Exercise Strategies For Stationary People

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In my busy 9-to-5 (or -6 or -7) lifestyle -- one that largely involves sitting on my butt while my one typing hand travels over the keyboard at hummingbird-level speed -- it's hard to fit in a regular gym schedule. I know people do it all the time -- getting up earlier, fitting it into lunch -- but it has so far been a challenge for me. Needless to say, I'm pretty concerned about getting enough physical activity into my day.

However there are many ways I can -- and do! -- get more exercise in an unconventional way:

1) The Lunchtime Walk: I've discussed this a bit in my article "7 Easy Steps For Better Health." Basically, this strategy involves actually stepping outside my temperature-controlled, hermetically-sealed work environment and into the Outside. Walks can vary from ten minutes to almost a full hour, and can be both freeform ("I haven't seen this part of the neighborhood yet") or goal-oriented ("shopping!"). It doesn't matter the reason -- it doesn't even matter if you have to "bribe" yourself some days with a "reward" to make the trek (like I do with an inexpensive gift to myself, when the weather is looking uninviting). It only matters that it gets done. 

How To Find Your True Purpose In Life

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There are many self-help books regarding the quest for one's true purpose in life. There are also career coaches and gurus who will help you determine this perhaps most important pieces of self-knowledge. After all, if we cannot divine what our Purpose truly is, how can we possibly structure the rest of our life?

But the easiest way I know how to find out our true purpose is to simply think back to what we liked to do as children. Young people have more of a direct connection to their Self than adults...they have yet to learn to second-guess themselves or try to be something they're not just to make others happy. By looking back on what mattered to us most back then -- activities, entertainment, wishes and dreams -- we can best pinpoint what we should be doing now in order to find supreme personal fulfillment.

You Gotta Fight For Your Right For Wellness

I think one of the biggest mistakes I've made regarding the quest for my own personal wellness is assuming it is something that comes smoothly and naturally -- without effort. "Simply find time during the day and meditate," is the advice commonly given. "Just integrate greater physical activity into your day." "Be happy -- if you be it, you *are* it!"

That isn't terrible advice in-and-of-itself, but it is incomplete. It doesn't speak of the dark nights of the soul one experiences on the way to wellness -- that week *after* you've seen the light and everything is golden. What about when you're stressed at work and have eaten that particular cupcake mostly to feel better and have more energy -- and then feel *horrible,* as if you've destroyed your entire diet?

What about all the excuses we make *not* to have that precious *me* time each day -- rationalizing that it isn't really important, and that we can make it up later? We have to literally *fight* for those moments each day, demanding (usually to ourselves) that they be spent focusing on ourselves and our own wellness.

I wish there were more self-help books that stressed this element. In this world, in this society -- unless we live in the woods in a log cabin -- there are so many demands on us to *not* engage in wellness tactics. And even when wellness initiatives are offered at our workplace or in our immediate neighborhoods, we sometimes feel so bogged down with other stuff that we either ignore them or minimize their importance.

5 Excuses We Use To Give Up

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I think we all have the best intentions. I think we all have it within ourselves to stay on the path to a more fulfilling and healthy lifestyle. It is no hyperbole to say that we can achieve almost anything we put our minds to. But sometimes the biggest obstacles we face aren't really that big at all.

People, here is the real enemy: excuses.

5. It won't matter anyway because the world's probably going to end.
Hand to God, I've used this many times, moreso with it being 2012. Why kill myself trying to achieve some lasting legacy when global warming will probably turn New York into a fishbowl? Or try to invest in anything (life insurance, good teeth, stocks) when a meteor could wipe out life as we know it at any time?

The Media really does a great job, apocalyptic movie after apocalyptic movie, to reinforce these fears...fears that, honestly, I cannot say are 100% irrational. Yes, something bad, literally Earth-shaking, could happen, at any time. But it also may not happen. More importantly, what we really get out of pursuing the goal are all the life experiences and knowledge we gain along the way -- not the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.