Where there’s a will, there’s a way….#59 of our Healthy Lifestyle Challenges

In July 2014, program dietitian Vicki Bovee and her husband, Bill, committed to do a weekly challenge for a year to improve their health and lifestyle. Vicki and Bill decided to tackle a variety of challenges to eat better, eat and live more mindfully, and improve physical health and emotional well-being. They successfully completed a year of challenges but that didn’t mean they were finished because there is always room for improvement.  

 Challenge #59…. Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Well, this wasn’t a weekly or monthly challenge. This challenge was to get through the recent bad weather and still do 30 minutes daily of physical activity. Like many of you, I have been slipping and sliding on the ice to get to work. Once I get to work I am good with the exercise.  I just have to go down to St. Mary’s Fitness Center on the first floor. Love that gym! My days off were another story.

So last Saturday the roads were still icy and it was snowing again. On Sunday we had the Vancouver-like all day downpour. I told Bill we had no business going out and needed to stay put at home. Now he is working on his 100 Day Gong of 30 minutes daily of physical activity and since he was on day 65 he didn’t want to blow it and have to start over. He lamented he wouldn’t get it in. Oh, ye of little faith.  Yes, we can and yes, we will. We have a variety of hand weights. We have resistance bands. We have a Bosu balance ball. We have a stability ball. And we have great workout music on my iPod. We don’t’ have a treadmill or other cardio equipment so that meant making the most of our floor plan.

We got in our 30 minutes without problem. In fact, we both got our heart rates up, broke a sweat and had to open the door to let in cooler air. The goal was just to keep moving arms and legs for 30 minutes. We walked around the house sideways, backwards, and frontwards with hand weights. We did lunges, squats, and even some dancing. I did push-ups and planks.

Those 30 minutes didn’t get me close to my 10,000 steps a day so I had to literally step up the plan. Since our plan for both days was to watch the football playoffs (Go Pack!), I figured I better get up during the commercials and walk around the house. I didn’t hit 10,000 steps but I did get over 9,000 steps each day and I NEVER LEFT THE HOUSE. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

We proved to ourselves that a successful home workout can be done and it was easier than we thought. In fact, we both enjoyed it. Imagine that. High fives. We now have our Plan B in place. Certainly we will get more bad weather but that doesn’t mean you have to sit all day and watch TV. Develop your plan to move no matter what is going outside your home. Any movement is better than no movement.

Eat Smarter…
Vicki Bovee, MS, RDN, LD