Exercise is the same way as your diet. There are some easy common-sense things you can keep in mind to include in your negotiations. Here is a short list of some easy ideas:
- Take a brisk twenty-minute walk every day. As long as you raise your heart rate (REASONABLY—we don’t need any heart attacks) for twenty minutes we are doing ourselves a favor. Our cardio is improving, we are burning calories and we aren’t hurting ourselves. This could be a good opportunity to multi-task and do your daily briefing with your partner while you’re walking.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator when possible.
- Go for a swim or walk in the pool a couple of times a week. Again, great for our cardio without beating our bodies to pieces.
- Get in the habit of stretching. It keeps our joints and muscles strengthened and working as they should. If your physical condition only allows a limited amount of moving, no problem. Look into isometrics. Your doctor can probably suggest some good ones. They require very little movement but still let you work each muscle group.
- If you can go to the gym, find a pick-up game in the park, or join a Zumba class, great. If not, don’t sweat it. Just find some way of getting yourself moving. If you are somewhere that you can do it outside safely, so much the better. Fresh air is great, but if not, a brisk session of housecleaning can accomplish the same thing.
Check out our 28 day challenge to get you started.
The important thing here is be REASONABLE and do something. Far too many of us have jobs that keep us in a sedentary state. We are sitting on our butts for eight to ten hours a day, every day, because we have to in order to feed our families. Then we are tired and just don’t feel like exercising. Believe us, we understand this situation. The trick here, though, is not only to recognize the situation but to do something to change it.
This program allows you the opportunity to do just that. Many of you will have a partner with whom you have negotiated certain things. Your partner can hold you accountable while allowing you the opportunity to satisfy that inner need to submit to someone. It’ll be easier to get up off the couch and take that walk when you know you’re pleasing your partner by following the terms you’ve negotiated. If you don’t have a partner, it just means that you have to do both parts and hold yourself accountable. The fact that you are reading this book shows you have the desire. All you have to do now is have the confidence that you can do it. We have that confidence in you.