Today I want to offer some keep fit tips for writers. I love writing, but there is a downfall and that is that fact that most of the time I’m sitting down. Sitting down, of course, means not moving about, burning off calories, or keeping my body flexible. It’s the bane of many writers and when you add my major sweet tooth into the equation, the weight has been slowing creeping up since over the past couple of years.

Hitting 40 didn’t help either and if it’s true what they say about your metabolism slowing down as you age, mine is probably at a standstill. I’m only 5 foot and petite so excess weight really doesn’t look good and what’s more, it plays havoc with my mental health too. I hate not having a flat stomach. It’s the thing that really bothers me and so when I returned from my holidays in early July, I made it my mission to concentrate on my health and fitness.

How’s My Fitness Regime Going?

It’s now August and things have been going quite well. I’ve been making time for exercise and I was doing okay with eating well too until the weekend when we celebrated my daughter’s 16^th birthday and her first big theatre performance. The whole family came to visit and to see the play and of course, that meant lots of food and goodies and I’ll be honest, I over-compensated for the lack of sugar in recent weeks. So much so that over the past few days I’ve been breaking out in hives all over. The itching is driving me mad and I’ve resorted to taking antihistamines.

But I’ve gotten a little off track as I tend to do with blog posts, so I’ll veer back to the path I was on about exercising and staying fit while pursuing a career as a writer.

What do Writers Do?

99% of my time is spent sitting down typing. This includes my day job as a content writer for a large Canadian marketing company. This means the only exercise I tend to get during the day is the walk from my office to the toilet or to the kitchen to make tea. Not very healthy at all. Half the time I forget to eat as well and survive on cups of tea.

Introducing the Fitbit

Making healthy habits stick and working exercise into my daily schedule hasn’t been easy, but the one thing that has made it easier is the Fitbit my husband bought me. It buzzes at ten to the hour every hour to tell me that I need to get 250 steps. It’s a great incentive but if I’m honest there are times that I ignore it.

Using the Fitbit, I was able to see that on an average, busy workday, I was lucky to get 1,000 steps. Now if you know anything about staying fit and healthy, the average recommended daily step allowance is 10,000. Yep, I was way off the mark and getting worse as time went on.

After my holidays I made it my mission to change this, so I set a daily step goal of 8,000. Yes, I know it’s under the recommended but the way I see it, 8,000 is a hell of a lot better than 1,000 and I’m hitting that target by moving.

My Keep Fit Tips For Writers

I’ve found a number of things that have really helped so I thought I’d outline them here in this post in case they might inspire anyone else.

1. Hourly Steps: Getting up and making sure I get the 250 steps every hour. This is a small thing and it only takes a couple of laps of the house to complete. Sometimes I’ll run up and down the stairs a few times until my Fitbit beeps again to tell me I’ve hit my target.
2. Dancing: Now this is not aerobic dancing or Zumba. It’s me putting my favourite 90s dance music on and pretending I’m a teenager again. I dance in my kitchen, my sitting room, my bedroom, wherever there’s no one else and I just let go. You’d be surprised how quickly the steps add up and it’s ten minutes of fun for me too.
3. Daily walks: The best investment I ever made was buying a treadmill. It lives in its own special place in my home and I have a smart TV over it so I can walk and watch Netflix at the same time. I have a good pair of sound-cancelling headphones and one episode of whatever I’m watching is 40 minutes walking and over 4,000 steps. I don’t walk at a very fast pace but it is fast enough to make me sweat by the time my episode finishes and according to my Fitbit I spend at least 20 minutes of my walk in fat-burning mode and then the other 20 minutes or so doing a cardio workout. It’s a win-win and they do say walking is one of the best ways to tone and get fit.

 

Additional Keep Fit Tips

Those are my three big things and there are some others that I have been adding slowly. My body isn’t as flexible or fit as it used to be and years of sitting all day have taken its toll. I’ve been reading about squats and the plank and other exercises but they aren’t as easy to do as you might think. I tried a beginner’s 10-minute kettlebell workout. It’s fantastic but don’t do what I did and forget that you haven’t exercised in years. I woke up the next morning barely able to move and trying to walk down the stairs was agony. It took three days before I could get down the stairs pain-free. Now I’m taking my time and building up slowly. I’ve started doing squats while I wait for the kettle to boil and just doing this a few times a day adds up.

I’ve tried typing standing up and while it works, I have found that I get distracted easily so I don’t do this as often as I’d like.

Procrastination and Not Just While I’m Writing

Procrastination in writing is something that affects me and it seems procrastination in exercise is another. Take the plank for instance. All I have to do is get on the floor but I avoid it. I can only do about 10 to 15 seconds so it’s not like it takes a lot of my time, but I just can’t make myself do it. Same with push-ups. I’m lucky if I can do one. Why do I avoid them? I have no idea. Maybe because they’ll really help and subconsciously I’m blocking myself. Who knows? I’ll work on them.

The Takeaway

One thing I am aware of is that routine and repetition is a must. Just as having a regular writing routine keeps the creative juices flowing, Regular exercise keeps the body fit and flexible.

I know I can do it and I know I’ll be happy as I slim down and get back to wearing whatever I want.

I’d love to hear any tips or advice any of you have on getting exercise into your daily routine and if you’ve tried any of the things I’m doing. If you have a Fitbit do let me know if you love it as much as I do.

Until next time,

Keep reading, writing, and getting in those steps,

Amanda