You’ve heard the message before – from your doctor, from your family, from your friends – we all need to be more active and move our body to achieve and maintain good health.

Once you’ve made the decision to be more active, the biggest challenge is how to fit activity into your life.  Not having the time or resources to be physically active are common barriers.    In fact, many excellent physical activities are free and can be added into your daily routine. 

AT HOME, AT WORK, AT PLAY OR ON THE WAY…

BE ACTIVE YOUR WAY, EVERYDAY!

-         Go for a walk or a run

-         Go dancing or ice skating

-         General gardening such as pulling weeds or raking leaves

-         Clean up!  Do some dusting, mopping or vacuuming.

-         Go for swim or play tennis

-         Learn to canoe or walk the woods of Point Pelee, looking for rare species of birds

-         Try walking or riding your bike to work

-         Join a intramural sports league, such as volleyball or squash

-         “Work out” at the gym or join an aerobics class

-         Try yoga, T’ai Chi, or Pilates

Each and every activity has its place and each and every activity can make a big difference to your health.  Different activities appeal to different people, so pick one that YOU enjoy and try new things often.

When you are first starting out, you may decide to slowly build activity into your day by making everyday activities a little “more active”… this is the concept of active living.  Active living means you make active choices whenever you can…

-         Taking the stairs instead of taking the elevator

-         Parking two blocks further from work and walking an extra 5 minutes

-         Riding your bike to the store to pick up milk instead of driving

You may be someone who prefers a more structured “exercise” program.  For example, you may choose to join a fitness or health club and “work out” three times a week.  Or, you may decide to go swimming or skating every Tuesday and Thursday for 30 minutes.  Or, you may want to join a martial arts club and train every Saturday morning.

No matter what you decide, your body will benefit!