Get Moving!

After reading Bree Despain’s post Beating Deadlines with Healthy Writing Habits on Publishing Crawl and her follow-up post Beating Deadlines with Healthy Writing Habits Part 2: Write Happy! on Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, I was reminded how terribly unhealthy being a writer can be. Food choices, mental and emotional wellbeing, posture and physical fitness all play a role in keeping our writing inspired and our bodies healthy. But this problem isn’t just limited to writers. Anyone sitting at a desk for long periods of time and subjected to stress is at risk (I realize this might include a lot of people ;).

So what are we to do? Bree’s lifestyle choices are a great start! But in case you’re interested or looking for more nifty tidbits (unabashed and shameless self-promotion plug coming up :D) in my book Life: Living in Fulfillment Every Day there are a lot of great tips and techniques to help us achieve a greater sense of wellbeing by upping the happiness factor and decreasing our stress.  By choosing a creative path such as writing, by following our passion and dreams, we’re already well on our way to a fulfilling life, but it’s essential to cut the negative self-talk, manage expectations, and foster balance.

Very zen-like and balanced.

But that’s not all. Once we get our mind psyched and in to the game, we also have to achieve a symbiotic relationship with our wonderful, luscious bodies.

I go to the gym three times a week. I lift weights for an hour then swim my cardio for thirty minutes. I do this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. I teach yoga Monday and Wednesday evenings and play either floor hockey (fall/winter) or baseball and volleyball (spring/summer) on Tuesday or Thursday evenings. The rest of the time, I write, run errands, nap, catch up on social media, look after my children, manage a household … you know, life stuff. One might consider me active.

Apparently not.

Here’s an article that might just blow you away and make you reconsider your lifestyle choices.

It said what?

Here’s a wee excerpt:

“How bad is sitting?

Growing evidence suggests that inactivity is a cause of obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and other metabolic diseases. This is the case even for those who meet general exercise guidelines, meaning exercising for an hour 3-5 times per week may not offset the negative health effects of being sedentary the rest of the day. In addition, sitting or being sedentary appears to still cause these issues when individuals follow a good nutrition plan.
Think of exercise as what you do for an hour to optimize your health. Movement is what you do throughout the day just to maintain basic metabolic health. The key is that it must be done daily.”

Damn.

Bad sitting. Bad.

Here I was thinking I was doing everything right, but apart from those very active ‘moments,’ I’m pretty sedentary. I sneak in as much writing time as I can. Usually Tuesdays and Thursdays are spent sitting at my chair from 9:00am – 9:00pm with breaks for water (both intake and outtake ;) and food scattered throughout. Saturdays and Sundays I’m usually wiped out and enjoy hanging around with the family, mostly sitting or reclining.



Ah, the weekend!

The Core3 article outlines a goal of 10,000 steps a day. A DAY! Even after two hours at the gym I’m not even close to hitting that target!

So, what’s a girl to do?
Grab the leash, enlist the dog, and get moving.

My Razz.

Walking. Often. For as little as fifteen minutes every hour or so helps knock down that daunting task to more manageable levels. It requires motivation, sure. Effort, absolutely. But, I’m not going to let my dreams of writing crash and burn because I couldn’t get up off the chair and move a little more every day. In order to do what we love, for as long as we can, we need to be healthy—body, mind, and soul.

So, what do you think? Are you ready to join me?

In gratitude,
Marissa xo