Lesson 5 : Stepping It Up

Let's Get Moving

Boosting activity will lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease — and make you feel fantastic.

It’s tough to overstate the benefits of being physically active. Exercise can keep your heart and lungs healthy, improve your mood, stabilize blood sugar, and strengthen your bones. Recent research also suggests that regular exercise can actually slow down the processes associated with aging. There's no fountain of youth, but exercise may be the closest we ever get to it.

Being mostly sedentary, on the other hand, has been associated with a shorter life span, greater risk of chronic disease, depression, obesity, and higher blood sugar levels — all compelling reasons to strap on your sneakers and move!

What Counts as Exercise? First of all, any physical activity is better than none. Research has found that simply standing up every 20 minutes instead of sitting down for hours may help us live longer. And everyday activities like walking, gardening, cleaning, and carrying groceries are great for your health. That said, to reap all the rewards mentioned on the previous page, you'll have to put in more effort. How much effort? Probably less than you think.

Ideally, you should exercise at "moderate intensity." That means engaging in physical activity that makes your heart and lungs work a little faster than they do at rest. An easy way to test if you're putting enough effort into exercise is to start talking out loud. You should be able to talk fairly easily while exercising at moderate intensity. Next, try singing. You should not be able to sing while exercising at moderate intensity. If you can sing easily, you should pick up your pace until singing is difficult.

How Long Should You Exercise? Again, any amount of exercise is better than none. If you can do 10 more minutes a day than you're doing now, you'll improve your health. As for your ultimate goal, several major health organizations recommend doing a minimum of 150 total minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, plus 2 muscle-strengthening workouts every week. If that seems doable for you right now, go for it! Otherwise, start slow and set a target that you can easily hit, even if that's just 10 minutes a day. If you need help setting an exercise target, don't hesitate to reach out to your coach.

Set an Exercise Schedule We’ll talk more about muscle-strengthening in Lesson 6. This week, focus on doing exercise that works your heart. If you haven’t been working out, start with an routine that's easy to do. Most people in the program begin with brisk walks near their home or workplace, one or more times a day.

Planning exactly when and how you'll exercise will go a long way toward making it happen. On Sunday, grab your calendar and plot out the days and times you'll get moving during the next week. Below are examples of different ways you might fit 150 minutes of walking into your schedule.

For advanced exercisers: When you exercise with more effort, you don’t have to go as long. In terms of health benefits, 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity like running, swimming laps, or biking up a hill (you're breathing so fast, it's difficult to even talk) is about the same as 2 minutes of moderate-intensity activity (you can talk, but it's hard to sing). If all of your exercise is vigorous, you only have to rack up 75 minutes per week, instead of 150.

Partner Up Make it easier to stay active by telling friends, family members, and/or coworkers about your exercise schedule. Ask them to support you, and help you stick to it. When everyone is rooting for you, your odds for success will skyrocket. It also helps if you have someone to be active with. Research shows that turning exercise into a social event makes it more enjoyable, so you're more pumped to do it.

How do you find people to work out with? Community centers, gyms, and fitness studios often post announcements about local clubs and group activities. (You don't need to be a member to check out their board or website.) Stores that sell fitness gear may also have information about activity groups or host fitness events and workshops.

If groups aren’t for you, recruit a friend, relative, or coworker to join you on regular walks or bike rides. You may even find a workout partner in your program group if someone lives or works close by.

Make Every Step Count

Use a step-counter to measure how much you move, and hit new activity highs.

Research shows that tracking how many steps you take in a day can compel you to walk that extra block or take the stairs instead of the elevator. And in a program like this one, where your coach is regularly checking your Activity Tracker, you'll be even more motivated to move. If you're not already tracking steps, now's the time to start. Here are three ways to do it:

Use our mobile app (download it here). The app works on Android phones and iPhones, and makes step tracking easy. Enable tracking and carry your phone with you — your steps will appear in your Activity Tracker.

Connect your own fitness tracker. Fitness trackers by Fitbit, Fitbug, Garmin, Jawbone, iHealth, MapMyFitness, Misfit, and Withings can be synced with your account. Click here to find out how.

Use a manual pedometer. Manual pedometers require you to enter daily step totals into your Activity Tracker, but are still a great option to help you track.

Starting this week, we'll expect more steps to show up in your Activity Tracker. Try to meet or beat the daily goal you see there. Rode your bike, did a few push-ups, or got some other form of exercise? Add those minutes of activity to your Tracker, too, plus a note explaining what you did.

Sneak More Steps Into Your Day

Even your busiest days are full of opportunities to be active.

Getting active during your daily routine is an excellent way to boost your energy and mood, not to mention burn more calories. We have 7 ideas to get you started. Even if they don't apply to your life, they may spark ideas that do.

1. During Your Commute

If you take public transportation, get off the train or bus one stop earlier and walk from there. Driving? Park down the road from your destination and walk the rest of the way.

2. On Your Lunch break

Get in the habit of taking a walk around the neighborhood (or building, or parking lot) when you're finished eating your lunch. Recruit someone to join you to help make the habit stick.

3. Instead of Happy Hour or Brunch

Meet with friends for a walk through a park, in a shopping center, or on a school track or sports field. You might be surprised to find that an active get-together is just

as fun as one centered around eating and drinking.

4. At Elevators & Escalators

If you often take the elevator in a safe, familiar building, consider taking the stairs all the way or for just a few floors. Walk up escalators to add steps and reach the next level even faster.

5. Picking Your Parking Spot

Parking can be a great opportunity for racking up some steps. Make a beeline to the back of a parking lot and walk to the entrance. Downtown? Park a few blocks from your destination.

6. Making Phone Calls

When you're on a cell phone call, stand up and pace around the room instead of sitting down. If your job requires you to be on the phone often, request a wireless headset to free you from your chair.

7. During Kids’ Activities

Don't sit and watch that play date or sports game. Walk around the play structure at the park, take laps around the field or court, go up and down the bleachers a few times, or find an empty row where you can pace.

Did You Know?

Although exercise at any time of day is good for you, moderate exercise after a meal may have the best effect on blood sugar control.

No Excuses!

It's easy to talk yourself out of a workout. Here's how to argue with your inner couch potato.

It happens to the best of us: A crazy busy day, an enticing invitation, or the siren call of a comfy couch gets in the way of your planned physical activity. But whether it’s a walk or some other form of exercise, you have to stick with your plan if you want to achieve your goals in this program and build a healthy habit that can last for life.

How do you talk yourself into following through when you're tempted to back out? Try crushing common excuses with these responses.

• Excuse: “I have too much to do today!” Response: “I can squeeze in 10 minutes here and there.”

As busy as you are, consider that a 30-minute walk is really only 2% of your whole day. Break it up into threes and each 10-minute walk takes less than 1% of your day.

• Excuse: “I don’t have the energy.” Response: “A walk will give me energy.”

Skipping exercise when you're low on energy is like skipping a meal when you're hungry. Research shows that people feel more energized on days when they walk more.

• Excuse: “My _______ hurts.” Response: “How can I be active despite my injury?”

If possible, it's better to find a safe way to move than skip exercise altogether. Otherwise, an injury will land you in an inactivity rut that's hard to climb out of. Talk to your coach or doctor about how you can be active without negatively impacting your injury.

• Excuse: “I just don’t feel like it.” Response: “I can change how I feel about it.”

When you find yourself falling back on the "I don't feel like it" excuse, ask yourself why. Pinpoint exactly what it is about your planned activity that's turning you off. Could you change that aspect by exercising in a different way, a different place, or for a different amount of time? The answer is almost always yes!

Feels Good? Do It.

The secret to lifelong fitness: Make feeling good your first priority.

You know you need to exercise to improve your health. You didn't need this lesson to tell you that. But in order to make exercise something you "want to do," rather than something you "should do," you need to put that knowledge aside. Forget we even mentioned it. Because if losing weight and preventing disease is your primary motivation for being physically active, you're almost guaranteed to view exercise as a boring chore. And like any other boring chore, you'll jump at the chance to avoid it, postpone it, or cut it short. You're also more likely to want to reward yourself after exercising with unhealthy foods.

Research has shown this to be true. In a study, one group of overweight individuals was told to go for a walk to get some exercise. The other group was told to go for the same walk just to have fun and enjoy themselves. The people who were told to exercise reported feeling grumpier and more tired after their walk than the "just for fun" group. The "exercisers" also followed up their walk by eating more calories from fat and sugar. Turns out, when we feel we've done something because it's good for our health, it tends to drain our willpower and trigger unhealthy choices.

If it isn't already, how can exercise become a source of enjoyment for you? How would your exercise schedule change if you made feeling good a top priority? Would you find time to walk with a friend, do a relaxing yoga class, dance your butt off at Zumba, vent your stress in kickboxing class, hula-hoop while watching your favorite guilty-pleasure TV show, play pick-up basketball after work, swim at a local pool? The single smartest thing you can do to ensure that you stay active for the rest of your life is this: Do what feels good to you in the moment, so that exercise becomes its own reward.

New This Week:

• Set a weekly exercise goal and put planned workouts on your schedule. • Start tracking your steps and go for the daily step goal shown in your Activity Tracker. • Find people among your friends, family, and coworkers who will support your active lifestyle

(and even join in). • Think about how you can make exercise enjoyable!

Ongoing To-Dos:

• Weigh in daily. • Contribute to the group discussion. • Continue using the Ideal Meal guidelines to plan meals. • Track everything that you eat and drink.