13-Minute Power Walk to Find Your Motivation | 38

Hi Walkers!

Ever have those days when you've just plain run out of reasons to get moving? I hear you. I'm 59, my mind's on vacation half the time, and I've definitely had days when I feel like I just can't get going.

When it comes to finding the motivation to actually get out the door for a walk (or a trip to the gym) on a day when you're running on fumes and just don't feel like it, being connected to an actual reason you're doing it makes all the difference.

In this 13-minute inspiring power walk, we'll cut through the buzzwords (PUH-lease) to discover your personal reason (your "why") that gets you moving.

Here's what I've got for you as I coach you through a walk:

• Why you need a "why" (and it's not some woo-woo thing).
• Loads of prompts to help you develop your own list of reasons to move.
• A steady beat to keep you moving, with my own ADHD-fueled distractions.
• Some challenging but doable intervals to build your strength and stamina.
• Background music to keep you moving.

If you're tired of curling up on the sofa binge-watching Netflix instead of lacing up your sneakers, this one's for you.

Download your free guide to fitting walking into your hectic day: 

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Transcript

We are going to start warming up now. Deep breath into your nose and exhale through your mouth. Roll out those shoulders. I am always singing "roll out your shoulders," like I'm singing a song. And when I say roll out your shoulders, I mean come all the way up, all the way back, all the way down, all the way forward. And you're going to go in both directions. So maybe do 10 back and 10 forward, whatever it is that we need. And I'm always going to remind you because most of us have really tight shoulders. Shake out your hands. Just kind of relax those feet. So if you can, while you're walking, try to move those toes a little bit so they're not really tense in your shoes.

Deep breath in, because a lot of us, we just take really shallow breaths throughout the day and we really don't get enough oxygen. So aside from sitting too much, which most of us do, is we're not just getting enough oxygen in. So I really want to make sure to fill up those lungs and get the old, still air out. And get the fresh air in. Deep, deep, deep breath and exhale. Still going to warm it up. Now, no matter what you're doing, if you're doing this at home, when we go faster, just lift your knees up, bring your hands over your head. You can increase your heart rate that way. You can do squats, even little jumping squats. You don't have to go very high. Whatever it is that you're doing for this workout—walking indoors, outdoors, walking pad, bike, whatever. We'll just do a few intervals today. Give our bodies a little bit of a challenge and then we're just going to kind of mosey back, make it a little bit easier, and then work it a little bit harder and then mosey back, make it a little bit easier.

If there is a light, you can just march in place. I mean, people are not going to look, and if they do, that's their problem because they shouldn't be in their cars. They should be walking with you and you're going to just tell them that. Another deep breath in. Still going to warm it up.

And exhale, expel all that air. You're expelled. You're expelled. I'm expelled. We're all expelled. Feel for any tense spots in your body.

There is a bell at the halfway point, which I never tell you, and I've started to do that because if you don't read the show notes, you won't know. And the bell means that if you're walking outside and you want to head back, you can turn around at that point. I don't know why I never told you that before. I just assumed that you were psychic. And you can read my mind. Another deep breath in now. Should be getting nice and warm. And exhale and find a pace that's comfortable. Not like, hey, you're just walking around, sighting or window shopping. You're not out of breath. You could still talk to someone if someone was next to you. My body's working, my body's moving. I can kind of feel things happening over there in my hips and my legs. My legs feel strong. If we're walking, exercising, moving, making changes for our health, maybe we're trying to lose weight. Today we're going to talk a little bit about our why, and knowing your why helps you stay focused on your goal. Most of our bowl, our bowls, no. Okay. So I'm out of practice, obviously, with this podcasting. Most of our goals are to be healthier overall. We're going to pick up a little bit of speed. Let's just do three minutes.

Go a little bit faster. Most of our goals are to become healthier, to live a better quality of life. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight, having that as a goal. Exercising makes us feel stronger, better about ourselves, helps us do things in our daily life. We want to live longer, we want to maybe, you know, reduce our bad cholesterol, things like that. Give yourself a couple of whys, like why do I want to do this?

I want to be around to play with my grandkids. Yeah. I mean that's a fabulous why. I want to be able to go hiking with my dog. I want to make sure that my heart and lungs and muscles stay strong so I can do the things I want when I finally get to retire. That's a fabulous why. Maybe you want to be able to play with your kids right now and you don't have the stamina to run around after them. Think about the why you maybe want to get in shape or why you want to make these changes. Hold onto your pace now. A little bit uncomfortable, but not a sprint.
Deep breath through your nose and exhale through your mouth.

And your why could be, aside from some of the things I just listed, let's say your back hurts, so maybe you want your back to hurt less. Moving your body, walking will help a lot. Strengthen your core, strengthen your stomach. That's going to help your back pain. Maybe doing some stretching, yoga, stretching out those hips. When you go to take a class, for example, you're going to say, well, why am I here? Well, I'm here because my back hurts. And doing these abs will help my back hurt less over the long term. Got about 30 more seconds here. And when you make a little list, for example, like, I want to get healthier, then under that you can write down those goals. Your feet hurt, your knees hurt, and how that exercise that you're doing and that decision you're making, how that's going to help the issue that you want to fix.

Okay, we've got about five more seconds.

Now we're going to slow it down just a little bit. Not a lot.

Maybe you want to do more things. Maybe your goal and your why is that you want to hike up to the top of this hill and you want to be able to see everything that's below and you want to see the beautiful landscape. You want to go on a bike ride with your family, and maybe you can't because you're not quite there yet when it comes to being in shape. Well, that is a good why. Having a concrete why helps you stay with the exercise and the better choices that you make. Why am I going to go to class? I don't want to go to class. I don't want to go for a walk. I don't want to get on the elliptical. I don't want to get on the treadmill. I don't want to do yoga. So having that why is really going to help you get started with that thing that will help you get to your why. Okay, we're going to go a little bit faster again, this time we're going to go four minutes.

Make it a little bit uncomfortable and push it a little bit here now. Deep breath in through your nose, exhale through your mouth. Really exhale all that stale air. Roll those shoulders backwards. Roll those shoulders forwards. Shake out your hands. Hold onto this pace. It's uncomfortable, but it's not a sprint. Going to hold onto it, give it a little push.

Got about two and a half more minutes or so, but it's going to go fast. I'll just distract you with my ADHD and then before you know it, it'll be over. And what about creating memories? Maybe there are some things that you would like to do with your family, something different.

Maybe you want to go to Europe. You know, if you go to the Acropolis in Greece in Athens, that's a lot of walking, but maybe you want to do that, maybe you can't. So maybe every day you start walking a little bit and then you start walking with some hills. And then maybe you add in some squats because you want to get your legs strong. Because you know you got a lot of steps to get up to the top there. And then you want to work on your balance a little bit, because you don't want to fall off the Acropolis and die. You don't want to be that tourist. You think this is what I want to do and these are the steps that I need to take to get there. That is my why. The thing I want to do, and this is how I motivate myself to stay with it. And then you can make a plan from there. Because if you just take a random class, random class, random class, you don't really feel like there's reason behind it other than hanging out with your friends or, exercise, obviously. But some of us need a little why am I doing this? Oh, I'm getting stronger here. I'm getting more cardiovascular strength there. Deep breath in and exhale. Got another minute. Let's push it a little bit here now.

And sometimes you just get tired of like, I can't do the thing I want to do around the house. I can't lift this thing that I want to do. I can't push this bag up in my attic. Maybe your goal is to be able to do more stuff around the house, like when you want to do your own repairs, you learn how to do the repairs, and then you get the strength and the focus and the skill and the balance in order to do that.

Deep breath again. Now we're almost there with this little interval, and I'd love to hear about what it is. I've been really bad about going on social media too, other than BlueSky. But Instagram, I forgot what it is. Another deep breath in. Exhale, slow it down just a little, and I would like to hear what those goals are. @yourwalkingpodcast is my account name. I had a hashtag, but I forgot what it was. So there you go. That's what happens. I'm 59 now, just turned 59, so my brain is like, woo. My brain is out on a little bit of a vacation. But I would love to hear what your goals are. And then what would you like to do to reach those goals? And it gives you kind of a point, a purpose. Like when I ran my 5K, that one - one - 5K I did. One is enough. My goal was actually nothing else than to run a 5K, which is a perfectly good goal because I was pushing myself because I'd lost weight. I'd gotten into better shape and most of my life I'd failed at things and I wasn't successful at things and I never finished things. And so for me it's like I want to do this 5K. So I ran every day in addition to spinning. I ran every day until I could do a 5K, and then I was done, did a 5K, never going to do it again. Don't even ask me about the marathon thing. Not interested in that, but that was my goal and I felt so great about being able to do it. I was so excited that I ran the 5K because just a little over a year before I was 200 pounds and I could barely walk my kids to school. So to me, that was a ginormous accomplishment. Another deep breath in now. Exhale.

And you are going to hold onto this pace. It's not fast. It's a little bit slower than our sprint. Deep breath in. Well, we didn't really sprint, sprint, but went a little bit faster. And just settle in. Feel how your body moves in a rhythm. Roll those shoulders out. Roll those shoulders forwards. Check for any tight spots in your body. Squeeze your glutes.
And you can have goals like, I want to go to the beach and I want to be somewhat comfortable in a bathing suit. So, yeah, I mean, none of us are going to be like, woo, look at me. I don't have a bathing suit right now, but I had a bathing suit I liked with a little skirt on it, because that made me feel like nobody's looking at my butt. So maybe your goal is to go to the beach, or maybe your goal is to do some kind of water sport. Maybe you want to do, what do you call it? SUP board. What does that stand for? I don't remember. Slow it down a little bit. Here we go with my bits again. We don't want to show our bits. That's why we have a bathing suit. Maybe you want to hang your Christmas lights. I know that sounds silly, but you know, that's really hard. Maybe you want to work on your balance. You've got to climb up that ladder to hang those lights. So upper body strength, like pushups or even upper body class, your core strength, your balance, just to hang Christmas lights. You need all of that.
Maybe you want to set an example for your kids. Maybe you want to show them a more active lifestyle. That's a great why. Maybe you don't want your dog to be bored. Let's go for a walk, dog. That sounds like a good why to me too. Slow it down a little more. I want you to take a deep breath in now through your nose, relax your stomach, really fill up those lungs. Deep, deep, deep breath. And you're going to exhale all the way. Push all that air out of your lungs. Going to slow it down a little more. Roll those shoulders backwards. Roll those shoulders forwards. Rolling in the deep as Adele would sing.

And then when you are done, if you could just give yourself a little stretch. Doesn't have to be anything super demanding, super challenging, but it's good to just get a little stretch after you've worked your muscles. Or if you have time, it's a great time to work on some flexibility and mobility once you're warm from your walk.

And I will see you next time.