Which Are You? A Workweek Exercise Champion or Bench-Warmer?

Before 2012 I was a professional bench warmer without an excuse! As a work-from-home parent of three kids juggling my work, taking care of my family, and dropping the ball on my wellness, I struggled. At my annual check-up, my doctor informed me that I was on the cusp of being "obese." I did try to diet, but nothing happened. I told myself that I didn't have time to exercise. I scheduled workouts in my calendar but rarely made it to my local YMCA. Something always came up, or I was too drained to get off my butt. So I'd "reschedule it." Confession: I didn't have an excuse since I lived less than 500 steps from a new YMCA! It was hard because I had heard all the crazy stuff about sitting disease and how if I kept sitting most of my days, it would increase my risks, and if I kept doing that, bad things would happen. It was when I quit the YMCA, quit trying to diet, and instead figured out what I could practically do to integrate activity into every part of my life. Within the first six months, I lost and kept off 35lb/16kg, rediscovered my energy, and made progress on mitigating my chronic back pain. I have become a workweek exercise champion. In the past decade, I have walked the distance around the Earth - while I work. It was a mindset shift; everything I do in my day can be exercise, whether it's a long route back from the bathroom or walking a little further to get a takeout lunch. It all adds up.

Whilst I've always tried to be fit and regularly play team sports and go for runs, etc, prior to 2015 my daily steps would fluctuate from 20K one day to 2K the next. One thing that turned that around and ensured I now comfortably get more than 10K worth of steps in a day was when a colleague of mine, @jade_mack, introduced a 'run club' to the company we were both working at, at the time. The concept was just to get people moving and to share what they were doing to 'move', so it wasn't just limited to running, however as soon as I started paying daily attention to how much (or little) I had walked, it just changed my whole mentality to it. The little changes like parking a bit further away, going for walking meetings when the weather is nice, or just forcing myself to use that 10 minute gap between meetings to walk up and down the street saw my average skyrocket and provide a range of other benefits as well.

Definitely a Workweek Champion! I love to help businesses build a culture of connection through team fitness initiatives and am very conscious about role modelling wellbeing myself as a leader. I've always found that lunch time 'run clubs' and company funded team workouts are a great way to get people away from their screens & moving their bodies. Walking meetings are an excellent way to build in movement while still staying 'productive' on the work front, and adding in an 'active' component can really supercharge team events (for example, we've planned a really cool Amazing Race challenge for the team to do together at this years Christmas party, before we sit down for dinner / drinks). At the very least, I often encourage people to "book-end" their days with a walk - first thing in the morning before they open up the laptop and after work as they shut it down. Not only will the walks help people get their steps in, they also act as a 'third space' that can help you transition better into work-mode or switch off effectively and slip into family-mode.