Podcast: How To Build Exercise into Your Healthy Living Routine

Transcription of Podcast

Please note this transcription is generated by software. There may be some errors. I hope you find it useful.

Welcome to Fit and Fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena Kerek. I am doing a Facebook Live come podcast. So fingers crossed this works. Now what I want to talk to you about today is why it is really important to have. A long term plan, and this really ties in with the workshop that I am doing next week. So if you're listening to the Facebook Live, come and join the workshop and I'll explain the workshop.

Join the “Get Unstuck” Workshop

If you're listening to the podcast, it's Tuesday and you've missed the first section, but you are in time for the second section, and I'll tell you more about the workshop in just a second.

What if You Feel that Exercise “Isn’t For You”?

Now, on Wednesday, I have my group coaching and I was talking to one of my. And now this client has done really, really well in terms of weight loss.

She's reached a normal body mass index and she's super happy with that. And now she wants to get to incorporate more exercise. She's doing some, a little bit of exercise, but really she knows that this is the area that she wants to work on, but she has young children and time is a big problem and she kind of describes it, and I totally get this.

Exercise is something that basically happens to other people. I'm outside of this world of exercise and I want to get into this world of exercise. I hear people saying, Oh, exercise. You know, it's how I get lit up. It gives me energy and all of these things. Now, I think the benefits of exercise are absolutely amazing from my own personal body.

Exercise Has Many Health Benefits, including Stress Management

I know that exercise helps me deal with stress in an amazing way. I go swimming pretty much every single day. I dunno, it's coming up for winter, so I swim in the sea. We'll see. We'll see how that goes. Haha. But it really is one of the ways that I de-stress and it helps my body feel fit. And like I can do things, I can run, I can run round the, we have squares here in Spain, you know, so like the, the town square.

I can run round those squares with my children and everybody else will be watching me going, Well, do you know what? I think they're thinking, Oh my goodness, I can do that. Most people, not all people, obvious. and I enjoy how it feels. I enjoy running. I know that running isn't my favorite sport, but I do run.

And when I run, I appreciate how it feels to be able to run. Particularly when I compare myself to, for example, my mother-in-law who is sadly in a wheelchair. So my client is thinking, I understand the benefits of. Exercise and I want to do it, but I just find it so, so, so difficult to implement that. And this is where I think you need to have a long term vision.

You Don’t Go from Couch to Marathon in a Day

You don't go from not running at all to running the Boston Marathon. It doesn't work like that. You have to build up. So when I look at my own personal story, of where I am now. So it's really easy for me to say, Hey, do you know what? I cycle every single day because I cycle to the sea. That takes like 10, 15 minutes.

So 10, 15 minutes there, 10, 15 minutes back swimming normally. 45, 50 minutes, two and a half kilometers, I might do some yoga. I do a lot of walking. I might cycle with my husband. It's really easy for me to list all of these things, but it didn't happen overnight. I didn't start like that. In fact, I will go so far as to tell you that when I was younger I was basically exercise phobic.

Yes, I kind of did a little bit of exercise at university, but I never had a strong exercise habit. on a side note, I think is really sad actually. I think it's one of the things that my school particularly really let us down at. When I was at school, there was this idea that basically, unless you were really, really good at sports and you were in, there was like one school team for everything.

So we did netball and hockey and things like that, but the same people were in the team. Instead of this idea of, Hey, we should build up the joy of exercise. Because it's a really beneficial habit to have throughout your life. And another thing I would add is it doesn't have to be exercise that is difficult that you don't like.

Find an Exercise that Lights You Up

It doesn't have to be going to the gym. I really think it should be exercise that lights you up. But you might be feeling stuck right now. You might be feeling, Oh my goodness, I don't have time. And when I can find time, I actually find myself choosing to do other things instead of that. So here's the thing, you are not broken.

You Need to Build Up the Habit of Exercise

You just don't have that habit. You just haven't built up that habit. So when I look back over my journey, so my children are now, I have four children. If you can see the Facebook Live, you can see them behind me. So my children are now 14, 12, and my twins are just coming up for 10. And so, , it must have been around 10 years ago really, that I started thinking about this and I remember my husband taking my younger children, sort of the older children to swimming classes, and he came back one day and he said, Oh, Dante didn't want to go swimming, so he didn't go swimming.

And I'm like, We've paid for these swimming classes. Dante has to go swimming. He needs to learn to. So the next week, and I was still breastfeeding the little, the twins at that time. So the next week I'm like, Okay, you can look after the twins. I'm gonna take the kids to, um, swimming class and gently but firmly, Dante, you are swimming in the swimming pool.

Let's get you changed. Let's get you there. And you know what kids are like. It's so, it's that. forever. I don't wanna get in the bath. I don't wanna get outta the bath. So he just needed that little push to get him into the pool, and then he started enjoying it. Now I take myself upstairs because the swimming class is only 45 minutes and I don't really have time to do something else.

So I'm sitting there watching and going, Oh my goodness, it's so ridiculously hot up here. And to be perfectly frank, a little bit boring watching my children to their swimming class. Why aren't I down there in the swimming pool? And that's really how my swimming started. And so after. and at that time, you know, I've got four young kids, I can't remember exactly how old they were, but you know, young, like the oldest one must have been seven.

Relish Your Exercise!

And I really relished that moment, just once a week taking my children to the swimming class and me being able to go and swim. And for me part of it was, My kids used to jump on me. They still do, but they're a little bit older now, so they've learned boundaries a little bit better. But that idea that when children jump on you, it's lovely to have a cuddle, but at a certain moment you just kind of feel a little bit attacked.

Like that's your natural instinct to feel attacked. And so going in the swimming pool really gave me that ability to just relax and think, Oh my goodness, nobody else is going to disturb me. Of course, unless I had to share a lane, which was really annoying to me back at those. . But from there I built it up.

So after that, you know, I built up from there. Like at that time I was swimming breaststroke and not very much. And I built up how to swim my crawl. And then I started going to swimming training. And then I started swimming in the sea. And then covid happened and I started swimming in the sea more frequently.

Cause I didn't have to get my kids to school. And I've found more and more friends until now. My habit is basically swimming two and a half kilometers every single. When the weather permits me and, and obviously my routine as well, but I would say I go six days out of seven, but my brain is not going, Oh my goodness, I need to do some exercise.

Oh my goodness, do I want to exercise or not? My brain is basically going, Okay, when can I fit in exercise? When can I go to the sea? And I know that, for example, the other day. , um, it was a bit cold and yucky in the morning and I'm kind of thinking, do I really want to go swimming or not? And then part of my brain is like, What else are you going to do in the afternoon?

You know that you're gonna feel so much better, so much more full of energy if you go swimming. And so I took my off to swimming myself off swimming and I loved it and I'm so glad I did go swimming. So that is the transition, but that's like 10 years that I've just told you in five minutes. So when you are my client sitting there right now going, Oh my goodness, I'm at the beginning of this journey and it feels so, so difficult.

Yes, it does, because you haven't got that habit. You haven't got the habit of doing it. So your body doesn't have that habit. And I will be totally honest with you when you're feeling unfit doing exercise. Is more difficult, you have to get over that hump of getting your body back into that practice and then you can build on that.

So I have not been running very much over the summer because I'm so busy swimming. I'm gonna start running in the winter and I know that my body is going to complain for a little bit right to the beginning, but I also know I can get over that and it's going to be fine. Um, and that I will do a little bit of running and as much swimming as I can cuz swimming's really what lights me up.

You Need to Get Over the “Exercise Obstacle” and Build Up Your Fitness

So number one. , you don't have the body habit and your muscles are gonna start complaining. So, you know, building up that muscle strength as well that you're using repetitively. So for me, for swimming, I can do 10 minutes, I can do an hour. It's just the same. My body's just like, Yeah, I can do this. It's really, really easy.

Personally, I find running much more difficult. I think running is a much more intense exercise and um, I don't have the same capacity to be able to run. So you do build up fitness in certain areas. But more importantly than that, you don't have the habit of doing something. So for example, it, it, it can be whether you go to the swimming pool, whether you go to the gym, whether you go to that area, whether you've got those friends, all of that surrounding habit, whether it's in your routine and that is what needs to be built up.

But here's the thing, it's really important if you are at the beginning to have that. And you don't have to have the exact vision. You don't have to be thinking, Oh my goodness, at three o'clock I'm gonna be doing this. But what you do need to have is that vision of I want to be a fit and healthy person.

I want exercise to be part of my life. Because if you don't have that vision and you think, Okay, I'm gonna sort it out in five years time when my kids are a little bit more grown up, then you haven't done anything. You haven't done any work to get there. And now suddenly you're basically starting from the.

But even if you just go once a week and say, Right, I'm gonna go to the gym once a week and I'm, that's it. And I'm gonna do a little bit of walking in between. You can build on that. So you do that for a bit. Circumstances change your friends, invite you to do another group. Suddenly you have that ability to be able to do that it time wise.

And you do another group and you do another group. And that's how it happens. It's. Okay, now I'm going to start swimming six days a week. That you could do it like that, but it's not really how I recommend it. I think building up and up and building on your strengths is a much, much, much better way to do it.

So that is why I think you need to keep doing those little things, even when it kind of feels like, Oh, this is not really moving the gauge. This is not where I want to be. Yes, you don't get to run 10 kilometers. Without first being able to run one kilometer or whatever analogy you want to use. So equally, thinking about my coaching last week, somebody said to me, I've eaten really healthily for two days.

I've done two days of my reboot. And I was like, Wow, that's amazing. Congratulations. And she said, Well, but it's only two days. And it's like, okay, but you don't get to day three and four without doing day one. And. You don't get to one month or two months without doing day one or two, it starts there. And I think acknowledging those small baby steps is really, really important.

Join the Get Unstuck Workshop

So what can you take from today? How can you create your vision? That's exactly what we're going to be doing in the Get Unstop workshop. So the workshop is broken down into two parts, and the first part is going to be, well, number one, why is healthy living important? . Um, and I will answer that question for you in the workshop, but more than that, it's gonna be looking at you and where you are right now and where you would like to get to in an overall place.

So what does life look like? When you are unhealthy, what does life look like? When you are healthy, why bother to make these changes for you personally? Like I can give you statistics, but you, it's your life. And then we will be diving into the four pillars and exactly where you are with the four pillars.

So that's part one. That's day one on Monday, and that is taking, um, place, They're both on Zoom, so you need to sign up. If you want to attend live. They will be streamed into the Facebook group, but you, if you want to attend. On Zoom, you need to sign up for me to send you the Zoom link. So 9:30 AM eastern time.

Now on Wednesday we are going to be having a look at why. You get stuck. So we'll be looking at why people get stuck in general, but then we will be looking at why you are stuck, and obviously thinking about how you get unstuck and start making progress towards this amazing journey, which is healthy living, loving your life.

Losing weight if that's applicable to you, but really just doing it all on automation so that it's easy and you don't need to think about it. And I promise you, you can get there if you decide to prioritize this in your life. But here's the really big thing, a little bit of a hint to give away on Wednesday.

It is all about you deciding that that is so. That you wanted to do. Okay? So sign up for the workshop and have a fabulous week. Bye-bye.