challenges

Do what moves you most.

OperationMove · February 12, 2014 · 13 Comments

For as long as I have known her, which is a pretty long time now, my best friend has played netball.

For about the same amount of time I have considered her completely insane. You’d think, with my relatively newfound love of fitness, that I would have embraced her netball playing ways. But I haven’t, and I still think she’s a little unhinged to enjoy copping elbows in the ribs and being pushed around by scary women wearing initials that I’m pretty sure stand for ‘Gut Shover’ and ‘Woman Attacker’. But hey, that’s why she plays it and I don’t.

And in fairness, I’ve spent an awful lot of my life thinking that all those runners were pretty loopy too. I’d see them sweating and panting and wonder what on earth could drive a person to do such a thing.

Turns out, feeling COMPLETELY BLOODY AWESOME is a pretty good motivator, and when I’m in the car and see people running now I just want to wind down my window and hit them with some Eye of the Tiger and a big thumbs up. I’ve yet to actually do that, and my husband often tells me to stop staring at the runners, but one day. One day.

But here’s the thing. My bestie has taken up running in the past six months and I keep waiting for her to love it like I do. And she just doesn’t. She likes how she feels after a run, but the actual running isn’t her favourite. Because we aren’t the same person.

Huh.

I see people raving about their personal trainers, and how much they love bootcamp. I think to myself if I want people to yell at me to do stuff I can just get out of bed in the morning. My kids totally have that covered. But some people thrive on it and that is their thing. If it gets you moving and loving it, then that is awesome!

Other people are mad keen cyclists. I have been trying to embrace the bike, but you know my bum still says no. It is a fun thing to do now and again with the kids, but I’m never gonna be the one out there punching the air because I rode up a mountain. Because I am never going to ride up a mountain. I’ll leave that to people who don’t mind feeling like their legs might fall off.

I will however run. And when I can’t run I will walk, because that makes me feel really great and happy too.

The biggest secret to going from a ‘fitness kick’ to a lifestyle change is liking it. It is that simple.

Some days I just cannot be bothered, but because I know that even the junkiest run will leave me feeling like a million bucks I will do it anyway. If I had to get up and play netball I might never get out of bed again. Running is my thing. It makes me feel strong and grounded and amazing.

Maybe you haven’t found your thing yet?

Try something new.

Go for a walk. And tell us every time you head out the door, because the best props come from people who get it. Trust me on this.

Learn to run. We all started with the first step, and maybe you’ll love it and maybe you won’t, but you’ll have given it a go.

Check out Crossfit, or a local gym, or book a session with a personal trainer. Or call my house at 8.15am any given morning and I’ll put one of my kids on the phone to yell at you. Mates rates.

Just give it a go. Nothing to lose and everything to gain.

What moves you?

#walk400 – moving on and moving up!

OperationMove · January 25, 2014 · 8 Comments

We are rapidly reaching the end of January, despite my best efforts to drag out the long days of Summer holidays with my kids.

I will admit that I didn’t think #walk400 would be that much fun for me. I’d been sulking about not being able to run and I felt like it would be a pretty poor second best to my usual running training.

I could not have been more wrong. I have spent hours enjoying the sunshine and the countryside where I live. I have listened to fabulous podcasts, I have had beautiful conversations with my children when they’ve joined me, and I’ve been able to take some gorgeous photos as well. All things that I can’t do when I run.

So many of you have already smashed through 400 minutes of walking, which is fantastic! I know many are very close to it and some may not quite get there this month. But isn’t the very best thing about goals that whether you reach them or not, you always have the ability to make new ones?

So as we wind up the challenge for this month, we are asking you where you want to go next.

We have two options for you to think about over the next few days.

Maybe you are loving walking and want to keep going. Fantastic! In February we’ll be asking you to extend yourself a little with #Feb450. Our current forum group will continue but be renamed #Feb450 because we know you have that extra 50 minutes in you! And just like this month we will have some prizes on offer too, stay tuned for more details on those.

Maybe having walked for the month you think you might like to learn to run? Guess what! Our wonderful life coach Lee from Brightside Coaching will be running a group just for you! And it is for EVERYONE and ANYONE who wants to give it a try. You do not have to have run a day in your life before, you just have to be willing to try something new. Who knows, you may end up as crazy about it as Zoey and I are! And if you don’t that’s fine too, because you will know you tried something different and challenged yourself.

So what amazing thing are you going to attempt in February? For me, February will see a return to running training and I’ll be sharing that in the Moving Machines section for the loopers who are going a bit hard core. If you’re a casual mover you might like to jump in to I like to move and make some friends there, and if you are brand new to this moving gig you can find your crew at New Movers.

So what is your February plan?

Congratulations Michelle @twolilcrickets who has won the #walk400 She Science gift voucher this week! We’ve loved watching you smash this challenge!

#walk400 – creating habits

OperationMove · January 18, 2014 · 12 Comments

We’re at that stage of the month where many of our #walk400 participants will start to do one of two things;

1) They will realise that walking more is making them feel really good, and find ways to prioritise and keep going with it

2) They will quietly slip away from the group, and stop making the time for themselves.

Wisdom is that it takes three weeks to break a habit. As a 20 year smoker who quite last September I can tell you that isn’t always true, but let’s go with the idea that the converse IS true: that it takes three weeks to create a habit.

We’ve been walking for around three weeks now. Most of you who are new to moving will be at the crossroads where YOU decide the value of it within your life. You might be starting to see and feel the physical benefits (which increase greatly the longer you go on) and maybe you are reaping some emotional rewards as well.

But it is still easy to put yourself back at the bottom of the list. I know, I’ve spent a long time doing that too.

Here’s the thing that gets me out the door every morning right now, even when it is crazy hot… I am worth it.

That half hour of repetitive motion can be enough to set my mood for the entire day. I may walk out the door cranky at everyone but I’ve never walked back in feeling that way.

My family deserve a wife and Mum who is calm and happy and feels good about herself.

Your family does too.

Do you feel like you are embracing the moving habit? If you are finding it tricky, pop into the forums and yell out… we’ve all been there too and want to support your moving journey!

To help support this new fabulous habit of yours, we will be sharing two new challenges for February. Be sure to check in next weekend to find out more about those!

And congratulations Amy (Mrs Smyth) you’ve won our She Science gift voucher this week! Thanks for sharing such fabulous #walk400 photos and joining in the forums with us!

With just over a week to go, will you reach your 400 minutes?

The 400 Walking Challenge

OperationMove · December 30, 2013 · 8 Comments

You know what the best kind of exercise is? The one you enjoy. That is the essence of Operation Move. Not running, not cycling, not races. But getting out there and doing what you enjoy to do.

And as far as exercises go, walking is a pretty outstanding one. In fact if we were going to get all technical it’s probably superior in terms of health benefits to most other exercises out there. It keeps your heart rate in the optimal fat burning zone. It’s low impact. It strengthens your bones and improves your fitness.

I love the flexibility of walking. You can do it with friends and still have a conversation, I can take my camera with me and do a bit of a photo walk, I can combine it with a bike ride with the kids and there have been many times when I’ve been not able to run when walking has been my best friend.

In January we’d like to kickstart with a walking challenge. I think you’ll probably love it as much as I do. I picked 400 minutes because half an hour, three times a week is about when those health benefits start kicking in and if I did my math correctly it would also work out to be about a full marathon distance over the course of the month which I thought was pretty cool.

Want to take up the challenge? Join the group here. Make sure you post your walks in the group (either a link to your workout or picture of it on your phone) or associated forum because we will be giving out prizes for longest distance, fastest pace, longest overall distance and greatest elevation. And if you’d like to share on social media you can use the hashtag #walk400challenge.

The lovely Deana will be doing the challenge with you and will be moderating the group and forum to make sure that you get all the inspiration and support you need!

Think you can aim for more than 400? I enthusiastically support that. I’d love to hear your goals either here in the comments or in our group.