Stiff, Foggy, and Craving Sugar? 10-Minute Walk | 67

If your brain has been screaming for sugar, caffeine, a nap, or all three… this 10-minute guided walking workout helps you get over that slump. It’s a brisk walk designed to wake your body back up, loosen up all that desk-chair stiffness, and help you feel better and more focused. 

This quick walking break helps you:

• Get a real energy boost. Yay! The “I need sugar immediately” feeling sometimes just means your body needs movement, oxygen, and a break from sitting like a pretzel for six hours
• Loosen up stiff hips, tight shoulders, and sleepy glutes (and mine are super sleepy)
• A NEAT boost: Tiny movement breaks (or “exercise snacks”) throughout the day matter for your energy, metabolism, and health
• Get in about 1200 steps without noticing

You can do this walk outside, or indoors on a treadmill or walking pad.

And because I cannot stay on topic, I also…

• Wrote you a dramatic poem about sugar (not very good, but it’s the thought that counts)
• Make fun of myself back when I was a fitness instructor who could not stand up straight
• Gush about a five-week-old rescue kitten who is trying to figure out how legs work
• Tell you a story of my aunt and I doing a full Lucy-and-Ethel bit after a long flight to Norway with a runaway luggage cart

This is a podcast you can walk to with background music to help keep your pace, plus breathing reminders, posture resets, and shoulder tension relief along the way. 

If you need:

• a quick walking workout
• more energy
• a mood boost
• relief from sitting too long

…lace up your shoes and come for a walk. 

Tap Follow so the next walk is waiting for you.

PS. Want easy ways to get more steps in? Check out Ep. 37 — 15-Minute Walk: Fit More Steps In the Easy Way.

PPS. Connect with me on social media at @yourwalkingpodcast

Transcript

5:01

Stay with that brisk pace. Feel your body move to the beat. So I work at my desk, as you know, already for hours and hours sometimes, and I'm all hunched over. My shoulders creep up towards my ears. My back is curved like a question mark. And then one time years ago, I remember I stood up from my desk and I was shuffling out of my home office, bent over, stiff, creaking. I was barely moving right. And then my kids looked at me and I looked at them and I said, I'm a fitness instructor. And we still laugh about that. I was a fitness instructor who could barely stand up straight after sitting too long. And desk chair stiff is nothing compared to international flight stiff. My aunt Inger and I flew from Los Angeles to Oslo, Norway once, was nine hours sitting on a plane. We landed around 1am. We were tired, swollen feet, very stiff. And then we spent two hours once we got there searching for my aunt's missing luggage. Spoiler, her suitcase missing for a couple of days. So when we left the airport and we walked towards our hotel, my aunt was pushing the luggage cart with my suitcase and her carry-on on it. And I was walking ahead, kind of showing the way. And then she noticed that my backpack flap was hanging wide open. And my laptop was almost falling out. And that's my entire business pretty much like in that laptop, right? It was ready to fall to its shattering death. And then I stopped she could zip up my backpack. But then she accidentally let go of the luggage cart. So now the cart is rolling across the road with me trying to chase it and my aunt still hanging onto my backpack trying to zip it closed. Because, you know, instinct. I forgot that my backpack flap was still hanging open. It was like a Lucy and Ethel episode. Nine hours of sitting, sore bodies, one runaway luggage cart, and no functioning brain cells left between us. And the worst part that everything was, of course, closed. So we couldn't even get Norwegian chocolate. Stay with it now. Feel a little push. Strong, steady pace. Feel how good it feels to have your body move. Rolling through those feet. Squeeze glutes a little bit more. I don't know about you, but I noticed that when I sit a lot, my glutes are inactive. They just don't want to do anything. And I'm like, squeeze, glutes, squeeze. That's what we're going to do now as we walk every step. Squeeze it a little bit. Wake it up. Going to keep our breathing going. Want to feel refreshed. Now we're going to slow it down just a little bit. Going to recover. Now put your shoulders up all the way to your ears. Really hold it tight for five seconds. And then drop your shoulders down. Okay, one more time. Squeeze up as tight as you can. It's going to be uncomfortable. Squeeze it, squeeze it, squeeze it. And then drop it again. Now roll them backwards. Big, big, slow rolls. And then roll them forward. Big rolls. Get all that tension out. Slow it down a little bit more. Take another deep breath in through your nose. And exhale through your mouth. Hopefully you'll feel less stiff, less foggy, a little more awake. And the next time you don't feel like walking, remember how good it felt after this walk. It's like the after walk glow. Even 10 minutes is enough to change your mood and wake up your brain a little. Make sure you follow the podcast. The next walk is waiting for you. And I'll see you next time.