With just over a week left in our challenge, we’re talking about becoming more active and how to fit it into your busy life. Our daily schedules are a force to be reckoned with and an activity list can make a huge difference in whether or not exercise gets worked in.
One easy way to keep up with exercise and make it part of your daily routine is to make a list of activities that you find enjoyable. Let’s brainstorm so that all you’ll have to do later is pick an activity that looks fun and get it done!
Things you’ll need for an activity list
- Journal, piece of paper, or your mobile phone – you’ll record activities.
- Internet – to get ideas from when your mind draws a blank.
- Kids – for even more ideas.
Once you’ve got the items above, you are going to think about a list of activities that you can do. Think of exercises you used to do as a kid or ask your kids what types of activities they do in PE or while playing outside. Write everything it all down on your list. The goal is to create a long list of fun, yet simple activities that can be done in a short amount of time. Think of these as your energy bursts throughout the day.
Photo: LongitudeLatitude on Flickr
20 Activity Ideas
- Jumping jacks
- Jump rope
- Tag with the kids
- Dancing
- Limbo – how low can you go?
- Squats
- Sit ups
- Push ups
- Red Rover
- Sword fighting with your kids (pretend of course!)
- Wrestling around with the kids
- Go to the park and play on the play structures with your kids
- Play the Wii (or other active video games)
- Play kiss monster with the kids (be a monster and every time you catch them you get to kiss them – kids LOVE this game and will ask for it often)
- Go for a walk
- Roller skate or rollerblade
- Play basketball
- Jump on a trampoline
- Walk upstairs/steps
- Create an obstacle course
Now that you’ve got your list together you might wonder how you are going to fit them into your life.
Involving your children will get you active very quickly! They have so much energy and are always up for having a good time. Plus, they’ll be a great accountability buddy!
Another way is to include activities on your list that will inspire you to get moving. Do something fun you’ll enjoy. If you put exercises on that you don’t like to do – cross them off now. You want fun activities!
A third and easy way to get moving is to start saying yes when someone asks you to go for a walk, hike, or bike ride. I bet your kids do, so surprise them and dust your bike off.
You’re creating this activity list for a few reasons.
With a list you’ll:
- Have no excuse not to exercise because you don’t know what to do
- Create habits of exercising daily
- Have fun activities to look forward to
Why did we have you make an activity list?
The activity list is not a complete list of all the exercises you need to do in order to get healthy, but it’ll give you bursts of energy throughout the day. You’ll get into a routine and then instead of thinking of exercise of as a chore you’ll look forward to it.
After you’ve completed the list do something on it! Pick the thing that really excited you when you added it? Set a timer and get that body moving for five minutes. Just FIVE MINUTES! Anyone can do that. And I’ll bet, if you’re really having fun, you won’t stop after five.
Commit to at least five minutes of mindful movement every day for the next week. Schedule it. Go ahead, get out your phone and find time every single day for seven days.
Have fun with this task. Your body is made to move!
Hungry for more information on exercise? Check out these links!
- 5 tricks for sticking to a fitness routine
- Why exercise is essential for a healthy heart
- Exactly how much exercise is necessary to lose weight?
