes the cost of health care services, medicines and loss of productivity due to death. Wow, okay. The facts are depressing, but there is good news. Most of the cases are lifestyle related and preventable. Not all but most question is, after hearing this, why are we not inspired and motivated to do the number one thing that reduces the number one cause of death and suffering and our families and communities. And we'll talk a little bit more about this later on. This is more of a macro view. And I think it's important to mention because we are all in this together. And the only way to thrive as a community is to thrive individually. Mentally, physically and spiritually. It is imperative that we take responsibility for our own life and health. And I think it is so important to start this conversation and discover how we can take real action to incorporate exercise and movement into our daily life. Okay, let's move on to more positive vibe and a micro perspective because that's where big change really happens. Physical Activity doesn't just lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. It has many, many other awesome healthy positive benefits at every age. So I want to go through this with you. Depending on your age, movement can benefit you differently. So in the young, it increases general fitness, increases bone health, increases heart health, improves cognition, which there has been research that it can prove ADHD. And I know many kids are being diagnosed with ADH D these days. So get your kids moving. It can also help reduce anxiety and depression which we know mental health is also a concern these days. So move, move, move and adult, it can reduce the risk of death from all causes. That's awesome. Reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension and type two diabetes, again, can reduce anxiety and depression. increased bone health, improves physical functioning, increase brain health which this can reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's which is also on the rise. It can decrease risk of many cancers. And for all the moms out there or moms to be it can decrease the risk of postpartum depression. Amazing. And Exercise and Movement is just as important for the elderly. It can reduce the risk of falls, reduce the risk of injuries from falls, decrease loss of muscle mass, which is something that happens when we get older and improve cognition. So again, it can reduce the risk of dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. And some general benefits of physical activity at all ages, decreases body fat and increases lean muscle mass, Inc increases muscle strength, endurance and ability to use oxygen helped maintain healthy body weight and muscle mass, increase HDL and that's the good cholesterol and helps regulate blood sugar maintains bone density and prevents osteoporosis. Improves joint structure, joint function, agility and range of motion helps control blood pressure increases the number and size of the vessels that bring blood to the heart. Fantastic. Reduces the risk of coronary artery disease and improved circulation, improve sleep, improves quality of life, improves cognition, reduces stress, improves mood, and energy levels. Exercise increases many of the neurotransmitters involved in positive mood regulation. Those neurotransmitters are dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and other endorphins. So as you can see, regular exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health. But here's the problem. If we know the benefits of regular activity, why do so many people struggle staying active? I have one word for you value, what you value you do what you value becomes a priority? And the answer is to get very clear on the value health plays in your life. I can give you terrifying stats, and all the benefits of being physically active, I can create a detailed exercise program for you. But if you're not clear with the value of movement in your life into your health, you will not connect with it. Therefore, you're less likely to make sustainable healthy change. So here's an example. For the past year, I have been participating in a pilot program with the University of North Carolina. I was one of eight wellness coaches for the UNC students. It was a fantastic program. Unfortunately, the program, the pilot program ended mid May so I'm super bummed about it. And I will miss the students and I will miss being a part of such a great program. So anyway, back on track, but during our first session, I asked them to talk about their health vision. If they were at their optimal health, what would that look like? And many of them said, I want to exercise regularly because I know it's good for me and it will benefit me when I get older. And as a wellness coach and acupuncturist I quietly agreed. If you exercise regularly, you will benefit when you get older. However, a couple of students found that they are too young to connect to the value of their health when they're older. This turned out not to be a great motivator of change for them. Now, after some self discovery, one student found the value of Exercise and Movement and how can play in her life now, how it can support her and help. Now her solution. She decided to coordinate and play sand volleyball. What did she value, she valued work life balance, spending time outdoors, participating in group activities, friends, connections outside of her work, sleep and feeling energized sand volleyball was in alignment with her values, and intrinsically motivated her to be physically active now, improving her health when she is older. See how that works is super fun to watch the students and the self discovery process and crushing their goals for sure. I will miss it. My point is, most people want to incorporate an Exercise and Movement routine into their daily life because they know it's important for all the reasons I mentioned in the beginning. However, they struggle making sustainable change because the value is missing. So here's another example. If you want to exercise regularly because heart disease runs in your family and you want to reduce your risk. Well, that's a big an understandable reason. But how connected are you to the value of lowering your risk of heart disease? It sounds good. I don't know. Try it on. If you say I'm going to run three times a week to reduce my risk of cardiovascular disease because it runs on my family. Does it feel inspiring? Does it make you want to get up and go for a run? I can tell you I exercise regularly and heart disease does run in my family. And that doesn't inspire me at all to take action for my health now. However, I still know physical activity is important and I need to take action. So try this perspective shift. If one of your top values is family, do you feel more inspired to go for a run because it will lower your risk of heart disease so you will be around for your grandkids? Because you want to see them grow up, graduate marry and have kids of their own. Would you be more inspired and motivated to go for a run? Because you want to be a vibrant and healthy grandmother? Is that a value you can connect to it Being there for them, staying healthy for you. And them. If you've been listening to the podcast, many of you know I have chosen running as my main physical activity to stay healthy. However, I do have a bittersweet relationship with running. I know that sounds crazy for as much as I run, and have run in the past. But there are many days, I would not get up out of my warm cozy bed at 4am to run if I didn't connect it to my values. So what inspires me to run and more importantly, keep running. It is adventure, exploration, community, nature, movement, traveling and culture. That is what has led me to trail running, and trail running adventures. As I mentioned in the beginning, on June the fourth, I will be in Durango. And that is this weekend, and this podcast will post sometime this week. I will be there for a trail race. I've never been to Durango. I know it's beautiful. I have been to Colorado all over Colorado, but not Durango. And I can't wait to run through the mountains with friends. But also I have a big adventure later in this year. In September, I leave August, the end of August. through September. I think I come back on September the 12th. So I'll be gone for a couple of weeks, which I'm super excited. I haven't been on a vacation like this since before COVID. So really excited about it. But I'm heading to the Faroe Islands for a troll festival. The Faroe Islands. It's a North Atlantic archipelago located between Iceland and Norway. I will be running and exploring the island for five days and the last day of the troll festival, there will be a race. There is a 10k a 1326 and ultramarathon, I think it comes out to be about 33 miles. And originally I wanted to do the ultra marathon. But after running an Iceland in 2019, I have a better idea of what the terrain is like. And it's a pretty steep terrain. And sometimes there are no trails, you're just running without any troubles. And you're just running straight down. So pretty interesting. I wasn't quite sure how to train for that here. So I'm still contemplating it. They put the elevation charts up, there's not a big elevation gain. But the elevation is steep. So I don't know, jury's still out on that, I'll make a decision. So see what I end up doing. Anyway, this is what gets me up in the morning to run three to six times a week, depending on if I'm training or not. Not only that I do yoga, spelt and swim all the support my running adventures because I want to be able to run in these beautiful places. So in the long run in the big picture, I'm staying active for my health, and I do it all with friends. And I value and connect to that. Okay, let's move on. First, we talked about finding the meaningful value of Exercise and Movement. So you can connect and take action. And I'm going to throw another layer on to this because this is the place where most people get stuck. They get stuck and conflicting values. And this will look like this. I really want to go to the gym three times a week to lower my risk of cardiovascular disease. So I can play with my grandkids and watch them grow up. But on the other hand, you might say, I don't have time. Or I don't want to drive across town to run into gym after a busy workday. You know, I really just I don't like to run. Running is hard. And it's no fun. After doing this for a few weeks, you say, I give up. This is not for me. Failure again. But I want to stop you here because that's not true. You're not a failure. This is just information. You have to do what works for you. So let's start looking at the values you don't have time to exercise you value your time. You don't want to drive across town to go to the gym after a busy busy workday. You value convenience. You don't like to run you value enjoyment. It's too hard. Oh you value comfort. Now that you know what's important to you. Let's talk about some solutions to try on for the next round. You value time. Okay. Is there any exercise that you can do? That doesn't take a lot of time? Maybe you do 15 minutes here? 15 minutes there. 15 minutes at lunch? I don't know. Anything else you can think of you value convenience. Is there any activity you can do on the way home from work? Or at home? Does it need to be at the gym? You value enjoyment and activity. So is there another activity besides running that you really enjoyed doing and you value comfort? So is there an activity that would be more comfortable for you to do? Being mindful of your values and creating a routine around them can help with complex and help you make lasting change. We're about to wrap things up here. And I want to leave you with some general physical activity guidelines to get you started. I remember when I first started running, I lived in Austin, Texas, and was going through a divorce. And even though I have an athletic background, I was very intimidated about running, I thought I had to go three miles around like Austin without stopping, and I couldn't do it. And that caused me not to want to do it. And that mindset was that I could not run around the lake, I could not run. That's what I believed about myself, I could not run. But what I was really doing was setting myself up with unrealistic goals. So I talked to a friend who was running at the time and she said, crazy, you don't have to run the whole thing in the beginning, go get a watch this intervals, and run 5251, whatever you want, which basically means you run for five minutes, walk for two, run for five or and walk for one, whichever you whatever you want to do. You start slowly, and you build. And I thought, oh, I can do that. Just to shift in my mindset. So I did, and I haven't stopped running. And that was in 2006. I am still running. And I think that I possibly have Forrest Gump beat. I set all of this because it is important to set realistic goals when you start also, these guidelines are great because they are just that guidelines and allows for flexibility for you to choose the right activity for you. And I will put all of this in the show notes. So these key guidelines for adults comes from health.gov. They have a campaign called move. I'll put that link in the show notes. But I'm going to try and summarize what they say adults should move more and sit less throughout the day. Well, we all know that some in some physical activity is better than none. So adults who sit less and do any amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity gained some health benefits. So doesn't matter move. Even if it's a little or a lot, you're gonna gain some health benefits, especially if you're sitting behind a desk at a computer all day. So here's the juice right here. For substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 150 minutes, that is two hours and 30 minutes to 300 minutes, that's five hours a week of moderate intensity, or 75 minutes, which is one hour and 15 minutes to 150 minutes, which is two hours and 30 minutes a week of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity. And a lot of people have questions about what is moderate intensity, and what is high intensity exercises. So I'm just going to give you a list here. Moderate intensity exercising is brisk walking, sweeping, vacuuming, mowing the lawn with with a walking mower, not a riding mower. Bicycling and this is cycling. Like if you're cruising on the beach, right? This is not your hardcore high intensity cycling. This is just on a cruiser dancing, golfing, and shooting a basketball, shooting a basketball not playing basketball, more high intensity exercises, hiking, jogging, running, playing games like basketball and soccer, and then swimming and cycling. And then cross country skiing. And I think you get the idea. But you want to get your heart rate up. That is the difference between moderate to high intensity. And let's see what else let's see. Okay, so you have two and a half to five hours a week of moderate intensity. And then you have an hour to two hours and 30 minutes a week of vigorous exercise for additional health benefits if you want to gain more out of your Exercise and Movement. And you know what I just told you was the minimum that you can do so if you want to do more than five hours to moderate intensity, physical activity a week. If you are trying to lose weight, this will look different for you. This is what I'm giving you right now. It is the bare minimum for health benefits. Not only should you do cardio exercises, but you should also be doing some strength exercises and flexibility. Don't forget to throw some of that in there for you. And as always, please be safe out there when you're exercising. There are risks, especially depending on your age. If you're older. There are exercises you could fall you could trip so I just want to You make sure that you guys understand those risks and prevent injuries, understand your risk and be confident that the physical activity is safe for you. Choose types of activities that are appropriate for you and your fitness level, increase your physical activity gradually over time, kind of like me when I started doing intervals, when I first started running, couldn't even run three miles. But I did interval training, and look where I am today, I just keep running. You also want to make sure you're wearing correct gear for whatever exercise you try to do. If you're gardening, make sure you wear gloves, just joking. But you want to make if you're cycling, you want to make sure you're wearing a helmet, you want to make sure you're have the right shoes if you're running or walking. So make sure you're looking into that. Because that can definitely set you up for long term aches and pains. And last, if you have any chronic conditions and signs and symptoms, and you are under the care of a health care provider, please check with them and make sure that the amount of activity you are doing is appropriate for you. So we're going to wrap it up here. If you get discouraged, and you don't reach your goal, just remember it's okay. It's part of the process. It's not a failure. It's only information and try again, but tweak it to see if another option works better for you. Because this is how sustainable change happens. All right. Well, I'm super excited for all of you guys. I hope you find something an activity that gives back to you 110. And I would love to hear about it. So let me know. All right, well, a few more things before I let you go back out into the world to dream and live your best life. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your family and friends. You can also give me a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast, it helps others find me as well. To get updates on new episodes and wellness inspiration in your inbox. Please join the wellness inspired community. Go to the wellness inspired podcast.com to sign up. I'll put the link to the website in the show notes so you can click and join. Also there is a Facebook community at the Wellness inspired and you can follow me on Instagram at wellness underscored inspired. If you're in the Houston area or visiting and interested in acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping dry needling therapy, contact us. You can find out more on my website at element five oh m.com That's element five, the number five oh m.com. And I'll put the link in the show notes. If you're interested in health and wellness coaching, we can connect in the clinic or on Zoom. Reach out to us and we'll get you on the schedule. And as always, I would love to hear your feedback because I am dedicated to bringing you great content that is inspiring and informative with an artsy fun and edgy spin. Thank you so much for listening. We'll meet here again next time. And remember, never stop exploring, learning loving and being you Bye