Change Your Environment & Wednesday Weekend Planning Session

Challenge: One of the major reasons we sit so much is the environment we live in, both at home and at work, encourages us to sit! If you walk into your living room, which way are the chairs facing? Toward the TV, right? You probably won't win much support from your family if you remove the living room chairs or remove the TV, but there are changes we can make to our environments to make sitting less easy. Dusting off a piece of exercise equipment and moving it into the TV room, purchasing an inexpensive mini-trampoline, leaving your yoga mat or walking shoes out in a prominent place are all visual cues that can help us get more active. At work, simply moving the trash, recycling bin, and other commonly used items away from our desks to somewhere we have to get up and walk to can have the same effect.

So the first part of today's challenge is to look for ways in your home and office you can change your environment to be more active. And since it's hump day the second part of today's challenge is another Wednesday weekend planning session! Most of us have more flexibility on the weekends and it's often easier to be more active then. Each Wednesday our challenge is to scope out a Saturday and Sunday “moving” activity that we'd like to do. What going on in your neighborhood or city this weekend that you might like to do? What outdoor activities sound fun or perhaps just need to get done? Start planning for the weekend now!


Alternative Challenge: Walk 25 additional minutes today. You can do it all at once or break it up into smaller chunks if you wish.