You are listening to your strongest body . Hi , I'm Betsy Foster , a certified strength and conditioning specialist and certified nutrition coach . I've worked as a personal trainer for over a decade , helping people build strength , speed , muscles , as well as a deep appreciation for their bodies and confidence that helps them live their life to the fullest .
Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Welcome back , hi , betsy , here , excited to have you back , excited for this episode today , because I am going to simplify things for you . I am going to bring some ease to your life .
The most common thing I hear from folks trying to reach fitness goals is that stress and time and difficulty are all standing in the way of them achieving their goals . We have an idea in our mind , that is , it has to be complicated for it to yield great results .
That simplicity , in fact , is the more guaranteed route to success , because the simpler and easier it is to do , the more likely you are to complete it , the more likely you are to be able to build on it and the faster and more consistently you can get to that goal . So we're going to talk about simplicity .
We're going to talk about ease today , and I'm going to give you four easy things that you can do today , this week , that are going to improve your progress toward your fitness goal . And I am here to say that I understand feeling overwhelmed . I understand feeling like you can't add one more thing to your plate . I think most people do .
I even think people at different stages of life do as well . I was going to say here I am a parent and a business owner , but people are doing lots of different things and feeling overwhelmed . People who are not parents are feeling overwhelmed . People who are students are feeling overwhelmed . People who are caretakers of parents are overwhelmed .
People who are juggling new transitions in life are overwhelmed . So everybody feels a sense of stress , and I'm not sure that anybody feels like they have boatloads of extra time to dedicate to things . And if that is you , then these four suggestions are for you .
Now there are lots of other things that you can do in addition to these four tips that are going to move the needle toward your fitness goals , and maybe there are going to be other ones that are probably more effective or yield greater results . What I'm talking today about is our easy ones .
Easy ones , things that you could start right now , things where the barrier to getting them done are so low that it feels so possible for you to complete these things .
And for a lot of people who are struggling with that overwhelm around what it is to get their workouts in , what it feels like to have to figure out food , what it feels like to have to prioritize all these things amongst everything else they have going on in their life , you need the easy route .
So let's get into these four things Again , realizing yes , there are other things that you could do , there are other things that may move the needle faster , but these things are gonna help you progress and you can get working on them right away . So , number one I want you to add in five to 10 minutes of non-exercise movement .
So one of the most overlooked helpful aspects of overall health and improving your fitness results is more movement in your day , more non-exercise movement .
From a calorie burn standpoint , from a heart health standpoint , more movement , being less sedentary , not just pushing hard in the gym , is really important , and if you can find a way to get five to 10 more minutes in today , that would be so helpful . Now you're thinking like I don't have 10 minutes .
Do you have four or five one minute bouts and what we're aiming for here is just getting up and moving . That could look like a lot of things . That could look like when you remember that you forgot to take the trash out . Getting up and going to do it rather than waiting and doing it the next day . Or it could be going for a brief walk .
I think that's what we think a lot , but sometimes we don't have to take a walk . Sometimes you can go up and down the stairs , sometimes you can turn on some music and dance around your living room . You can set up your mat and do some stretching during that time . That's movement .
Two this is , I believe , one of the big goals behind the stand goal on your Apple Watches if you have an Apple Watch , that's one of those goals here is that you're moving more frequently . You're spending less consecutive sedentary hours , but the watch is set up where you sometimes are just shaking your arm and I guess that is a non-exercise movement .
But you wanna get creative as well as lower the barrier for yourself . So can you do some chair stretches at your desk . That is going to just get your body moving , get things circulating and notice . I put in five to 10 minutes . The goal is probably to just move more generally during the day .
But if you can start with a five minute goal , two two and a half minute sessions or five one minute sessions however you're going to break it up is going to move the dial . It really is the next one . The next easy thing you can do is go to sleep five to 10 minutes earlier .
Now I know what you're saying , that one oftentimes really does not feel easy because so quickly the day gets away from us . But think about the time before bed . I don't know if you're like me , but I really appreciate some wind down time After my kids go to bed .
There are still a lot of tasks in the evening to get accomplished but and I want some wind down time I like to zone out . I say I like to zone out on my phone . I literally am on my phone for work a lot of the day , creating content and things . So sometimes that is frustrating to hear myself say that , but I do like to zone out .
Do I lose at easily five to 10 minutes there where I could have gone to bed earlier ? A hundred percent , 100% , and I know for me personally that that sleep is such a key factor in my ability to have the energy to approach my goals the next day , to move more , to train hard , to make food decisions in line with my goals .
If I am too tired , those go out the window . And we know that sleep is a restorative time for our bodies and essential for reducing stress and allowing us to be able to have energy the next day and for our muscles to be able to recover .
We need that sleep , and a running theme for everybody is this sort of like overstressed state that we experience , or most people experience . That gets in the way of us accomplishing our goals . And if you want to accomplish your goals and reduce your stress , you have got to sleep more . So I am not saying get a certain amount of hours .
I am not saying turn off electronics at a certain time . I think that can be really helpful and maybe when we talk sleep hygiene sometime we can talk about that . But what I'm saying right now is can you make five or 10 minutes earlier happen ? I don't know what that looks like for you .
Does that mean setting those app timers so you turn off the apps earlier , or setting a reminder on your phone . A lot of people have the sleep modes enabled on their watches or their phones and that can be really helpful .
Aiming for five to 10 minutes because the longer we can accomplish that goal , then another five to 10 minutes in the future is more possible and we can accumulate more sleep time over time . But remember we're aiming for ease with these four ease , so five to 10 minutes earlier . The third one is making time for mindful eating .
So you might be thinking like oh , when you're talking about nutrition , I wanna think about these vitamins or minerals , or I wanna think about these macro nutrients making the biggest deal , or I wanna think about cutting calories or adding calories or whatever that might be For your well-being , your overall progress to your fitness goals .
One of the easiest and most effective things you can do in terms of nutrition is focus on being more mindful while you eat . I had mentioned that sort of continually stressed state . We exist in this rushed sensibility that we all have .
If we can't find an extra five to 10 minutes to sleep and an extra five to 10 minutes to move , do you think that we're probably being very mindful while we're eating food ? No , whether that be , it's our zone out time when we're on a screen or whether we feel so rushed , we're not really paying attention to the bites that we're eating .
We're missing the opportunity to tune into our hunger and fullness cues as well as actually taste our food , which is an important part of communicating to our brain that we are satiated , that we enjoyed what we ate , that we recognize that we ate food already .
I know that sounds silly , but that's such a huge part and I think you don't realize how often you are eating without being aware of everything that goes into that and how much that impacts your body's awareness and your brain's awareness of whether you are full or not , whether you are satisfied or not , whether you have energy or not .
So , making time , even that same sort of strategy of five to 10 minutes , setting a timer at the start of dinner and for the first five minutes everybody's just gonna focus on what they eat and how it tastes and textures and smells and all of that that is going to be so useful for your brain . My daughter in preschool .
They had mindful eating as part of their lunchtime .
The first five or 10 minutes they were allowed to talk , they were eating and at first , when she said it , she's like we don't talk we're not allowed to talk at the beginning of lunch and I was kind of startled by it , but then I realized she's like we're gonna do mindful eating and while that is a skill she is still developing , what a gift to be reminded
that food and our times to eat should be about that as well . So standing in the kitchen because you have work to do and eating your lunch or eating your lunch at your desk , while we are a productivity culture , we have got to remind ourselves that for our overall health and wellbeing , we've got to bring attention to our food .
So finding some time today to be mindful about the food that you're eating . And lastly , the fourth easy thing is practicing some gratitude . Now , my friend and coworker and mentor at a time in my life I mean I guess he's still my mentor is Dwayne Brown .
He's a coach , online coach , and we work together as trainers in New York back in the day and he transformed his business and his own health journey by adding a gratitude practice and many people have done it , but he was kind of explaining to me how it worked with his clients and I had him on my coaches chat podcast and maybe he'll have an opportunity to
come back on here and talk about gratitude . So if we're rewiring our brain to be appreciative and to think about what we have , that's another big stress dial mover , and stress and stress management are critical when it comes to making fitness progress , especially long-term fitness progress . I know we've talked about this , but exercise is a stressor on the body .
Your life is probably stressful . We are just adding stress on stress on stress . How do we relieve that ? How do we find opportunities for deep breathing , for a pause , for that parasympathetic nervous system to kick in ? A gratitude practice is that , and it's as simple as writing down a single sentence about something you're grateful for every day .
That's an easy thing . That is an easy thing , and in a world where it feels like there are so many people who don't have as much to be grateful for , what a gift that you have the opportunity and the safety and the comfort to take a second and write down something you are grateful for . So I encourage you to do that today .
I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna continue to share a lot of that because I think that is so important . So let me remind you quickly of these four easy things that you can do today , this week , add five to 10 minutes of non-exercise movement , non-exercise movement into your day . Go to sleep five to 10 minutes earlier .
Focus your attention on mindful eating , even if it's four , five to 10 minutes of your meal , and start some kind of gratitude practice , which might just be as simple as writing down one thing you're grateful for today . All right , go do the easy stuff and see what it does for your overall transformation and your movement toward your fitness goals .
I wanna remind you of the giveaway that I have going on . If you share the podcast , either in your Instagram stories , text message or email , or however you wanna do it , and you share that with me , you'll be entered , for every one of those shares , into the drawing for the four $15 Starbucks gift cards .
You have until November 12th , and I'll draw those on November 13th . Again , I am so appreciative . The thing that I am grateful for today is that you would take the time to listen to this episode . If you wanna talk to me , you can email me , betsy , at bfosterstrongcom , or you can send me an Instagram DM at foster underscore strength .
Until next time , go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you soon . Bye , I'll see you soon .