Monday Motivation--Increase your activity!

While you might feel exhausted, exercise helps manage stress, suppress appetite, and improve mood, so don’t try to manage your schedule by cutting back on your exercise routine. Just 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise provides incredible health benefits. Consider adding a morning workout or two each week during the holiday season. You’ll get the workout in, and save time from going later in the day and having to shower and clean-up twice in one day. On those days when you can’t fit in a 30 minute workout, remember that “three 10 minute bouts of brisk walking accumulated throughout the day are at least as effective as one continuous bout of equal total duration in reducing cardiovascular risk and improving mood” (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, vol. 34, no. 9, pp 1468-1474). Something, even 10 minutes, is better than nothing.