Back on Track: 15-Minute Power Walk | Drift Happens | 57

A 15-minute power walk that will reset your mind, mood, and momentum. Get about 1500 steps in along with a few laughs. It’s time to walk. 

This is a low-impact walking workout you can do at home or outside… a quick energy boost when drift happens and you want to get back on track. 

It's an anti-guilt trip. If you’ve “fallen off” the wagon… who cares? We aren’t starting over; we’re just stepping back in and picking up where we left off.

This is a podcast to listen to while walking indoors on a treadmill or walking pad, or outside (I’ll ring the bell at the halfway point so you don’t end up in the next zip code).

We’ll play the “green light” game to spike your heart rate (with some sneaky intervals), and chat about how you create energy (and re-motivate yourself) by just moving your body.

I also wander off into: how my cat Mango gets me out of bed in the morning (possibly involving his litter box), my accidental alternator expertise, something I’m very afraid of, Rolodex cards (do you know what those are?), how not “Break My Stride” and instead “Shake Your Groove Thing” on a “Manic Monday.” 

You’ll finish this walk with a “mental screenshot” and hopefully be in a better mood. Plus, I added a few OUTTAKES at the end that didn’t make it into the episode (shhhh).

Follow so the next walk is waiting for you when the drift happens again.

“Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock ’n’ roll and drift away…”

Transcript

0:00

We're just going to start walking at a warmup pace. Shoulders are down, your arms are swinging. Going to let your body move before your brain figures out what you're doing. Gotta trick it sometimes. If you feel off whatever your goals are, we're not starting over, we're stepping back in. Quick and simple, hopefully painless. And if you've been doing the"I'll start Monday" thing, just pretend that today's your Monday. It doesn't matter what day of the week it is just, "oh yeah, today's Monday and I'm going to start over." And by the end of the walk, hopefully you'll feel like, "okay, I'm back. I got this. It's pretend Monday." It's a manic Monday. You can do this walk indoors on a treadmill or a walking pad, or walk outside. And if you're walking outside, there'll be a bell at the halfway point so you know when to turn around. And stick with me till the very end because I have a ten second mental trick that will stop the drift before it happens again. Stay with your warmup pace. Maybe lengthen your stride a little bit, add a tiny bit of intention to those arm swings. Like you're trying to grab the drift or keep it from happening. When we drift, it's usually because our goals are too big. Like "I have to do an hour of exercise every day." Well, that seems like a lot when we're really busy and it can just be too heavy. So going back into the time machine here, in episode 50, we talked about blocks, which are movement blocks and food blocks, and that's all this is. We're not fixing our lives, we're not making ginormous changes. Today, we're just going to be clicking one movement block into place with this walk, which is easier and lighter and certainly a lot more manageable than "I gotta a pound away at the gym for an hour." When I first lost weight and got back into shape. I kept it off for about 17 years, but the last three years I've kind of been letting those habits drift away, speaking of drifting, and they slowly evaporated. And so instead of a getting up and exercising right away, it's turned into doom scrolling in bed with the warm cats. Why would I get out of bed when it's so warm and comfy? And my cat Mango is literally trying to save me for myself because we have four litter boxes and he started pooping in the one litter box in my bedroom in the morning, not in any of the other four. It's that one because he wants me to get up and the best way for him to get me up is to poop right here in my bedroom. Thanks Mango. And sometimes you just need a forcing function. So this is your Mango walk. It forces you to move, but without the poop smell. Okay, we're going to go a little faster. Pick up the pace. It's a controlled effort. Keep your chest tall, loose hands, let your arms lead. Your feet will follow. Bigger arm swing. That makes it easier to hold your pace. And we're doing some forward motion. That's all we're thinking about today. Forward motion. Let's keep going. Also reminds me of that song."Ain't nothing going to break my stride. Nobody going to slow me down. Oh no." Okay, we're going to play a little game. It's not hard, don't worry.'cause usually I don't like games. And this is going to be called "catch the green light." So you're going to imagine there's a traffic light ahead and we're going to push the pace for about 30 seconds and then we're going to back it off a little bit. We're just going to be riding the wave faster and slower, just a few rounds to get that oxygen flowing and to wake up our bodies.'cause mine's usually napping inside. My brain is working, but my, my body is trying to nap. Green light ahead. Get ready. 30 seconds, little bit faster, not a sprint. Steady and strong. Let those arms keep you going. You're surging forward. Breathing. Strong and steady. We've got five more seconds. Oh no, the light turned yellow, so we're going to slow it back down. Deep breath in. Not super slow. Just a little bit slower than what you were doing. A little cruise like your sighting along. Because we're going to get ready one more time in a moment. We're going to surge it forward now and feel that push another 30 seconds, just a natural speed increase, and then you're going to naturally back it off like a wave coming in and a wave going out. Right now the wave's coming in, you're going faster, stronger, breathing, waking your body up. Do little dance in your head. Five more seconds. See the yellow light. Naturally, going to back it off just a little. Be very smooth. Breathe. Make sure your shoulders are down away from your ears. Check how your feet are doing. Are they gripping the bottom of your shoes? Say no, gripping. We're not going to do that today. You're going to breathe deep and slow. Get ready and naturally pick up your pace. Here we go. Last 30 seconds. Feel a little bit more of a push here. You can go a little bit faster too, if you're feeling extra brave today or extra strong. It's like a sudden wake up call, " I'm awake!". Almost there, push it. And I put these in the beginning. This time you're like, what are you doing? Stay with it now. Gently just let it back off. Naturally. I like to be smooth. Kind of like when I drive. People like to drive with me'cause I don't speed towards a red light and then slam on the brakes. So this is an easier pace, but it's still active, still moving. It's not going to be a sprint. Breathe and settle in whether you're on the treadmill, walking pad or walking outside. We treat our bodies like batteries, we drain them all day and then we're empty, but we're not like a battery. We're like an alternator. Now, if you don't know what an alternator is, I have lots of experience with alternators because I had a 20-year-old van, so I learned all about alternators. So the alternator is a part of a car that charges the system while the wheels are turning. So the only way to get a charge is to spin the wheels. And so that's what we're doing here. We're spinning our wheels and we're recharging our alternator.'cause our alternator, if I'm not mistaken, actually keeps the charge going to the battery. We're going to keep on spinning those wheels. Keep on walking, keep on breathing. What is that saying? An object in motion stays in motion, and so we're just going to go with that today. I have no idea who said it or where It's from. Deep breath in through your nose. And exhale through your mouth. Just go a tiny bit faster. And if you fell off whatever your goal is, we kind of feel sometimes like that's a dead end, like you're hitting a brick wall. But picture a carnival glass house maze instead. When you bump into a wall in a glass maze, you don't say, I'm staying here in this scary maze. You just say, okay, well that's a wall. And then you turn left, and then you turn left and maybe you have to go right, and maybe you have to turn left. And if you broke your stride, it's just a glass wall. There's no cement wall dead end, and it wasn't a failure. You're just going to make a left and keep on moving. And by the way, I hate glass houses. I don't know why, but I get really claustrophobic even though I can see. I feel like I'm trapped. So we're just going to keep walking and moving to get out of that glass house. Now we're going to pick up a little more pace. Brisker, steady. It's not a pace where you can chat. It's a little bit uncomfortable. Quicker feet, stronger arms. Relax your face. No walking bitch face. Let your cheeks even slide up a little bit. Just pretend. Pretend you're smiling. Step strong. Keep your breathing going. When we hit that glass wall or we stop with whatever it is that we're doing, sometimes we think we have to make a big dramatic change or wait for that perfect time, but consistent people, they just restart quickly. They don't wait for that perfect time, or they go around the wall instead of saying,"oh, there's a wall I can't get over it." Even look at this podcast. I started it in 2020 and then I fell off for a while because life happened. My aunt got sick and passed away. I moved. My cat, yes, Mango. He almost died of a urinary blockage and had major surgery, and then there was so much going on I just stopped recording. And one day I thought, you know what? I'm just going to start recording again. I just picked up the mic and hit record and I told myself, I want to be consistent. I want to release something every week. And in order for me to do that and stay consistent, because my life is busy and crazy, I didn't try to be a superhero. So over the holidays I scheduled what I call encore episodes. The week of Thanksgiving, the week of Christmas, the week of New Year's, I didn't have to worry about recording new episodes. So I was able to just kind of focus on the holidays around me, but yet I gave people something to walk to. Most weeks, I release a new episode on Tuesday, but some weeks like this one, it's Wednesday and I don't beat myself up. People aren't sitting with bated breath waiting for another Walking & Talking with Helen episode. So instead of telling myself, I'll record more episodes when life calms down, I built a system and a plan that worked with my messy life, so I'm able to be consistent. And so when you fall off, whatever it is that you're doing, you don't need a perfect schedule. You don't need to make a big change. Just do the equivalent of hitting record. Still holding onto that pace. Another deep breath in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Sh. Going to do the runway strut. Even if you're tired, lift your chin. Going to trick your body into feeling confident, for these last few minutes. And we're not going to do a big cool down, we're going to move to the very end, and then you can do a little stretching on your own. Just shake out those hands. Slow it down just a little bit. Then start to roll those shoulders. Big, big, big rolls. If you're anything like me, your shoulders are monstrous masses of tightness. So roll it backwards. Big rolls, big rolls, and then roll it forward. Big rolls creak. creak creak crunch. Okay, and here's the tip I promised you. So right now, do you feel good about like, "I did it even though I didn't want to." Take a mental screenshot of that feeling just for a minute here. How does that feel in your body? And then file that feeling, that mental screenshot, away in your head. Because next time you want to bail, you don't want to walk. Don't just argue with your brain. Go back and look in your mental Rolodex and find that screenshot, and remember the feeling how you felt after your walk. And you're allowed to walk and you're entitled to walk. And sometimes I think, oh, I'm so busy. I have this deadline for a client and that deadline for a client, but I'm allowed to take a lunch break. I'm allowed to go for a 10 minute walk. I'm allowed to do something for myself. And you're allowed to do something for yourself. And so think about how you felt today after this walk and capture that. Use that again next time, you don't want to walk or don't want to do something, or don't want to move. Remember, you didn't fall off. You just stepped away. The wall is only made of glass. And now you've stepped back in, and if you drift again, don't start over. Just walk back. And just pretend it never happened. Nobody will know if you don't say anything. What will happen is if you hit follow, then my next episode will be showing up right in your app, and that way you can continue to walk with me. And if you want to help me out, you can leave me a review on Apple Podcasts or you can leave me a comment on Spotify. Shake out any tense spots in your body."Shake that groove thing. Shake that groove thing. Yeah. Yeah. Show me how to walk it now." That's not how the song goes. Now slow it down a little more. Another deep breath in. Feel how good it feels to move your body. Exhale through your mouth. Whew. And I'll see you next time.