In a lighter vein:

Daily Sweat

by Lionel Wijesiri

Three years ago, reading the Health Page often made me really uncomfortable. Almost every other week it kept telling me that exercise was essential to good health, and this acquired knowledge began to nag me.

“But what could I do?” I thought to myself. Between work and family plus trying to get adequate sleep, and maybe squeeze in a social life, I didn’t know how I could possibly fit exercise in, too.

But I fitted in —seamlessly, in fact—and it was easy. I could reap both the physical and mental benefits of regular exercise, keep the rest of my life on track, and ditch the guilt.For years, I lived with daily excuses why I didn’t have time to sweat. And the busier I got, the more justified I felt in my excuses.

However, the truth was elsewhere. It’s funny how it seems we set up life sometimes to disserve us more than to serve us.It happened this way. Two years ago, I checked my lipid profile and read the numbers that shocked me back into self honesty.

The self awareness that arrived with a doctor telling me that I was clinically susceptible for heart attack pushed me to my justification and rationalization limits.I was no longer able or willing to lie to myself. It was as simple as that. And my health, my very life, was truly what was at stake.

I simply had to make a change, but I didn’t have the necessary discipline to initially make the change. “Just 30 minutes a day make a huge difference,” the Doctor said. But I already knew it wasn’t there and told him so. He gave me an option. “Instead of trying to find a 30-minute chunk of time divide it into smaller pieces”.He gave me a copy of a story written by Connie Tyne - Executive Director of internationally reputed Cooper Institute of Aerobics Research in Dallas, Texas.

“One common misconception about exercise,” she says, “is the volume theory—that a large volume of exercise is required for improvement in health and well being.... The truth is this only applies if you’re seeking a very high level of fitness or you’re going to be a competitive athlete....

Our research has shown that among men and women 45 and older who don’t exercise vigorously, those who start walking the equivalent of an hour a week—which is breaking it down into very small pieces—can lower their risk of coronary artery disease by half.”

So it wasn’t that difficult. It’s encouraging to know that we don’t have to exercise in the way we may normally picture exercising—working out on special equipment, jogging, or playing a sport—to reap the benefits. We can, instead, weave exercise into everyday activities so that we cease to think of it as exercise at all.

Many common activities like sweeping or mopping the floor, vacuuming, polishing furniture, carrying and putting away groceries, cleaning out closets, washing woodwork, raking leaves, pulling weeds, playing with our children, and walking the dog will count as aerobic exercise.

If you take this message to your heart, you could end up with the cleanest house, best-looking garden, and the happiest children and pets of anyone we know! And above all, you may become one of the healthiest guy or gal in town.