Episode 544: 5 Ways to Move Your Body (Mindset & Self-Care)

EBT544 – 5 Ways to Move Your Body

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Brittany Roche)  00:36

Hey, food bloggers have you always wanted to diversify your income with brand partnerships but don’t want to feel gross and salesy or maybe you’re just overwhelmed by all the advice out there about working with brands and don’t even know where to start. I’m Brittany Roche, a food blogger at PlantPowerCouple.com and a blogging coach who focuses specifically on helping bloggers like you build a system for working with brands that helps them reach their business goals, but also feels natural and genuine to them. Whether you’re looking to make brand partnerships a consistent part of your monthly revenue or just want to have a solid system in place that you can pull out of your back pocket. Anytime you see your RPMs take a hit and you need to bring in some extra income. My three month goal and mindset based coaching and support program can help you break through your own mental barriers and start making it happen. If you have any questions about coaching or want to sign up just send me an email at [email protected] That’s Brittany with two T’s A N Y You can also sign up for my free weekly blogging email for brand work focus tips, ideas, motivation and support by going to plantpowercouple.com/coaching. Thanks for taking time out of this episode to listen back to you, Megan.

Megan Porta  01:45

Well hello there food bloggers. Welcome back to another episode involving self care and mindset. I’m so happy you’re here. I love these episodes. And I hope you guys are loving them too. Today we’re going to talk through five ways to move your body. And I’m going to try to do minimal umm’ing and pausing today because I want to streamline the process of creating these episodes. And I want to do as little editing as possible. So bear with me, I’m going to do my best. So moving your body, you might be asking yourself, How is moving my body related to mindset? And my answer to that is moving your body has everything to do with your mindset. When I think about those times when I’m feeling at my peak of mental performance and just feeling my best, mentally and emotionally. They always align with the times when I’m feeling like I’m prioritizing my physical health. Moving your body consistently gives you confidence. It has this amazing snowball effect with making other healthy choices, both physically and mentally. It also improves your mood, it helps you to sleep better, oh my gosh, who wants to sleep better. It improves your health, the obvious reason, which helps you to feel better, and to focus on the things that are important to you and not spend time at the doctor. Nobody wants to be doing that. I believe that we should all be moving our bodies regularly. If you evaluate the life of any successful person, and I want to define success here because it might not be what you think. I love Tony Robbins definition of success, which is success is doing what you want, when you want where you want with whom you want, as much as you want. I love that. So evaluate the life of those successful people. And I promise you, they’re all moving their bodies on a regular basis, especially for entrepreneurs who have so dang much going on. Moving our bodies becomes even more important. I’ve been in a place in my life where I’ve made excuses. Plenty of times, I have said things to myself, like, I don’t have time. Other things are more important than exercising, I’m doing fine. It’s not a big deal, blah, blah, blah. 

Megan Porta  04:18

If you have ever experienced making excuses like these too, they need to be extinguished. Because we all do have the time. moving our bodies is ridiculously important. And we’ll all be better off if we do get moving. I get it. It’s hard to start, especially if we’re not in the groove of doing it. So I’m just encouraging you today to start now with something we talked about in this episode. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not this summer. Do one of the things that we discuss today just get started. It’s so much easier to get started and build the momentum than it is to be anxious about it and put off starting what you know you need to do. And if you do already move your body consistently, give yourself a huge pat on the back, and maybe consider doing something. Additionally, there’s always room to increase the movement we do and improve in this area, I believe, I have been trying to shed 10 pounds since get this 2018 after I made an eight a million cookies for my cookbook, they were all so delicious. I couldn’t stop myself. And of course, I had to test them, right. So earlier this year, I was just like, oh my gosh, why do I still have these 10 pounds that I don’t want. And it has been six years, I should have gotten rid of it by now, especially since I’ve wanted to get rid of it. So earlier this year, in January, I just decided it’s freaking time to share these 10 pounds, I have waited long enough. I know I’ll feel better when I do it. So I’m going to do it.

Megan Porta  06:02

So what I did is I increased my workouts from three to four times a week to five times a week. And I started walking about eight to 9000 steps consistently every day, starting in January of this year. By early May, guess what, I only lost two pounds, I felt like I had not made much progress. So a few weeks ago, I started increasing my movement. Now I’m working out every day. And I’m walking 12,000 steps a day minimum. And I’m fine tuning my diet even more week to week, I’m going to give this two months. If the needle doesn’t nudge after that I’ll reassess and change add as needed. It’s a process. It’s a constant journey. And I’m here living it with you, we can do this together, let’s move our bodies more than we are today, it’s always going to benefit us to do that. So let’s talk through these five ways to move your body. 

Megan Porta  07:01

Number one, track your steps. This is probably the easiest way to get moving. In my opinion. Many of us have Apple watches or fitness trackers of some sort, or even just carrying your phone around that tracks your steps as well and your fitness, which makes it super easy to track the number of steps we take throughout the day. So first, step one, evaluate how many steps you typically take on an average day, then increase that number by at least 1000 steps a day, maybe more if you’re feeling inspired to do more than that, and commit to meeting that goal. When I make an increase like this, it helps for me to log my daily steps are writing it down somewhere. We have this big whiteboard on the wall in our workout room. And I log my workouts and my steps on that board every single morning, just so I can see what I’ve been doing. This really, really helps. I can go in every morning, I easily see what I’ve accomplished in the past few weeks. And it’s motivating, it helps keep me going it makes me want to keep logging my steps and keep taking steps and doing more and more of that. Anytime you add steps to your day, you’ll need to change your routine a little bit. So plan for this you are going to need to make room for taking those extra steps right. 

Megan Porta  08:22

When I went from 9000 to 12,000 steps a day, this was a significant jump. That’s 3000 extra steps in a day. So I went from taking one big walk midday to now I do one big walk in the morning and a smaller walk in the evening. But I had to make time for that. Because prior to making that change, I wasn’t walking in the evening I was doing other things. So I had to make room in my evenings for that walk. Also get accountability if you need to. I have this 17 year old in my home, who enjoys taking walks with me in the evening. I love that he loves that. So he holds me accountable on days when I just don’t feel like walking. He keeps me moving. So find someone who’s going to keep you moving and hold you accountable. Once your new subroutine is a habit, you can increase it if you feel inspired to do so. But I suggest starting smaller rather than larger so that you can get the habit set and not feel overwhelmed by it. 

Megan Porta  09:28

Number two, commit to a workout program. This is the big obvious way to move your body getting a good challenging 30 minute or more weight or cardio workout or maybe both combined is so good for your body. It’s such a good thing to incorporate into your routine. It helps you to really sweat and release those toxins that get built up in your body. It helps you to feel rejuvenated. I love doing workouts in the morning.

Megan Porta  10:00

It just puts me in a good mindset to start the day. It gives me a boost of confidence. Like, if I can do that hard workout, I can do anything, I am ready for the day. It’s such a good mentality. For me personally. It helps me to feel strong and capable. I used to be pretty sporadic with my workouts, but now that I’m consistently doing them daily, I can’t imagine ever doing anything other than that. It’s just what I do, I get up and I work out. It’s a piece of the taking care of myself puzzle, which ultimately helps me to take care of my loved ones too. Not to mention the obvious the long term health benefits of getting your heart rate up and building that muscle and increasing bone density and working those joints and all of those good things. There are too many physical benefits to even mention here. But you all know this, you’ve heard it from your doctor and many other sources. So this is an obvious benefit of committing to a workout program.

Megan Porta  11:03

Challenging physical activity is so important, unless you have a doctor telling you that you should not do strenuous physical activity, which could definitely be the case, then we should all be partaking in physical activity that is strenuous. I am not a health professional. So if you have questions about this, please contact your doctor, there’s my little disclaimer.

Megan Porta  11:27

If you’re a part of a gym, consider joining one of those classes. I used to do this back in the day when I was part of a gym. I love this. Because it was a great way to have a schedule and kind of have that built in accountability. Like the class started at six on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I knew they were going to be there and starting at that time, and they were expecting me to be there. So I would go consistently. Or if you are a part of a gym, you could also consider hiring a trainer. Or you could just come up with your own routine and commit to going to the gym at a certain time every day. Maybe you have a friend or a family member who would go with you so you can be accountability buddies. 

Megan Porta  12:07

If you enjoy working out from home Beachbody On Demand is a great option. I think it’s around $125 a year, which I believe is an incredible deal for what you get. You get access to all kinds of programs like so, so many dozens and dozens of them. They range from yoga and pilates to strength training and cardio workouts, and combinations of all the above. There’s really everything you could ever imagine inside of that program or inside of Beachbody On Demand. I’m going to tell you my personal favorites because I have been through many of the programs that’s basically what I do is rotate through them all. My personal favorites are Lift Four, this is really good. If you want to get into strength training, Lift More, which is a follow up of Lift Four is a little bit more challenging. But it is probably my number one favorite program on Beachbody On Demand. I would recommend if you haven’t done any of these start with Lift Four and then move to Lift More. I just got done with a program called the Sure Thing or Sure Thing. It is so good. It’s an eight week program where you move through cardio and weight training and mobility exercises, and core. It’s all encompassing, it really works your entire body 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme. It’s another one that I fall back on all the time. It’s only 21 days. This was really easy to work through but it really challenges you. And then another favorite is Hammer and Chisel got to be honest, one of the trainers in this program is super annoying. Like I can hardly listen to him talk. He’s very condescending. Sorry if you’re listening.

Megan Porta  14:01

I don’t think he’ll ever listen to this podcast. But I feel a little bad saying that. But it’s yeah, it’s a little hard but the workout program itself is so good. I always feel super strong when I finish it. You will need weights for most of these programs, just FYI. So if you don’t have weights at home, maybe grab a small range of weights for that program or any of the programs within Beachbody On Demand. And if you’d like to work out outside your home and outside the gym, consider biking you can go hiking, do CrossFit, dancing, kickboxing, yoga, yoga classes, Pilates classes, or what about just gardening. Gardening is no joke. It takes muscle and stretching and all kinds of things to work in the garden. So like walking like adding those steps. 

Megan Porta  14:50

Adding a new workout routine to your calendar is going to require you to open up space in your days in your life in your calendar. So try to fit it in as easily as you can in a way that’s not super overwhelming, establish the habit and build from there. And get accountability as much as you can. With this, it’s always better when you can do this with a friend, or at least have a friend to tell that you have you finished your workout each day or each week.

Megan Porta  15:21

Number three daily bursts. If you’ve been a longtime listener of this podcast, you know that I’m a huge fan of experimentation. With so many areas of life, I am constantly in the middle of like 10 different experiments, some relating to work others relating to my health and just different ways to challenge myself and constantly grow as a human. One of the things I love experimenting with is daily bursts of physical activity. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in this point. This is such a low barrier way to squeeze an exercise or extra exercise if you already have a routine established in really small bite sized ways. And in a short window of time. Recently, I was doing a workout and I caught a glimpse of my silhouette in the window of our sauna door. Oh my gosh, my arm flaps were practically like forms of their own, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I don’t think my arms have ever looked like that I was aghast. I’d love to see those puppies go away or at least diminish. So of course, I thought of an experiment to try to try to get to the point where I don’t have giant arm flaps hanging off my arms.

Megan Porta  16:45

I started doing three sets of 10 real push ups, not the knee push ups before bed every single night. I have always scraped by doing those easy push ups from the knees. But I am tougher than that. I don’t need to do knee push ups, I can learn how to do real push ups and get rid of the dang arm flops. At the same time. I want strong arms, I want a strong upper body. I want diminished arm flops. So I am going to see where this experiment takes me. I’m only on about day 10 with it. So to be continued on where it does take me. But the experiment is underway. It certainly can’t hurt. I know that. And it only takes up three minutes of my time every single day. Other daily burst ideas to incorporate into your routine every day, you could search five minute workout or 10 minute workout, or oh my gosh, even three minute workout on YouTube. And you will be presented with so many options. Do this to start your day, or maybe do it in between calls or during your lunch break. Or during a time when you’re just feeling like you’re in a slump or you need to pick me up. It’ll give you a great burst of energy. It’ll give you confidence if you do it right before a call. You could also take a break from work to do a bunch of push ups or sit ups or jumping jacks or burpees. Any sort of exercise burst, even if it’s just a couple of minutes, is going to benefit you physically, of course, but also mentally. And again, once it becomes a habit, you can increase the times and do more of that do not underestimate the power of those daily bursts. I love doing bursts of jumping jacks or burpees on my podcast interview days, in between interviews and after I’ve been sitting for hours at a time. I love how I feel afterward. 

Megan Porta  18:44

Number four, double duty. One of my favorite things to do is to move while I’m preoccupied. I love killing two birds with one stone. I’m always thinking about how to be the most efficient, streamlined human being I can be. So doing two things at once that are both necessary or going to help me in some way is the best. I used to host these clubhouse calls. Maybe you’ve joined those clubhouse calls, shout out to my OG clubhouse people out there. This only required that I had a phone in my hand. So I don’t know if you’re familiar with the old clubhouse, but you don’t need a screen in front of you. You don’t need to be on video. All you need is literally a voice and your phone. So while I was hosting these calls, I would either walk around the block, or I’d go into my backyard and I would start pulling weeds or picking up sticks or doing something physical around the yard. It was such a great way to move my body while I was preoccupied and doing something else that was also productive. So it never felt like exercise. It never felt like work. I was being efficient. Maybe you have a phone call to make for work or just a personal phone call.

Megan Porta  20:00

Popping your air pods and walk around the neighborhood while you’re talking. That’s a really great way to exercise while you’re doing something else worthwhile. If you have a Zoom call and you’re able to listen while you walk, make sure Zoom is on your phone, open it and join the call and the other people on the call will be inspired by you. I promise I love it when people on my calls are out and about or taking a walk or they’re in nature. The other day, one of my mastermind members was on a boat on vacation, and I was like, oh gosh, I feel like I’m there with you. This is amazing. I’m so glad you took us with you. So depending on the Zoom call, I think most hosts and other participants really enjoy seeing that you are out and about enjoying life getting exercise and also on the call.

Megan Porta  20:47

Sometimes if I’m hanging out with my family, I will do the sounds weird. But I’ll do like a little jogging in place just because I don’t know, why not get some steps in exercise while I’m just standing here talking or whatever. Sometimes I’ll do like cow phrases or just moving my body in some way, if I’m just standing around. Last month, we went to visit my dad in Charlotte, but we went to Asheville, North Carolina first. And when we landed, we were told that there was not enough staffing in the airport. So our luggage was literally just sitting on our airplane. For I think it was like two hours, it felt a little bit ridiculous. It took everything in me to not get frustrated, it was out of my control. So I decided to just walk around the airport, I was literally the only person like doing lap after lap and I’m sure I looked like a crazy person. But I got so many steps in. Why not I might as well move my body while we’re waiting to distract me. And the last example I’ll give is laundry. The only reason I’m able to stay on top of my laundry is because I turn it into an exercise routine. I’m not one of those people who sits down and folds laundry and then gets up and puts everything away. I am an active laundrier. I fold and put away as I go. So I can move my body as much as possible. 

Megan Porta  22:13

There are so many ways to move our bodies, and many of them can be done while we’re doing other things. So think through those things you do throughout the day. And try to double up so that you’re moving while you’re doing those things and you’re being extra efficient. It’s also a great way to add movement without changing much of anything in your schedule. In fact, you’re being more productive. Because you’re getting extra dance, you’re gonna feel extra awesome at the end of the day.

Megan Porta  22:41

And number five, choose the harder option. Another favorite way of mine to move extra requires such little effort. And just like the last point we talked about, does not require you to make sweeping changes to your schedule or your life. Small positive changes done repeatedly over time matter, they add up things like parking in the farther spot from the store, so you have longer to walk or taking the stairs versus escalators or elevators, just make it a habit always do that. Even walking down the stairs is better than riding an escalator down. Walking in airports versus standing on moving walkways. Here’s a really small one. But over time, this adds up to pushing doors open and pulling doors open. versus using the automatic door, I always try to use my arms if there’s an option to do that, versus just walking into a store and not having to do anything.

Megan Porta  23:42

Take the scenic route when you’re walking somewhere. Even if it’s just a couple of minutes out of the way, start looking for those things that you can do that aren’t really a big deal. But that over time add up if you keep doing them consistently, and they’re not much more difficult than their alternatives, but they do add up and they do make a difference in the long run.

Megan Porta  24:03

Okay, that’s all I’ve got. I hope these were helpful for you to think through ways to move your body or to move your body extra if you already are really great at moving your body. So let’s recap really quick. Number one, track your steps. Two commit to a workout program. Three daily bursts. Four do double duty. And five, choose the harder option. Let me know which points resonated with you which ones inspired you which ones you’re going to try. I’d love to hear from you. I always love hearing from you guys. And as always, thank you for tuning in. Thank you so much for listening. You guys are the best ever. And I will see you next week.

Outro  24:43

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on eat blog talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.