5 simple habits to increase your daily physical activity

There are so many ways to lose fat, drop body weight and change your health and fitness.

In fact, there are so many options it can get to the point of not knowing where to start…

My mobile personal training service is a great option, but what if you’re not quite ready for that yet?

The most overlooked method is to increase your general daily activity.

You can’t escape the fact that in order to lose weight you need to burn off more calories than you consume. So it makes sense that you should move more.

I’m not talking about structured exercise either, that’s what I offer at Health Matters personal training.

Here are the top activities I encourage clients, and you, to take up:

1. Walk - simple, but profoundly effective. Not only will it start to help boost your cardio fitness, it will also clear your head, boost your brain function by increasing the oxygen level in it and help change your mental state. If you don’t believe you’ll have the time, start with 10 minutes whenever you can in the day. For the ultimate walking motivation - get a dog, they won’t let you go a day without a walk, I know mine doesn’t (Lab retriever called Ted in case you wondered :-))

2. Take the stairs. Unless you genuinely struggle with stairs, avoid the lift! Remember you’re going for little and often here, one set of stairs may not feel like a lot, but over the next 6 months, 12 months, 2 years just think of the impact that will start to have.

3. Park your car further away from the shops, or work, and walk the rest of the way. Don’t use the car? Get off the bus 2 stops earlier and walk.

4. Hit at least 6,000 steps a day. There are so many options to track your daily step count, pick one and set a target (I suggest a minimum of 6,000 steps, ideally 10,000) and hit it every day.

5. Bit more time to yourself? Then wash your own car, it works a lot of muscles, burns plenty of calories, and gives you a clean car!

There can be a temptation to believe you will one day wake up and suddenly have the time to work on your health and fitness, or to start losing body fat. The reality is, you won’t, that will never happen.

You need to make small changes now. I have seen the power of small changes consistently applied over time.

Any change is hard, you’re so used to operating in a familiar pattern, you need to consciously break that pattern and set up new habits.

If you want any help just message me using the chat button on the website, or use the contact form and we can explore any personal training options that may benefit you.