Why Incidental exercise?

By Melanie Becker

Today, our ever-increasingly sedentary lifestyle (i.e. sitting at a desk eating a box of Tim Tams) is resulting in more time in front of the tele / computer and less out keeping active and healthy. This is the main argument behind why obesity and other health related issues are on the rise.

The way it was before the electric can opener

In the past 100 years the world has almost completely transformed. We no longer need to walk to work, wash our clothes, mow the lawn, hunt for food or even prepare our own food. It is now possible to find a machine to do virtually everything for us.

Now, we have cars, lawn mowers, ready meals and take out. We now have smaller amounts of time allocated to these activities and bigger buttocks as a result!

Whilst these items are super convenient they also require little to no effort to operate and the reality is we are not doing enough to replace this “incidental exercise” in order to keep us healthy and active.

The food we eat also has less of the things our bodies need to keep healthy and more of the things that lined our arteries and lead to ill-health and obesity.

Adding incidental exercise into your daily routine can have a massive impact on the amount of kilojoules burnt and can help boost our metabolisms and keeps us slim and healthy.

What can you do to increase your incidental exercise?

The concept behind incidental exercise is to swap your current activities for those that will result in more movement and more calorie burn. Sounds simple enough right? Well the good news it is J

Below is a list of a few things you can swap throughout your day whether you work in an office or are a stay at home mum:

î Lifts are for sissies: Instead of taking the lift or escalator, you can swap this by heading towards the star case. You can do this in the train station, at the office, at the shopping mall and wherever else you find yourself on an escalator.

î Change your journey to work: When travelling to work, swap standing at the nearest bus station and choose to walk to the next one. You can do this on the way home too and as times goes by perhaps walking to the third or even fourth bus stop and eventually if possible choose to walk to work. It will be better on your hips and your hip pocket!

î Love to walk: Take the kids / bub / dog / your lazy partner for a walk. Spending quality time with those you love in the outdoors is healthy and bonding. Plus pushing a pram can certainly pick up the heart beat! You can do this before work in the mornings or after dinner at night when it’s cooler.

î Prepare your lunch at work. If you have a kitchen at work, try to ensure you walk to the closest supermarket every day to top up on your veggies for your lunch. Perhaps do an extra circle around the block for good measure.

î Keep your home clean and tidy: Housework can burn a fair amount of kilojoules. Perhaps clean twice a week instead of once. You have the added bonus of having an extra sparkling home.

And now?

So now you have all the tools you need to start getting healthier and more active in your day to day life. You never know you may find that the renewed energy you have from a brisk walk and fitting into those jeans a little bit better may give you that extra boost to do some planned exercise!