Are you feeling stagnant and need help getting moving again? In this episode, Dr. Elyssa provides some easy and quick tips to get your body moving again – and stay moving!
Intro: 0:13
Welcome to Balancing Holistic Mamas podcast. My name is Dr. Elyssa Wright, and I am so excited to be here with you today. I work with moms, babies, and mamas to be covering all types of topics to help make raising a family easier. Whether it be fertility, pregnancy questions about pediatric fevers, or just trying to figure out how to live more holistically. We will cover that and more here on this podcast. I’m a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner, and I’ve spent the past decade of my life dedicated to helping families live healthy, happy lives. So I can’t wait to get started.
Dr. Elyssa: 1:03
Hey mamas, welcome back to Balancing Holistic Mamas. I am Dr. Elyssa Wright. And today we’re gonna talk about a topic that is, I want to go ahead and say overwhelming for all of my moms, and that is accountability with movement. You know, I get lots of interesting conversation about this. I don’t have time. I don’t like it. It hurts my body. My kids are my number one priority, and that whole list goes on and on and on. So I’ve come up with a quick and easy way to set yourself up for success. At the end of the day, we’re going to have good days. We’re going to have bad days. We’re going to have days where there’s zero movement whatsoever and you can’t get off the couch because you have a crying baby and you were just there feeding and bouncing and nursing the whole day through. And then you have days where you’re gonna feel great and you’re going to bounce up and get in a six mile run or whatever it is that really lights you up. So my goal is to give you some tips and tricks to help you hold yourself accountable, so that way you’re set up for success. And I found that if you’re set up for success with movement, you began to do it. So Mama Poff is here with us again today, and it looks like you might have some thoughts.
Mama Poff: 2:31
Well, I’m thinking about movement, right? And with kids, and I feel like we’re in isolation right now. We have quarantine still. And my movement right now consists of going from our second floor to the first floor, to the basement and walking around the yard with them or just something. And like my movement definition, I feel like might be different from yours. Can you, are we talking about getting up and moving? Are we preparing for like a 60 mile marathon?
Dr. Elyssa: 3:00
We’re talking about it all. So when I talk about movement, it’s moving purposefully. So the walking around the house is great. Yes, we’re moving. But my version of movement is okay I can only be within my home right now. So instead of going down the stairs to get my job done, I’m going to go up and down the stairs for five minutes and get my exercise movement in. And then I’m going to go do what I need to do. So for me, movement is going above and beyond your everyday activity. But beyond that, I don’t put parameters around it because not everybody wants to be training for a 5K not everybody wants to be on a bicycle or doing CrossFit or doing weights. So it’s above and beyond what you normally do.
Mama Poff: 3:51
So someone to get started, right? If you’re going from totally stagnant, maybe let’s say, should start to set some goals. You know, maybe it’s walking so many times so many minutes each day, or right. Like there should be like this progressive.
Dr. Elyssa: 4:07
Absolutely. And I always start with is with my moms, especially the biggest problem is actually finding the time to make you a priority. So telling a mom, Hey, you need to go out and you need to walk alone for 30 minutes every day. Compliance is shot.
Mama Poff: 4:29
Yeah. For me, if you said it to me, I get overwhelmed with guilt. Like, what do you mean 30 minutes? That 30 minutes delays getting dinner ready. That delays 30 minutes that we could have done this, or,
Dr. Elyssa: 4:39
Yep. And that is a common conversation that I hear over and over and over again. So for me, it’s about starting with five minutes, but it’s not the amount of time it’s finding where that five minutes works best in your day. So you wake up five minutes earlier and try moving five minutes in the morning first thing. How does it feel? What does it do to your schedule? Where’s your guilt at? Do you enjoy it? Do you hate it? Make mental notes next day, you do it during your lunch break. How does it feel there? Then you do before dinner. How does it feel there? Then you do it after dinner. How does it feel there? So you just kind of bounce around and it’s about finding a time that you feel really good doing it.
Mama Poff: 5:27
Yeah. It’s figuring out what your best natural rhythm is.
Dr. Elyssa: 5:31
Exactly. Exactly. So that’s where I always start when it comes to movement and accountability in my practice.
Mama Poff: 5:42
So what are types of movement? Walking, stretching,
Dr. Elyssa: 5:47
Walking, stretching, yoga, pilates, strength, training, um, the online workout classes. People you love hate relationship with that. Going to a gym. I think gyms are almost starting to open most places right now. Running, biking, rollerblading, playing basketball with your kids in the yard, doing squats while bouncing your baby to sleep. You know, anything that you’re purposely thinking about, I’m moving more than what I would normally be doing. Cause I have found over the years, if you start moving more, you start enjoying moving. And then next thing you know, it’s habit.
Mama Poff: 6:34
Well, it’s like, I can’t, if I’m not running at all today and I want to do a five mile marathon tomorrow and I start running five miles, I’m going to die and I’m going to hate it and be like, I’m out. I’m not doing this again.
Dr. Elyssa: 6:49
All of us do that. So it’s how to find it. And I mean, I was my own Guinea pig on this because I can tell ya, I didn’t want to move. And I was like, what’s the problem? Like, why don’t I want to move? What’s the deal. What’s the hangup. And I started going through my objections of: it doesn’t feel good, I’m sore, I’m too tired. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough energy and you just start going through. So that’s the piece. That is part one of what I tell my patients is act fast, act fast.
Mama Poff: 7:30
I feel another Dr. E acronym coming along.
Dr. Elyssa: 7:34
I love my acronyms. Act fast. The “ACT” is taking everything to get yourself set up for success. So it’s addressing all those objections that we’ve been going over. “C” is clearing your calendar. So starting with five minutes a day and blacking out five minutes, that’s your movement time period. And the goal is to get up to 30 minutes to an hour a day. That’s the end goal is to get all the way up there, but start small and build towards the longer time. So black it out. It’s nonnegotiable, it’s there. Period. The “T” is to time chunk your day. So what I notice a lot of the time is we are taking care of food, taking care of kids, taking care of laundry, taking care of sleep, taking care of prep, taking care of, taking care. And we’re in 1 million different places all at the same time. And when we are completely scattered, our energy is completely scattered, which means we have less energy to get to the movement piece of our day. So what I recommend is on Saturday or Sunday, whatever your get ready for the next week day is to sit down and look at a calendar of the week and time chunk it out. So, you know, this is when I’m meal prepping. This is when I’m laundry. This is where I’m prepping for school. This is where I’m making the baby food. Time chunk it out. So that way you can actually see how much time you still have.
A: Address Objectives
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F: Find a Friend
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Mama Poff: 9:16
It sounds like such a simple task, but I think there’s such a power of visually seeing the things that you have to get done. And there’s so many subliminal things that happen. I mean, I know we’re going a little off the cuff of chiropractic support, but the power of accountability to help your holistic health comes and do when you can see on paper and a calendar, all the things that you’re trying to do, you want to get them all done right away, but you just can’t. So it helps you now mentally balance your week to help you now physically balance your add on of sustaining some more health and bringing more health in.
Dr. Elyssa: 9:57
Yup, absolutely. Because overwhelm is real and it’s real intense right now. So just taking that time to be like, Hey, even though I feel busy, I felt, feel overwhelmed when you can see like, Oh wait, no, I have, I have more time. It’s just visualizing it. So that way you don’t get gets rid of some of that guilt associated with movement.
Mama Poff: 10:22
Yeah. I love it. So that’s the first part. So let’s just recap, “ACT” clear out those objections. You know, it hurts. I don’t want to it whenever the negatives are addressed them and get honest, get real about them.
Dr. Elyssa: 10:37
Yup. Then clear your schedule, commit. Yeah, go, Hey, this is a priority. I’m going to do it. And then time chunk your day. So that way you can see where it is, which is going to help with those objections.
Mama Poff: 10:54
Well just back to that “C” to clear your schedule. One of the things is I used to run an accountability group for independent women, business owners. And one of the things we would say with that, what you’ve said clear your schedule and how you said blackout a time, the other, for our business moms out there and our working moms treat that time as if it’s your very best client. You would never reschedule that appointment with that very best client. And you would never be late for that appointment with your very best client. You know, you treat that time so sacred for them. You have to treat your time the same way.
Dr. Elyssa: 11:37
Absolutely. And that’s a great way of putting it. I mean, I think a piece with health that we always forget is we get our body and without our body, we’re not doing all the other things. So truly remembering that and knowing that what you, how you treat your body is going to just show in every other thing you do in your life.
Mama Poff: 12:01
Awesome.
Dr. Elyssa: 12:02
All right. So first we’re acting to get ourselves already. And then fast, the F is find a friend. As women, we are community driven. We are conversation driven. We are social creatures. And when you say something out loud to somebody like, Hey, I’m doing this thing, I’m going to move five minutes a day. This week, every day, five minutes a day, will you hold me to it? When you ask somebody to hold you to something, it instantly makes you accountable. And then to up level it, ask them to join you.
Mama Poff: 12:46
Well, it’s like back to weight loss, right? Like the, one of the powers of some of the most popular, well advertised weight loss programs out there. They want you to come into the space to do a weight check or you log into the app to do a weight check. And, and I’ve said this to some of my teams before, if you don’t tell anybody what you’re trying to do, and then you eat that bag of chips, who’s going to yell at you about that. Nobody. So if you can there’s, but there’s so many ways people can do that today. Right? They can do it by virtual friendship. They can do it by in person friendship. They can do it with apps, but they have to, there’s a power of verbally saying what your goal is to somebody else instead of just thinking it to yourself.
Dr. Elyssa: 13:41
Yup. Yup. And I recommend saying it to somebody outside of your household. It ups the game. It ups the game and it’s pretty easy. When someone in your household sees you not doing it, it can get a little sassy.
Mama Poff: 14:01
For sure. Absolutely. So find someone outside of your home. Like, did you walk today?
Dr. Elyssa: 14:08
And do it together! There is power in vocalizing. It there’s power in numbers. Like stuff will start to happen. Um, and when you know, you can go socially out again, then you do those walks together. You do that movement together. So next up find a friend and then the key to success is accessible movement. So what I mean by that is if you only have five minutes a day, your movement is not going to be driving 30 minutes to go to a gym. It doesn’t make any sense. You’re going to be stressed. You’re going to be overwhelmed. It’s going to end up taking two hours of your day. Like that’s not accessible for some people right now. Other people, it might be a one want to do a home workout. But so this once again falls into objections. So I like to brainstorm and make a list of all the different things you could do to add movement into your day.
Dr. Elyssa: 15:10
Like what can you do with just your body? You can hold a plank for 30 seconds. You can go up and down stairs. You can go walking and then, okay, Hey, I have these two hand weights. What can I do with this? And YouTube and Google and all of the videos.
Just make sure in our show notes that we give like a handful of bullets to give some, our listeners, some tangible ideas, right in front of them that they could just filter through. And I know you, you are a certified yoga instructor, so maybe you have some of your favorite YouTube channels or like let’s give them power. Let’s give them an inventory of things to come through to see what would fit best for them.
Movement Idea Bank for Rain or Shine
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Dr. Elyssa: 15:53
Absolutely. So we’ll get you guys a ton of ideas, but think outside the box. Um, I think fitness in the US has really turned into going to the gyms, doing interval training, doing just high intensity stuff. And there’s so much more to it. I like to think European of how do they get their movement in? Oh, they’re walking to the grocery store, they’re walking along nature. There’s just more movement every day. So how can you put more movement into your everyday life?
Mama Poff: 16:30
And that’s less intimidating to do, right? Absolutely. It’s inundated on social and on the news of get your 14 day free, intense cardio, bloobidy blob, extensive thing. And I just wonder how many people are grabbing onto it from when they’re from stagnant to that, you know, this is going to be their nice kickoff point.
Dr. Elyssa: 16:54
Yep. And a lot of the times it’s like gyms in January, they are jam packed with everybody and February comes along and done. Everyone’s kind of fallen off. So I’m a big believer in do something that you can do anywhere with nothing. Um, and it just really sets you up. Cause once again, we’re setting up our bodies, we’re setting up our minds, we’re setting up our system for a habit. And if the only way you’re gonna move is if you go to a gym and then you don’t have two hours one day, what are you going to do then? So it’s setting up the habits and shifting the conversation around movement. All right. So we have finding a friend accessible movement and next step is the “S” stay the course. So how I like to do this is you, when your kids are doing chores and you do the sticker chart,
Mama Poff: 17:53
Got one of those
Dr. Elyssa: 17:55
As adults, we need a sticker chart. Um, there’s something super empowering about blacking it out, checking it off the list. I have done my movement for the day period. Woo. And the S goes into the T, which is treat yourself. So when you stay the course, treat yourself. Well, my personal favorite is a bowl of ice cream because that’s my jam. But that’s the fun part about it is do something that makes you super happy. I mean, for some people going to the movies, having a snack that you never normally have telling your spouse, like, Hey, I got my moment. I’m going to go sit for 30 minutes in my favorite place and read a book. Whatever your thing is that really, really lights you up. And it needs to be something that you don’t do normally. Like it needs to be something that lights you up as that. Yes, I did it. This is my pat, on the back.
Mama Poff: 18:59
That’s awesome.
Dr. Elyssa: 19:01
Yep. And so with the state, of course, there’s some really cool planners and exercise trackers out there that will list in the show notes, but there’s some fun circle ones that you can make a design. If you’re more of a visual artistic person, I’m more of a checklist person. So I use a journal that I can check off my exercise for the day, my meditation for the day, my gratitude for the day. Cause I’m just more of a linear person where I want to see it all in a list. And there’s also things like bullet journaling that you can keep track of it. So there’s tons of different options for whatever fills up you.
Dr. Elyssa’s Favorite Journals
Mama Poff: 19:41
So let me ask you now a chiropractic question. So as our listeners start to incorporate more movement into their routines, you know, instead of just making the home to do list and the work to do list, now they’re going to add self care into those, to do lists. What are some things they should be trying to be in tune with and aware of, of when it’s time to call the chiropractor versus doctor or whatever? Like what are some flags? Because clearly if I’m going from stagnant to something, something’s going to shake up something somewhere.
Dr. Elyssa: 20:20
Yep. So chiropractic our main thing, what we are amazingly good at is muscles and joints. So when you start moving, if you start to notice a knee bothering you an ankle bothering you, a hip bothering you, all of those are little signs that there is something in your joints and muscles that are not moving and working the right way. So what I always like to say is when you notice something, come up, make a mental note of it. And some of it is just your muscles turning back on and your body recalibrating and rebalancing all that’s good. The same thing starts to come up three, four days. That’s the trigger point of it’s “Hey, I should check in with the chiropractor and make sure everything’s aligned so that way I can keep going.” Pain is a very good signal that something is up in your system.
Dr. Elyssa: 21:17
And most of the time you’ll notice little aches and pains as you start adding movement into your life. So you have to kind of let it shake out for a day or two, but if it’s intense pain, if it’s sharp, if it’s like, ah, I can’t handle this that’s number one, sign to go look at the mechanics of your body. And that is chiropractic.
Mama Poff: 21:36
So stay in tune with your body and be alert and aware and tracking that timeframe to have, if there is discomfort of any sorts, keep that within your calendar planner, trackability tools too.
Dr. Elyssa: 21:52
yup. Yup, absolutely. So that way you get a big picture of what’s your body doing. Um, and if weight loss is part of what your goal is too, I don’t recommend tracking your weight every day because it can fluctuate five to seven pounds every day based on water weight. So I don’t recommend that, but you know, maybe that’s a once a month thing or every other week thing. But you can also put in that tracking planner. So tracking all those things are huge. And then in a future episode, we’re going to talk about the power of cleansing and detoxification and how you can really jumpstart so many other layers within this movement and self-care piece.
So a quick recap of act fast one, get yourself set up for success. Address objections, clear your schedule and time chunk your day, and then to get moving, find a friend, accessible movement, stay the course and treat yourself. So hopefully this helped gives you guys some good ideas, tips, and tricks to help make moving in your everyday life. A little bit easier and a little bit more relaxed.
Thanks mamas for joining us today. I hope that you are gaining some valuable tips to help live a more balanced life for you and your family. If you like what you heard, please leave us a review on iTunes and share it with your friends. You can visit us at balancingmamas.com to submit any speaker recommendations or topic recommendations and stay up to date until next time, bye!
