Why distraction and motivation paralysis are killing our health goals

We all aspire to live full lives and have our health for the duration and indeed
we should be able to achieve this. It is, in fact, well within our capability to
realise this goal. Health motivation is the driving force behind this ambition. As
the saying goes: ‘We want to die young as late as possible’. We want to be able
bodied long into our twilight years. Some might harbour dreams of running
that marathon, lifting the heavy weights, walking the Camino, even attempt a
triathlon. The well-worn ‘couch to 5K’ indeed has proved to be a huge success
of late thanks to social media with the hashtag #couchto5k on Instagram
having more than half a million posts to attest to this.

These desires take time. There is no instant gratification where health and
fitness are concerned. You need to show up every day and grind. Building
muscle takes time, reaching peak fitness takes time.
Everybody, myself included, is busy these days working on their laptops, PC’s,
and phones, organising childcare, keeping their homes running efficiently and
most might say that they do not have time to spend on fitness. But if people
were honest with themselves, how much time is spent on their phones,
perusing the various social media sites, shopping online, online gaming. These
things are part of life now and serve to entertain certainly. Time spent on Web
can be a distraction from the hum drum of daily life. The likes of Facebook and
Twitter are designed to keep the user’s attention.

Mindless scrolling is no design accident. These corporations drive the perilous 24/7 global interaction in an attempt to buy and sell information as well as services and products.  They are very good at it. This is why it is so important that we become aware of our habits. Which habits serve us best? Which habits will have us moving ably and freely with as few health implications as possible while we navigate life? The realisation that this instant gratification has yet to be developed into a downloadable healthy body without effort. The person who invents that….‘One does not find the time; one makes the time’ is an important distinction to make when comparing distraction to intent. We want to spend our free time relaxing on our phones or watching our favourite TV program, but we also want to be fit and healthy.

There is not much of life anymore without some
level of technological interaction. We know this and so there is a balance to be
struck. One that encompasses our entertainment needs, our work lives and most importantly, our health. None of the other things matter unless we are
physically here able to carry out the various tasks. The recommended daily amount of moderate aerobic activity is 150 minutes and 75 minutes for vigorous aerobic activity per week according to Edward R. Laskowski, M.D. writing for the Mayo Clinic. The guideline is that it be spreadout over the week and that the greater the amount of activity, the greater the health benefit. 150 minutes spread out over 5 days a week is 30 minutes a day. Some might think that this is a big undertaking when there are only 16 waking hours in a day and much of that is given to 8 hour working days without even adding general life. But it is the small changes that add up over time that produce long lasting results.

NEAT is ‘Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis’ is the energy that is spent by an
individual outside of sleeping, eating and vigorous exercise. Walking to the
shops, yard work, gardening, even fidgeting! Taking the stairs instead of the
lift, parking the car further away from work so as to increase steps, walking the
dog an extra block or indeed, splitting up the laundry into smaller piles to take
upstairs are all simple ways to increase NEAT. All of these choices do not
require much effort and do not take away from all the other distractions that
we are so indelibly tied to. We can still play Candy Crush on our lunch break,
but we could devote 10 minutes of our lunch to a quick walk around the block
instead playing another level.
We can have both. We can indulge in our instant gratification that is our online
lives, social media presence, online shopping, and such, and we can be mindful
of our precious time and health. We can devote just a little of each day to
improving our health.
There is one thing far greater than instant gratification and that is delayed
gratification. If we do not always give into the distractions of our lives and
consciously devote time to taking some level of physical activity, the rewards
are long lasting and serve to keep us happy and healthy for far longer.
‘Everything in moderation’ and ‘balance is key’ are two phrases that are well
worn in every sense, but they embody the sentiment that we can have it all if
we consciously choose to do so. So, we can update our FB statuses whilst
building a healthy future for ourselves!