A lot of us are spending an increased amount of time within the four walls of our own homes. Because more of us who would be at the office doing our jobs are working from home. It can present fewer opportunities to keep moving our bodies.
But there are some ways to control the amount of time we are spending being sedentary. My first recommendation is to get some kind of way to track your movement. Now it isn’t essential to have but it can help to make us aware of how active we are. If we are more aware, then it makes it a hell of a lot easier to make incremental improvements to it.
Tracking daily movement
A few different ways of tracking our activity are a step counter which could be investing in an activity watch, for example, a Mii band, Fitbit, or similar. You could use your phone, some phones have them pre-installed as a health app. Just remember to keep it in your pocket as much as you can when moving around. Lastly, you could pick up a pedometer to put around your waist or in your pocket.
You may be wondering how to get more activity whilst at home. Well, you could do a fake commute before work where you go out the front door for a walk around the local area as if you are traveling to work. Then after you finish work, you go do the same again and head out the door to get some fresh air and get steps in. It could be 30 minutes each time. During your lunch break, instead of eating your lunch at your desk while working. You could get away from your desk, and go outside for a walk using part of your lunch break which could be 15 minutes.
Getting active within your home
You don’t always have to outside to get your steps. However, it can be nice to take a break from looking at screens all day such as laptops and phones. It could be as simple as taking a 5-minute break every 45 to 60 minutes you’re spending seated and walking around the house.
Most of us sit and watch TV in the evening after a hard day’s work to relax at night. Whether it’s watching boxsets or a movie on the likes of Netflix, Disney plus, amazon prime, or regular television. Could you get up when one episode is finished and get on your feet to walk around for a bit before playing the next episode.
There’s the option of doing planned workouts. By doing home workouts in the living room or a spare room. That can be as little as 20 minutes a few times per week. Which could be before or after work depending on your own preference if you’re a morning or evening exerciser. If you prefer doing workouts out of the confines of your home there is also the gym as an alternative.
What about tasks around the home?
Lastly, other household tasks contribute to increasing your activity level, it doesn’t always have to be requiring more conscious effort to move more or by doing workouts. It could be doing tasks around the house. Which could be cleaning. Going out in the garden get some gardening within 6 months of the year from March to September. Which also counts towards physical activity.
I am a firm believer that we need to move every day not only to help manage our weight but more importantly to improve our physical health. Exercise is more than just burning some calories. It could be walking, cycling just getting moving. I also recommend spending as much time in nature as often as possible, such as in local parks.
Although spending more time at home presents challenges, there are still many ways we can get some daily movement in.
