Transcript: Is Walking Enough? The Guilt of "Just" Moving Your Body

In a lot of ways, it feels kind of embarrassing

to say that my activity for the day was going

for a walk and stretching. What's up, my movers

and shakers? Famous Ashley Grant here. Welcome

to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I

hope to inspire you to move your body more. So

I've had this issue lately where if I only go

for a walk and stretch, I feel like I didn't

move enough. And it's funny to say that out loud

because it's still a hell of a lot more movement

that I was doing a year ago. You know, like the

fact that I am actually moving my body every

day compared to previously whenever I was working

out maybe two or three hours a week. And I guess

it could be because I'm doing this in public

that like if I don't, you know, work hard every

day and, you know, go ham that I. sometimes feel

like I didn't move enough. And I do admit that

I'm still having issues with not moving as much

as I feel like I should be. I do feel like I

need to be, you know, moving a lot more throughout

the day. And I have said that and I've started

trying to implement that where if I feel like

I've been sitting too long, I'll get up and do

some squats or I'll do some wall sits or I'll

do wall pushups or I'll do a Zumba dance randomly.

But like today, I went for a walk. And I've done

a little bit of stretching and yet I still am

catching myself feeling like it's not enough.

And I guess I just wanted to quickly record something

about that because it's it's the truth. It's

how I'm feeling. And I've talked to you guys

about this before, about how like when I don't

do certain things, I feel like I'm almost failing

because of the fact I'm doing these accountability

posts so publicly. And I feel like talking about

that might. help someone who might feel like

they're not doing enough too. Because if you

are moving your body every single day, at least

you're moving. According to the American Heart

Association, you're supposed to be getting 150

minutes of heart pumping physical activity every

single week. That's about 2 .5 hours. So the

thing is, though, that is just enough to maintain

good health. And it's supposed to be what you

need for maintaining heart health. If you're

doing 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity

aerobic activity, that that is preferable to

do throughout the week, like spread it out throughout

the week. And then it also says, if you're not

doing that, at least do 75 minutes of vigorous

aerobic activity. And it also recommends adding

moderate to high intensity muscle strengthening

activity, such as resistance weights. at least

two days per week. And I also recommend, and

this is the most important one, spend less time

sitting. And so as a result, all of this is making

me think about getting, and I feel crazy even

saying this, is making me think about getting

a walking desk. That's one of the things I've

been considering because the truth is what I

do for a living, it requires a lot of sitting.

And so I've noticed that some of the creators

that I follow, they all have walking desks. I'm

wondering if that would be beneficial to me or

if maybe I'm just overthinking it. I'm not sure.

It's something I'm kicking around. There's a

lot of ideas I'm kicking around. But it's always

that question of how much activity is enough.

And the funny thing is, by the American Heart

Association guidelines, I technically was doing

the two and a half hours a week of activity.

Though, let's be honest, I wasn't going hard

with it. I wasn't, I guess you'd call it as active

as I should be. And that's honestly why I wasn't

getting many results. I was still eating the

same way I always was. And so just doing a little

bit of activity, I think was the only reason

I wasn't gaining any more. The fact that I finally

started moving, you know, back in 2023, that's

what at least helped me. maintain the weight

that I was at. But in order to actually gain

the strength and lose the weight, I had to do

more than what I was doing. So I'm just thinking

about these things a lot lately and kind of wanted

to just share what I was feeling because I know

that for some of us, the idea of getting in more

movement sometimes feels impossible. It sometimes

feels like a goalpost that we just can't reach.

And the truth is that we all can give ourselves

an hour a day. Even if it's not all at once,

we can at least spread it throughout the day.

And so that's one of the things that I'm trying

to remind myself of is, you know, if I can't

at least get it all in at one time, I've just

got to make sure I'm moving throughout the day.

And so if you're listening to this, have you

moved? Like, have you gotten out of your chair?

Or are you still sitting and listening to this?

Because I recommend at least get up, move. Do

something. Maybe that'll help. Harvard Medical

School, they even wrote about this. And Dr. George

Ross Malick is who they interviewed to talk about

this and talked about, you know, why it's so

important to hit this 150 minutes a week. Dr.

Malick said some research has suggested that

people who regularly sit more than seven hours

a day with limited activity have a higher mortality

risk, similar to that posed by obesity and smoking.

But here's the thing. If you already have the

obesity and you already have issues and you haven't

been moving that much, I mean, it feels like

to me that it's just a no brainer to make sure

you're working more than 150 minutes per week

so that you can actually achieve your weight

loss goals. And Dr. Malik even said in this article,

which I will leave in the show notes, that the

150 minute target is good to aim for. But your

actual best regimen will ultimately depend on

your physical condition and your goals. So he

also acknowledges that everybody is built differently

and that they all have different health concerns.

And this can actually dictate what is a safe

and effective amount of activity. So he says

that if you have notable health issues or you

have an injury or something like that, you might

need to exercise less time or less intensity

as you build your strength and endurance. And

I mean, that's really true. And if you have goals

to actually lose weight, you're going to have

to increase your movement. Either that or you're

going to have to decrease the amount of calories

you consume. And you guys know I am definitely

not a diet culture girly. I mean, the stomach

is a muscle too. And so as you're starting to

lose weight and you're strengthening your muscles

and things like that, it's harder to consume

the amount of food that I used to consume. But

I'm definitely not changing what I'm eating,

so to speak. I am trying to be more mindful and

intentional about the things that I am consuming.

But I'm not going to say no to a cookie or a

cupcake because I just I'm the type of person

that if you tell me I can't have it at all, I

start feeling those feelings of, OK, well, I'm

just going to binge it later because if I can't

have it at all, I get those constant cravings

of wanting it more than I feel like I should.

I hope that makes sense. But. You know, I'm not

going to sit here and tell you you have to cut

out your favorite foods because I just I don't

believe in that. I'd rather personally move my

body more so that I can at least have the stuff

I love rather than, OK, I cut everything out

of my life and I have no happiness and it hurts.

So, yeah, just and that's a lot of that's a big

thing that I'm thinking a lot about this this

last year about how like. I had to move more

to get out of the danger zone in terms of the

bad health issues that I was having. I had to

get more movement in so that I could actually

drop some of the weight that was putting so much

pressure on my knees and causing me health issues.

But I do need to, I guess, give myself some grace

and that if I'm not moving more than an hour

a day, I don't have to feel guilty about it.

Anyway. I'm just kind of sharing what I'm feeling

today. So these are the things I'm thinking about.

I don't know if this will be helpful. I'll leave

the article from Harvard Health in the show notes

and you guys can read it if you want to. But

yeah, just thinking out loud and trying to, I

guess, in a weird way, forgive myself that I

didn't go harder today than I did. But at least

I got up and moved. And I guess that's the other

thing that I wanted to just share is at least

move like do something, even if you're just sitting

in your chair and you're using a resistance band

to to move your arms a little bit or dancing

in your chair. I mean, I've seen I've seen stretch

classes where you can stretch in a chair. I've

seen all kinds of like different things that

you can do in a chair that, you know, can help

you get your blood pumping or get your heart

rate up or, you know, get some strength training

in. And so. If you can't get up, at least move

anyway. You know, that's just one of the many

things that's going through my brain today. And

we keep it real around here. So I'm just telling

you all the things that are going through my

head. And yeah, hoping that if you hear this,

that it inspires you to move your body in some

way, shape or form. Try to get an hour in. Just