71: [How-To] Staying Active: Small Steps, Big Impact

In this episode, Morgan & Morgan talk about staying active while Bailey is still out on maternity leave! We give our best advice for starting your physical activity journey, as well as how to stick with it.

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Transcript

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uh, well, actually yeah, you should count it up. You want me to do it? Yeah. Okay. 1, 2, 3. Welcome to the Fill Your Cups podcast. We're your host Morgan and Morgan, which is kind of funny because today we have Morgan Kurtz on with us. She has been on a book, bonus book club episode before. Yes. With me and Bailey, but. If you listen to last week's episode, you know that Bailey is on podcast maternity leave at the moment. Mm-hmm. And we miss her. And we miss her. But I just know she's soaking up her time with her baby girl who we've both gotten to meet at this point. Yes. And we're both obsessed'cause she's so cute. Yes. And we're perfect girl. And we're both Aunt Morgan. That's true. So, yeah. And so we, yeah. So Morgan offered to come on. Talk about something that we're both really passionate about. Mm-hmm. Which is staying active. So we'll get into that in a little bit. Before we get into that, what is filling your cup? Morgan? My cup is filled with this delicious fall cider mocktail that you made for us. Thank heck you. That's really good. Very refreshing. Yes, we do a little cheers. Yes, we ma. Well, I made this. For us, because Morgan was so kind to come on as a guest with me and be my sub co-host for today's episode. So we went with a mocktail and it's very similar. I, I can't remember which episode it was, but last year Bailey and I had an apple cider spritz type of cocktail that we drink, and this year we just kind of did a mocktail, I'm pretty sure it's a similar version to that, but it's got apple cider. The recipe calls for champagne, but I did non-alcoholic champagne. It's that free FRE brand. Mm-hmm. And then just some sparkling water, and there's a cinnamon stick and some apple slices for garnish just to make it pretty. It's really good. It's very crisp, very cinnamon, and it tastes exactly like fall, even though it's not fall weather yet. We can pretend. Yes. You know what? I hadn't even taken a sip until just now, but oh my gosh. It does feel like. Crisp fall. It does. It's so crisp. Refresh. It makes me me feel like it's cooler outside than it actually is. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and with the cinnamon stick, I feel like you get that whiff of cinnamon before you drink it. It's really good. Make this at home. Yes, I'm into it. Yeah, I will definitely post it on our Instagram at Filler Cups podcast. So you can have the recipe'cause it was pretty easy to whip together. You just have to have a few ingredients. So anyway, so we always do a shout out. Do you wanna go ahead and do the shout out? We have to, yeah. So the first one we're gonna shout out Baby Mila and Bailey for being such a trooper with that because it's been a lot and we love her. Yeah, we love both of'em. Yes, we love them both. And Little Baby Mila Rose is just. Perfect. She is so cute. She's, I will forgive Bailey because Mila was on also me and Cooper's name list and me and Bailey like. Two or three years ago. Oh. At her birthday we were talking about baby names and we both figured out we like Mila. I remember that. And they stole it. They got before us. That's okay. I'm okay with it. That's okay. When you guys have kids, I'm sure that you'll have names that you've fall in love with just as much. Mm-hmm. They only had Mila and Vera is what she was saying. So there's only two that they agreed on, so, right. Yeah. That's only two. You can have it. It's okay. Also, you can have two of the same name in the same family. I mean, that's true. Mean we, we get just as confusing, baby Mila will have. Two Aunt Morgans and two Aunt Jordan, so she's gonna be real confused. And two are, her aunts are twins, so she's gonna be real confused when she, yeah, she's gonna be real confused. So you know what? Might as well give her a cousin named Mila. Too kidding. Yeah, exactly. Just kidding. Um, our other shout out will be my husband Cooper. Aw. I wanna shout him out because today's episode is about being active and I've been super busy with like running and weightlifting and whatever lately. And so he's taken a lot of extra responsibilities around the house. We'll get my post friend drink for me. He will make sure I have a snack right after. Mm-hmm. And he will track me like at my location while I'm ready. Make sure like nothing happens. Oh, that's key. So yeah. I love you. Thank you for supporting me. My run journey. Oh, shout out Cooper. Yep. Shout you out. It takes a lot to. Start getting active and staying active. And a big part of that is the support around you. Definitely. Yeah. So we'll talk a little bit about that in the episode, but he'll also be my support in the race.'cause you know, when, when you do races, like you have to have somebody like give you your refuel and to like pick you up and whatever, so. Oh my gosh. No, I didn't know that. Yeah, he'll be able to like check in at different miles and stuff, so that'll be nice too. Okay. I, the, the furthest I've ever ran is a 5K. Okay. Yeah. And I just. Went by myself. Yeah. Five kids are less like intense, but yeah. Anything like longer. Yeah. Yeah, you need a little bit more, so that's awesome. Well shout out to Cooper before we get into our episode all about staying active and really what we wanna do is give you some. Foundations where you can start with if you're not active already and you're wanting to get active just in places to start and where the best place to start is. And then also some really small tips and ways that you can get movement in in everyday life, even if you are not necessarily. Formulating a structured like workout plan or something like that, just ways that you can get and stay active in your everyday life. Little habits you can implement. But before we do that, I do wanna remind people to please, if you're listening on Spotify, you can leave us a rating. Hopefully it's five stars. If you're not gonna give us five stars, just don't leave a rating. If you're on Apple, please leave us a review because reviews go the furthest. Way on Apple. And then if you are watching on YouTube, please leave a comment. Morgan's a great example of this'cause she comments on our YouTube videos. I love watching on YouTube. Yes, thank you. And then, and whenever we get comments and you know, new subscribers and things like that, people find us more easily. And I have been seeing that quite a bit on YouTube, less so on Apple and Spotify. But either way, whichever method you're listening to right now, please go do it right now. And if you're like, I don't know what to say, or I don't know what to leave for a review, you know what, just text me and I'll write it for you and then you can copy and paste it. Promise. Just comment on this one. Morgan, you look beautiful. And we'll assume it's for both of us. Yeah, we'll just be like, yeah, that's for me. Yeah. But yeah, so. I think that that's kind of like the housekeeping, I guess, for the day. So let's go ahead and get into this. So, okay. Usually Bailey and I start with how we thought of this episode. Mm-hmm. And you and I were messaging back and forth and Bailey and I kinda have a running list of ideas. We don't always go off those. Sometimes if there's something relevant, like when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey got engaged, we threw that in there, you know, but we pick episodes often from this running list, and one of them is just kind of. Easy ways to stay active in your everyday life. Mm-hmm. And that one stuck out to you. So we have had episodes where we've talked about body image or we've talked about, you know, weight loss and that sort of thing, and, but we've never really. I guess done how to, or given advice on how to just like generally stay active in your everyday life and recently, I mean you're very active and I'm pretty active, but we're active in very different ways. Yes. And more recently we've been doing kind of like family five Ks. Yep. That your brother. Your brother, yeah. So Mason Bailey's husband. Yes. So Mason initiated this. He is Bailey's husband, Morgan's brother, my brother-in-law. And we've been getting together and it's kind of been growing, which has been fun. Yeah, it has. Including different people in the family. And so just with that coming up, I know running's like your main form of exercise, but you do other things too. Mm-hmm. And then I also kind of change up exercise, so it just, it seemed like a fun episode for us to chat about and maybe give our perspective on and help people out with just little ways that we implement activity into our everyday lives. Definitely. For sure. Yeah. We also, sorry. We also, Morgan and I are getting into our flow. Mm-hmm. But we also usually talk about why this impacts life and why it's important, because obviously why are you gonna keep listening to this episode if you don't know why it matters? Mm-hmm. And I think at, I think at the forefront, most people know that being active is important for your physical health. For your physical health, yes. But there are so many other things that it helps besides just making you feel and look your best. It helps with. Mental health. It helps with sleep, it helps with stress. People overall are just, yeah, it, it, mood stability is huge. Mm-hmm. It can really regulate a lot of things for you, and so that's why we, it's important to talk about. Yeah. I would say like, it's pretty obvious that like walking or running or lifting or whatever, it does things for your physical health, but I would say I get more benefit on the mental side, like if I mm-hmm. Am stressed from a bad day at work or whatever's going on. I feel like a run or a walk or some kind of activity gets me in a better head space where I'm away from that. I'm not thinking about that. Yeah. And I'm focused on like putting one foot in front of the other. And at the end of it, you just have this like mood boost from like getting outside, getting some sun, getting your blood pumping. Like it does so much for you mentally too. Yeah. I feel like people don't recognize that as much. Well, and isn't that a physiological thing? Like don't you release endorphins? Mm-hmm. And you get a boost of serotonin Yes. Or whatever. And so it. It literally is impacting your brain health. Yeah, definitely. So I, yeah, so I feel like it's really, really important and more so than just like, oh, you need to start an exercise routine so that you can lose weight. Like that's not what we're talking about here. No. We're talking about ways to implement in your life so that you overall just. Feel good in your life, like you're improving your overall health wellbeing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. This is not a weight specific. Anything at all. This at all. This is just a general one at all. Not at all. Which kind of is a good lead into where we wanted to start. So I know that you had some really good points about. Finding what active looks like for you and figuring out what your motivation is. Yeah, so I would say like, I just knew like a few years ago, I was kinda struggling like mentally, especially with like seasonal affective disorder. Yeah. Um, and I just kind of wanted to get outside a little bit more and it kind of just started with walking and like mm-hmm. Getting more sun on your face is actually really important for Yes. Seasonal affective disorder. Um, so it just kind of started with that and it. That's what worked for me. But what works for me is not gonna be the same thing that works for everybody. Mm-hmm. Some people do not find walking or running or being outside fun, like Yeah, super. My husband hates being outside. Yeah. Like, unless it's super cool. So like it just depends on what you find fun and what your kind of motivation is like for a lot of people, weightlifting, running that kind of stuff is sort of the traditional form of exercise. But what's becoming more popular, and I think this is really fun, is. Less traditional forms of exercise. Mm-hmm. So like for instance, pickleball is super vague. Yeah. And people love pickleball. Mm-hmm. Or like dancing, like I know there's a really popular guy on YouTube who makes like. Workout videos to pop songs and like Yeah, you follow along in your living room. So it's like there's so many different things you can do. It does not have to be what people think of as traditional forms of exercise. Like whatever gets your body moving and like you can have fun with. Yeah. It's gonna be something you stick to way easier than like, oh my God, I have to run because I wanna like lose weight and I need to do all this cardio. Like, yeah, if you hate running, that's not gonna be sustainable. Yeah. So actually just watched, have you seen the. Biggest Loser documentary that's on. I've heard about it. So I just watched it recently and that was one thing. They did a shit ton of cardio on that. Yeah. And but the majority of the contestants that go on there and lose a bunch, a bunch of weight, end up gaining it back. Yeah. And it's, a lot of it is because they focus a lot on really unsustainable forms of. Physical fitness and then also like starvation. But yes, we're not really talking much about diet and nutrition on this episode, but that is something we both care about too. Yeah. But, but when it came to physical activity, it was just one of those things where like they would be doing card, I mean hours and hours of cardio, and that's just not sustainable. So yeah, finding something that works for you is key. I feel like when you're starting a routine. Or just wanting to get back into it. You know what's funny? I just recently picked up Just Dance again. Oh yeah. And I was looking at my watch and I. Had I, I don't know how many steps it was in that setting, but by the end of the, like, I, I think I played 20 or 30 minutes of just dance and I had like 20,000 steps that day. I believe it. Yeah, because, because I was like going and I was honestly like breaking a sweat. Yeah. Do we fit If that's what's fun, like you just gotta find something that works for you. Yeah. With the biggest loser point, I would highly encourage anyone who's like, considers, considers themselves not active, like right now. I would highly encourage you not to set a weight goal. Mm-hmm. If your goal is just to be more active, I would say separate the weight from it and just figure out what your goal is. Like do you want to be able to run a mile without stopping? Do you wanna be able to. Hike to the nosebleeds of Arrowhead Stadium because that is a freaking chore. It takes a lot outta you. Yeah, it does. Um, or you know, you did that recently? I did do that recently, and actually I did a lot better. I was watching all these other people like Huff and Puff. Yeah, dude, it's, it's rough. It's tough. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I would say just like figure out what your goals are based around movement and try to keep that separate from weight and Yeah. Just focus on moving your body. Yeah. It's good if you can separate it at first and then if it does, if. You do want to start targeting weight loss or something like that. Like already having that mentally separate is gonna be helpful. Now we don't have to get into weight loss because Yeah, we all know like that should not be the end goal. It's all about health, overall health. Yeah. I will say, um, what really work for me is I got a free Fitbit from work. Oh. And I was literally just like, I'm gonna go on a run and I'm just gonna see, I'm not gonna like set a time goal. I'm not gonna set a distance goal. I'm just gonna like. See what it's like. And I, I played soccer in high school, so I've always been like somewhat active, uh, but like was trying to find that again as an adult. Mm-hmm. So yeah, I just went out, no expectations for how far I was gonna run or how fast I was gonna run. And I actually surprised myself'cause I ended up running like. Two or three miles without stopping. That had been like, it'd been years since I had run a mile. So like, yeah. Yeah. That's impressive. I would just say like, you might surprise yourself, like it might be fun and like exciting to challenge yourself or like, and don't set any limits or any goals or anything. Just see what you can do and that's a great way to just. Start. Yeah. I think that for me, so one of my first points or like tips I guess, and you guys will be shocked because we never talk about routines or habits on here, but one of my first things was finding, getting a routine going and like that was key for me. And I will say that in the past I had many field attempts where I just, just, I thought that I needed to. Become a runner. Mm-hmm. Like I needed to start running and every time in the past, whenever I was like, okay, I'm gonna start getting physically active, I'm gonna start running each day, whatever. It just never lasted more than a few days because I, first of all, there are muscles in your body that you flex whenever you're running that and like you tense up when you're running that gets sore that you don't ever use during the rest of the day. Mm-hmm. It's really, really tough on your body, especially if you don't have good form. Especially if you don't have good shoes. I mean, it just is. It, it is not for everybody, especially to start. Yes. And I always failed whenever I started with that, but whenever I eventually found a routine that I could do from home. Mm-hmm. And it was 20 or 30 minutes, which to me mentally at the time, like when you have no routine going Yes. Being like, okay, I can do 20 minutes in my living room, that. Feels attainable to me. Yes. And, and so I think like now I've gotten to a part, like I've kind of evolved in my fitness journey to where now. Getting out and running a few miles or whatever is not crazy to me. Yeah. It's, it's actually can be fun and it's like social and whatnot. Mm-hmm. And that was never the case before. Yeah. So I feel like when you start, that's especially where you need to start with is finding something that you like and then something that's also attainable and sustainable. Yes. That's why, I think you talked about this before, but I think digestion walks or your hot girl walk or whatever you wanna call it, is such a great starting point because most people are starting from their couch, right? Like they have no, yeah. Current activity that they're performing. Like just get outside, walk a mile over your lunch break. It'll probably take like 20 minutes. Yes, it's very low impact, but it has so much benefit. Walking has almost the same benefits for your heart in terms of cardio. Oh, as running, obviously you're not hiking your heart rate as high with Yeah. Running, but like if walking is still really, really good for you. And I would say that as a key tip as a remote worker, like I do not have an office I can go into. Mm-hmm. So I will do walks for lunch. I'll do'em after work or before work. Whenever I squeeze in time. Sometimes I do multiple walks. Even like if I have a super long meeting, this is a life, I don't know. Maybe it depends on your job. Yeah. For me, I'll have like hour long meetings where I don't have to talk, I just have to listen. So I'll bring my laptop downstairs and I have like a little walking pad uhhuh and I'll just walk and get my steps in while I'm listening to these boring holes. Yes. So like I feel like just finding little ways to sneak in, like time. During your workday, especially if you work from home, is so important, whereas somebody like you where you're walking and you're hustling between different things all day. Yeah. You're getting way more movement than somebody who works at a desk. Yes. For eight hours. So yeah. So my job is kind of half and half and I, on days where I'm out in the field, like you were saying, and I'm going from meeting to meeting or I'm putting out yard signs or something like that, naturally I, I'm organically getting some more steps. So people listening to this who might be like nurses or something like that, they might be like that where they have three 12 hour shifts. Each week, and they are easily gonna get to 10,000 steps on those days. Yep. But then the other days, so for me, the other days I am in front of a computer and I'm working from home. I, unless I'm intentional, I'm not getting those steps in. And so that might be someone, like I was saying, who's like a nurse who easily, when you're on your feet at your job, you get your steps in and then the other days it's a little bit, you get to the end of the day and you're like, oh my gosh, oh my 3000 steps. Like that was pretty common for me when I used to have an office job. I would get to the end of my work workday and only have like 3000 steps. Yeah. And then I'm like, now I have to make all that up in the evening. Yeah. Like that's crazy. So I feel like once I started the habit of. After a meal as often as I could after a meal. You know, I typically don't after breakfast'cause I really have to get right to work. But after lunch and after dinner, most of the time, as long as my plans allow for it, I, I walk for like 15 minutes and it really does, I mean, first of all, it does wonder through your step count if you're, if you're a numbers person, which I kind of am, I'm very much motivated by data and numbers, goals, but. If you're not a numbers person, more than that, it really does actually help digestion and mood. And especially after lunch, I feel like most people, if you go right back to sitting at a desk, you get that afternoon slump. Yeah, it kind of alleviates that because it, uh, it balances your blood sugar. So I feel like walking anytime you can is so good for you and especially the days where. It's not gonna be as organic to be hustling and bustling and moving around everything. Yes. I would say too, going into the fall, winter months, getting that movement in over lunch mm-hmm. Is so crucial because like it gets started at like five o'clock. Mm-hmm. Like after work, you're gonna be walking in the dark or walking inside. Yes. So I would say like getting in the habit of it is important, especially like maybe now going into these months to just start. And like a really easy way to do that is if you have like a fitness tracker, or even if you set an alarm or your phone, just set an alarm. 12 and be like, okay, I'm not working through lunch. I'm gonna go take my walk. And, you know. Do you do that because I thought you said that you kind of work through lunch. I do a lot of time.'cause I get meetings scheduled at lunch. It's really annoying. So then I, it's also hard with different time zones. Jared gets that a lot. Yes. Yes. So I'm not as good as, as I should be. But Cooper's pretty good at taking his lunch walk. Um, he goes outside. He does? Yeah. When it's not super hot. Yeah. But, um, no, my Fitbit, I mean, I just switched to a Garin, but my Fitbit would gimme like. Every hour would gimme like a little reminder Yes. To get up and walk. Yes. Because again, I sit at a desk for eight hours and it is just like, I find myself just getting stir crazy anyway. Yeah. Just like sitting there. So I do walk a lot for sure. And the life hack is to get a split level.'cause then you're doing stairs like multiple times a day. That's true. So yeah. Sometimes like I think you were mentioning you do this too, like. Nice. I just take a little lap around my kitchen or like walk up and down the stairs. Just whatever I look like. I probably look like an insane person. Yeah. I, you know, go start crazy if you just sit at a desk for eight hours. So, yeah. And I don't have the ability, whenever I have teams calls, typically, like our video really needs to be on, so I don't have as much of an ability. Oh, can't relate to do that. Yeah. But that's how Jared is. They don't really need video on, but I will say that whenever I have a phone call. I do walk around my house. So this is another tip that I have. So if you've never heard of the term habit stacking, first of all, you probably haven't listened to our other habit episodes. Go back and listen to those. I think I wrote them down actually. But episode in episode 30, implementing habits to Get Your Shit Together. We talk a little bit about this and then episode 60, starting a new habit. These are both, if you wanna get more into depth about just actually ha the nitty gritty of forming. Habit, then go listen to those episodes and that can help you apply what we're talking about with staying active and getting into a routine of that. But what I was talking about with habit stacking is habit stacking is where you already do something regularly. Mm-hmm. So for instance, you already have, let's say that the meeting is every Tuesday morning, you have a 30 minute standup or whatever. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You don't have to be on video. During that 30 minute standup meeting, I'm going to walk on my walking pad. Yep. Or walk around and may, and maybe your work is not as flexible as that, like I was saying with mine. But when I take phone calls and they don't have to see me, I do. I just. It is now a habit that if I get a phone call, my phone rings while I'm at my house, I immediately stand up and I start walking around my house. Yeah. And at the beginning it wasn't so simple as I, you know, that was just an impulse. Now it's an impulse because it's a habit. But that was something that I did, and it's the same as like if you do something every day, like, okay, every day I know I'm gonna brush my teeth. Mm-hmm. I really hope you guys do that every day. I'm gonna brush my teeth. Well, how can you stack a diff a habit that you want to do onto the habit that you're already doing? Yeah. So we've talked about this before with like. Affirmations or something. Okay. Every day while I brush my teeth, I'm gonna repeat an affirmation. Mm-hmm. This could also be something where you add in something active. Okay. And I actually do this when I brush my teeth. I do five laps around my house, assuming that I'm not spinning like all over myself, but, but yeah, I feel like it's a good. Taking a habit that you already have. So think about something that you already do every day or weekly or something like that, and then stack whatever the active habit is that you want onto it. Yeah, and it doesn't even have to be like steps around your house. No. Me, I kind of do like. When I'm doing brush my teeth or like wash my face or bring sunscreen on in the morning, I'll stretch my legs while I'm doing it. Nice.'cause I know I'm gonna run later. Oh, smart. So it'll help, like it sets me up for success. Gonna get a hip opener while I'm, while I usually do like the quad stretch. You pull your leg out. Oh yeah. Yeah. Because you can brush once while hold the leg with the other. I need a picture of you doing that. I also say with habit stacking like kind of like a little reward system might help too. Yeah, I know. Like. For me, I, my habit that I suck is reading. Like, I know that sounds psychopathic to some people because when I talk to my, my friend Marissa who runs, she's like, I could never listen to a book and I have to listen to music. Mm. Um, but for me, that's like my me time and I get to like, yeah, tackle my TV r and listen to a book for like two hours on my long run. You know, I look forward to that. And when I am planning to do longer runs next year, I bought some like mid-tier shoes'cause I needed new shoes anyway, Uhhuh. But when I gear up to run my marathon, I want to get some like nicer shoes. Oh yeah. Like it's gonna prove that I can do. Like commit to a, a longer race, like doing a half marathon. Yes. And then before I do the marathon I can get some nicer shoes. So just gimme little rewards can, can help you too. Yeah. When I was in my really active Wellness 360 Facebook like accountability group, that was something that my coach, so I did beach body or body before. I mean, I still do body workouts actually. I just don't coach as much. But my coach would always, she did that. She did that regularly. Like every time she finished a program, whether it was like a six week program or a three week program, five day program, seven day program, whatever it was, she, at the end of a program, she would buy herself a new piece of athletic wear. So whether that was just like a$20 target top or a really nice pair of running shoes or something like that. Mm-hmm. She was like, okay, I'm gonna continue. And I liked that it was something specifically active because it was kind of continuing the jour, the active journey or exercise journey, I guess. Yeah. And so I like that you, so when will you buy those after your, after a half marathon. Well that kind of leads into one of my biggest tips, which is finding someone to be with. Yes. And you've been really good with this lately. Yes. So I am running a half marathon in the spring. Woo. With my new friend Marissa. Woo. Maybe she might be listening to this. I was telling her about it yesterday, so she might be listening. Send it to her. Shout out Marissa. Shout out Marissa. Unofficial. Shout out. I met her on Bumble. BF, which. Maybe we'll talk about this some other time. I would highly recommend that if you're looking for people for like similar interests. And like for me, I was specifically looking for a running buddy. Yeah. I found her. She's crazy. She's literally running a marathon like a week. Wow. That's awesome. So, uh, that's crazy. That's a Chicago one? No, she's running a Minneapolis. It's the Twin Cities Marathon. Okay. Um, but she's really cool. We meet every week now on Mondays for run club in Olathe. We run three, four miles. So if there's any Olathe girlies that wanna go run yeah. Join the Facebook groups. Um, but it was just like really kismet because I just messaged her in bubble and was like, oh my God, you're running a marathon. That's so cool. I would love to run a marathon. And I was the type of person who's always like, that's always been like really cool, but I was like a stretch of the imagination. Yeah. I think for me, like I never would be self-motivated enough to run a marathon or would've been a lot harder if I had to do it by myself because like. I'm not as good with structure and like I kind of run for vibes. Like, yeah, do I still feel good? And having like a set routine, like, okay, I need to run 20 miles this week. Like, Marissa ran 20 miles the other week. I'm like crazy. It's so crazy. So, but seeing her do it and seeing how committed she is with it and like, we run at the same pace and we're pretty similar. Like people in general. Yeah. But like, it, like, I'm like, okay, this is a lot more attainable than it seemed like before. So yeah, we're running a 10 k. And oh, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So it'll be Ooh, perfect timing. It'll be nice and cool. Um, so that's like six miles. And then we'll do a half marathon in the spring, and a marathon in the fall. Awesome. So that'll be her second marathon. So yeah, I would say like finding somebody who has like-minded goals to you or is already doing something you wanna do, but like you don't know how, or like where to start. So important because they're kind of laying the path for you. Yes. And you get to just kind of follow, like Yeah, you just get to follow lead. It's a lot less scary than just trying to figure it all on your own. So Definitely. And if you have somebody to do something with, you're gonna be way more motivated. Like I'll say, our run yesterday and Marissa did, it was so challenging. Mm-hmm. And it was so. Fast and it was really hilly. Like if I was writing that by myself, I would not have done it. You would've quit. I would've quit. Yeah. And it's so much easier to quit on yourself than it is to quit on someone else. Yes. And you also push yourself way harder when you have somebody else. Yeah. And even like for somebody like. Running or working out. Like you get to talk and you get to like shoot the bird or whatever. Yeah, and just talk about whatever. Like we're talking about apple picking, like it would involve activities, so like Yeah. It makes the time go a lot faster. I agree. Yeah. And even if it's not, you're physically with that person. Because I know at the beginning for me, I was in kind of a virtual accountability group, but just seeing people check in each day like that they did their workouts. You know, made a recipe from the nutrition plan or something like that, was just encouraging. And it's, I always, I used to listen to this podcaster who was a big entrepreneur, and she talks about this a lot with starting your own business, but in general, in life, when you, if, if there's something that you kind of sort of wanna do, you may kind of, sort of do it or, but more than likely you're not gonna do it unless you find someone who's already done the thing you wanna do or is about to Yeah. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So it's like. Oh, okay. So she hasn't run a marathon yet. It's next week, but she's going to, yes. Okay. It's her first marathon. Okay. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like. I don't know. It's like if you wanna do something, let's say your goal is to be more active, find someone who's already successful in doing that. Yes. And yeah, tag along. I mean, it's it, they're probably passionate. If they're already doing it, they're probably passionate about it. Mm-hmm. They're probably more than happy to share about it. Have you ever heard that, like the five closest people to you reflect the most on you? Yes. We talked about this in an episode before. Okay. It rang kind of a bell, but I would say like. I've always been, I wouldn't say always, within the last few years I've been like a very, like heavy runner. Mm-hmm. I feel like maybe this is overstepping, but I feel like that influenced Mason to start the Family 5K group. Yeah. And the fact that he got a Garmin and Totally. And so like, then you got into it and Julia came, and now me, and me and Jordan just ran this morning, uh, five yeah and a half. So like you're like influencing people a little bit. Yeah. But it's like when you No, it's exciting. It's not, it's not like I don't, I'm not viewing it. You're not like. Bragging or anything. It just, I, it wasn't even like I came to you guys and was like, let's run. It's more like me and Mason had talked organic. Yeah. Me and Mason had talked a couple times about like, oh my God, I ran this much today and it was hard. Or like, this was my pace today, or, and then that kind of started the family 5K. And that's another thing like. You get to do it with the people around you, like the people you're close with, and you get to talk and you get to like do cute activities, like grab coffee or breakfast after, like it's so fun. Just find people who wanna do the same activity as you, or would be down to do it. Yeah. Like whatever it is. Just like you'll be so, you'll have so much more fun and you'll be so much more likely to stick with it. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that'cause it's a reminder. It's a reminder that we are impacting people without meaning to. Mm-hmm. It's just an organic thing. Bailey said similar things about me, and I never felt that way, but I was. But like whenever I first started. Eating a little bit better and like exercising more and just kind of getting into a healthy lifestyle. Yeah, and making that a forefront of my values. Then it kind of did trickle down and my accountability group right now, like I don't have that virtual account, that same virtual accountability group, but every morning you'll laugh at this message thread. We have a message thread called. Sweating good. Oh, nice. It's, it's literally just like my mom and Julia and me and Jordan and we and Chloe. That's so cute. Yeah. And we just sent our sweaty selfies or whatever. Yeah. And we, if we send them in the morning, we say, oh, today I did leg day. Mm-hmm. Or today I did the, today I took the dogs on a wall's. How, um, anyone with a Garmin, there's like an app that you can sync your activities to. Mm-hmm. And Strava does the same thing. Me and Marissa are always commenting on each other's runs. Like, oh my God, you crushed this. I can't believe you ran this part. And it's just like. Motivating to know like, okay, somebody's gonna see this later and they're gonna see that I killed it. Like, you know. Yes. No, legitimately it's, it does add a lot to like the fun factor. Yeah. I would say to your guys' volleyball, I didn't think Oh, yeah, yeah. Of sports. Yeah. Sports are a great way to like have a like organized. Event to go to like every Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday, whatever you guys play. We do Tuesday, but yeah. You guys play volleyball seven days a week. It's a set time. Yeah. Set time. It's a set group of people. Yeah. And you're doing something fun. Yes. And it's not as crazy as like running 10 miles or whatever, you know, like you're having burst of energy, but you get to like rush. Like it doesn't have to be anything crazy. And if you, I, I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes I think there's so many great free forms of activity, but like if you're paying for a volleyball team, you're less likely to bail. Mm-hmm. It's the same with the gym membership too. Yeah, gym membership. But that's how the body membership is. I think at this point, it was like$99 a year whenever I started. I think now it's like$129 a year or something. Still so cheap, like$10 a month, but just enough skin in the game to, mm-hmm. To be like, I'm gonna show up and actually utilize this. Yeah. So, yeah, I did wanna say, just because I went to try to find it, but the five, five Friends around you, we talked about that. It was episode 19. We talked about, we, it was a Let's Get deep episode, and we said, are your friends holding you back? Yes. And it was just a episode about, I would say the five closest people to me are all pretty active, which is great. And honestly, when one person. There's a stat, I don't know what it is, but there's a stat about like, when your, when a sibling becomes active, there's a much more likelihood, higher likelihood of this person becoming, and it's this, it goes the same, the opposite way. Mm-hmm. Like with obesity or whatever like it. It goes the same way. I would say that's like amplified times 10 when you're a twin. Like you're like, yeah. Oh yeah, I know. But there's different percentages for like a spouse, a friend, and a family member. Oh, really? Yes. That's interesting. Based on, you know, if once this person starts exercising this, it just trickles down. Yeah. So anyway, so I think accountability is huge. That would be a huge tip that we would give for you. Mm-hmm. Let's see, what have we not talked about yet? Recovery and local resources. Yes. Okay. So let's talk about recovery. Okay. You talked about that. I'll talk about this.'cause I'm very passionate about this and I feel like people don't take it as seriously as they should. Yeah. Um, and me included, I probably don't recover as much as I should, but let's say you start an activity, maybe you like swimming or hiking or walking your dog. Mm-hmm. Three miles a day or whatever. It is important to give yourself and your body time to rest. Mm-hmm. Because if, I think especially for people, for runners who are training for something mm-hmm. It is so easy or weightlifting. Mm-hmm. To overtrain. Yeah. And you're going to do more harm to your body than good by doing that. Like. You do not wanna start your first run running five miles at a 10 minute pi, 10 minute mile pace, that is just going to do more harm than good for you. Yeah. Well you're probably gonna quit. Yeah. You're probably gonna quit. It's probably gonna make your knees and your feet and your ankles and your shins hurt. Yeah. And you're never gonna wanna do it again. Like even if that goes well and you complete it and you feel really good about it, like you're, you need to at least recover the next day and you should be resting at least once a week. Yeah. Where you're doing very low impact activities like. Stretching yoga, a short walk. Mm-hmm. Like you should not be pushing your body to its limit every single day. No, definitely not. I, a lot of research has come out about this, like high intensity exercise and cardio and whatnot, because in the nineties that was all you saw, right? Yeah. Like you just saw all sorts of, you know, the classes and stuff, and that's when people really started running for the first time, honestly. Sport, I guess not sport, but recreation. Recreation, yeah. The opposite. But, but yeah. And so cardio, it was all cardio, cardio, cardio. That's why like our parents, I don't know if your mom's this way, but my mom, for the longest time cardio, she thought, okay, I need to get, I need to exercise. I need to do cardio. You need to be like drench and sweat or you're not having a good workout. Yes, exactly. And but the but recovery wasn't talked about as much. But now I always hear that. Two to three times a week of cardio is best, and then two to three times a week strength training is, is best. Like, and then having one to two days of recovery. Yes, at least is good. And that like. You shouldn't be doing the, you shouldn't be working the same muscle groups day after day after day. Mm-hmm. Because they need time to recover. Mm-hmm. So if you're, if you're running five miles on Monday, then your legs need time to Yes. Recover. I will say, like for people who I would say marathon training is pretty great. Okay. First of all, only like 1% of the population runs marathons. So you're kind of like. Already pushing your body, like only 1% of the population runs marathons. There's something like that. It's pretty, you're in an elite group if you run a marathon. Wow. I know. That's why it's so, so tinty enticing. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but that's so interesting. So for a lot of people who are marathons, are you saying America or the world? I think America, maybe. I don't know. You can look it up. I am. What percentage of the population of the American, uh, of America. Runs a marathon. Less than 1%. There you go. Totally. I'm telling you, it says some sources estimate closer to 0.1%. Yeah, it's really, people don't run. It's hard. I mean, there's a reason why people don't. I'm sure that it is. Now you can join us next year. No, I feel like I have to be, be part of the 1%. No, I feel like I have to. I know I'm driven by numbers. Said that Exactly. You wanna be part of the exclusive club. Damn. Anyway. Uh, yeah. Sorry For people that are marathon training, I was gonna say like, um, you often are working the same muscle groups and you're often running. Multiple days in a row. You do give yourself some really, well, yeah, you do give yourself some time to recover. Obviously weightlifting helps a lot with that because it helps like build, strengthen. Yeah, it helps strengthen your knees and your ankles and your quads and your hamstring, all that. Um, so it's important to like work lifting in there, but, um. For runners who are running at this like elite level, like running a marathon is pretty crazy. Yeah. Um, you have to have recovery runs, so you're usually running two to three minutes slower than, than maybe what your target pace is. Okay. You're running shorter runs in between your long runs. You're giving yourself time to rest. Also, like hydration is super important. No matter what you're doing. You need to be drinking lots of water, you need to have electrolytes. Mm-hmm. You should probably get a little bit of protein, maybe eat a banana. Yeah. To pick up the soreness. Like recovery's so important. There's so much that goes into it. But the most important thing is just like, don't overexert yourself. Yeah. You're going to damage your body and that's gonna be hard. Yeah. And we're not, again, we're not focusing on nutrition in this, but it is important too to nourish your body with the right things after. Because I feel like you, I mean, you can eat, I don't know, you can eat whatever you want, but protein has amino acids in it. Yes. That really help, especially when you're using those, it's. Is it type two muscle fibers that you use already? I don't even know what that is. Okay. Nevermind. Uh, the bigger muscle fiber, so there's bigger muscle fibers that you use whenever you like, use your bigger muscles. And there there's smaller muscle fibers that you use whenever you do things more like Pilates or like something like that where it's like more small movements. Mm-hmm. But over a, a long amount of time. Yeah. I think it's time under tension. Yes. Versus, versus like. Uh, Mac space reps, that sort of thing. Mm-hmm. So, anyway, I, I wonder if in running you, you may use both in running, I don't know. I haven't looked into that enough. But depending on like the muscle fibers that you, you're using, it's just important to get protein so that you are getting the amino acids to repair those You need to refuel your body. Yes. Like, yeah. It's so important. I would say even like, I know this has been so much about running'cause that's what I'm into, but like when you run, um, it's really important to a, bring enough water to like, so you're staying hydrated. Mm-hmm. And b. Refueling is a big thing. So a lot of people will take, you need carbs and you need sugar, and you need electrolytes when you're running. Mm-hmm. So people do gummies or they'll do like, they're called gels, but they're kind of like liquidy little packets, like almost like apple sauce that you shoot while you run. Okay. Because your, you will crash, your blood sugar will crash, your, everything will crash if you are running for. Longer than five miles and you're not refueling. Interesting. You'll hit a wall is what they call it, so, oh, wow. Yeah. So when you run a marathon, you have to plan like you're refueling. Okay. Yeah. Well, since most of the listeners probably won't do that,'cause it's less than 0.5% of the population. Make sure you're taking rest days and stretch. Those are really important. I also think that when we were talking about incentives earlier, like even short term incentives, like. For instance, I'm a morning workout person, and that is solely because I used to try to work out after work and by the time I get to work, I think it's more of a mental thing than it is a physical thing. But I get to the end of the day and I'm like, God, I'm mentally drained, or like this bad thing happened or I'm annoyed at this person or whatever. And you know, and I'm skipping today. That's funny. I'm the opposite. I'm like, I had a terrible day at work. I need to do I need to move my body, get all this like anxious energy out. Yeah. I could see that now. Like now I walk after work. Mm-hmm. And so it's different. But when I was first starting. It worked so much better for me mentally to just like I would get up just 30 minutes before normal. Get up, go to the. Next room over. Mm-hmm. Whereas my quote unquote gym, at the time, it was my living room because it was my one bedroom apartment. Yeah. And go into the living room. Now it's like just the neighbor neighboring bedroom that has like our gym equipment in it. Go over there, turn on the tv, and like the first 10 minutes, I don't even really realize what I'm doing because I'm half asleep still. Yeah. But then, but then the rest of the time, like I get it done and then, and then the fact that I've gotten my workout done already, I'm like. Wow. I've already owned this day. I can go to sleep. And I still did like the best thing that I could have for my body. Yeah. So I'm cool, but, but yeah, so it's just like a very empowering thing. So I will say that I feel like an. This is where I was getting out with the incentive thing. So I will say that when I first started, it was really nice. Like I had a really yummy like chocolate muscle recover mousse type thing that I would eat right after I worked out. And I was always like, Ooh, that sounds so good. I can't wait. And I would eat it right after, you know? So like maybe you can, maybe on Sunday you prep, like a really yummy snack that has like some protein and fat in it or whatever. It's a recovery snack, but it's really tasty. I feel like there's so many good ones out there. That I've made, but, and then after that, you get to have that or you like love bananas and you have a banana with peanut butter or like something like that right after. Yes. I feel like that's just like a short term incentive. I think what's fun, and it's not health related, but maybe this will help you if you're not somebody who's like, I will never crave a protein smoothie after my workout. I think like the dollar per. Whatever. So maybe it's a dollar per hour or a dollar per mile. You're think maybe you're like, okay, if I walk one mile every day this week, that'll pay for my$7 coffee. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. Per mile. Or if you like, if I do 30 miles this month, that's one mile every day I could buy a new book. Yeah. Something like that. Like if you, maybe it's just girl math, but you calculate it out. No, it's totally girl math. If you calculate it out that way, that could be a fun way to like motivate and incentivize yourself too. I like that a lot. Yeah. So that's a good, that's a good key like tip. Point is that recovery is very important. Yes. I think our last thing we wanted to hit on was just about how many local resources that we have. Yes. So you've utilized this a lot too, I feel like with running. Yes. So our Family 5K group, I think this is really fun, but we've met at a different place every single time and sometimes it's close to me'cause I live in Lenexa. Mm-hmm. Sometimes it's close to you guys'cause you live in Blue Springs. So it just helps like. Maybe break up some of the driving, but we also get to use the well-maintained parks that are around here and like the trails and like Yeah, that your tax dollars go to though. You might as well use it. And you get out, you get to see the sun, you get to see some trees, get to see some, we saw a lot. A snake. Did we see a snake one time. Me and Marissa saw a snake one time. We saw a shit ton of snails on little blue. Oh, we did see a lot of snails. Yeah. So you get to see like a little bit, I don't know. Yeah. And there's usually other people out and you get to do a little runner wave to them and whatever. Yeah. So I would say like. Just, oh, getting to see different parts of the city too is really interesting. Yes, I've been to way more. Parks and trails like in the last like month. Then I had my whole running history before that. Just like, yeah, getting to do different run club also. Yeah. Run clubs are a great thing. You go on Facebook or just search whatever your city is. Run club. Yeah. Or walking club. I know a lot of moms have like, and a lot of people in Bumble be, have, have like baby stroller walks, so they do, they go, they meet up at a park and they get coffees beforehand and then they walk around the park with their babies in the strollers. So like my friend Mandy in Chicago is a part of a, it's just called. Girls who walk. Yeah. And they, they usually like go on a walk and then they like go get a drink after or something like that. So it's kind of a social club, but they just, but it's called Girls Who Walk. But yeah, this is a really good point. And on Facebook, I'm pretty sure there are like pickup, volleyball club Yeah. And stuff like that on face or groups on Facebook as well. The other thing that is ringing a bell, so this happens a lot more in the summer, I've noticed, or like spring, summer, fall. Is I'll see free outdoor yoga somewhere like, Ooh, the Nelson. Nelson, yes. Does that. But then also there was a. Instructor who was kind of going around, I'm kind of sad'cause they never landed on days that I could do them, but she was doing scout coffee, she was doing it, it was like every third Sunday or something like that. Mm-hmm. And just somehow it just never worked out. But you would like, she would do yoga scout coffee, which our listeners have heard me talk about too many times. And then she was also doing the Fillmore station, which is in Lee Summit. Then she was doing Colonial Gardens, which I did go to that one, but that one was paid. But they're like all sorts of free outdoor yoga. Free indoor yoga or$10 or something. Yeah. Like you can make into a social thing. Just grab your best friend. Yeah, go get a coffee and go walk around the park. It's, it's so nice. It's free. I mean, I guess the coffee's not free. Yeah, but it's cheap. Yeah. I've done that with two of the girls I met from Bumble. So I'm meeting another girl for coffee tomorrow and we're gonna probably walk around. Yeah. So it's super easy. Very low commitment. Low stakes, yes. But you get a little bit of movement in. Yeah. Another resource I would say, too, kind of the last one that I'll mention that that brought to mind is a lot of studios who have fitness classes and stuff are very expensive. Mm-hmm. And I have, I've just never been able to stomach pain, like$1,500 a year for Oh yeah. A fitness studio. But there are ones, like for instance, I've gone to Oh Bar no. It's, it's hot yoga, power Life. Oh yes. Power Life is in Kansas City. They've also, they're also in other states, but in Kansas City they've got multiple locations and they will have a few free classes a week. Mm-hmm. So I've signed up for those before. Mm-hmm. Whenever I'm like, oh, I just kind of wanna do something a little different. A heated class sounds fun. Yes. And look for them and they'll have one at least summit, or they'll have one at the downtown location or something like that. Yeah. I would say, um, Groupon and ClassPass will often do like. Yes. Well class Class right now is doing one month free. Yeah. So you can try it out and like do a workout class or whatever. Personally, don't forget to cancel it. Yeah. I'm not a big class person'cause I just don't like large groups. But yeah. Um, I know everyone's made me a lot more nervous before I got into exercise. Like now I'm more comfortable with it, but I was so shy and nervous. Like self-conscious? Yes. Yeah. When I first started working out, I didn't even want that. That was also probably part of the reason that I did mornings was I didn't even really want Jared to see me working out. Really? That's, and we had, and we had one bedroom. Yeah. And then the living room. Yeah. So I was like, if I'm gonna work out in the living room, I'm gonna do it before he is awake. That's funny. No, just because of I'm self-conscious. Yeah. Now, now I don't care. Like, and even then, it only took like a couple weeks of being into it before I kind of feel that I did work out home a little bit and I would not want Cooper to watch me, but he watches me run sometimes like. He's gonna be run past or whatever and it's not a big deal. Yeah. Um, yeah, so I guess like last few points here. Yeah. I would say we have some of the worst. Weather.'cause we have hot summers. Yes. And freezing winters. Yes. And so something that I like to do when it's like, especially when it's snowy and you can't run,'cause you're gonna slip and fall and break your leg. Mm-hmm. You can drop in at your local community center. First of all, community centers are great. Mm-hmm. And sometimes it can be pricey. Like ours is kind of pricey, but it's like state of the art, brand new. It's like$500 for the year. Oh wow. So that's pretty pricey. I don't know what ours is, but it was built last year, so I'm sure it's, it's probably expensive. Yeah. But what you can do is, most places we'll do just like either, um, fitness classes that you can buy a membership for, or you can do a day pass. Like for ours it's like$9, seven,$9 to just drop in for the day. You can run on the track, you can swim in the pool, you can use the gym, you can rent the basketball court. Like there's so much that. So many resources at your disposal that are either free or cheap. Like I would say we have a tennis court in our neighborhood that we can go pick up as long as nobody's using it. Mm-hmm. We can go and play tennis or like mm-hmm. We kicked a soccer ball around in a tennis ball court before too. Like it's just, it's really nothing too crazy. Mm-hmm. And the summers use your local pool. I know Bailey would, Bailey is a pro at using her pool. Oh yeah. Their neighborhood pool they were at. A whole lot. I won't say that they were doing laps or anything though. No, that's good to still get some sun, I guess. It totally is. But yeah, even swimming is so great for your body'cause it's so low impact. Yeah. Like it doesn't put a lot of pressure on your joints. Yeah. It's really good for your muscles. So I could see a lot of people, I have no evidence to support this. I could see a lot of runners who, once they get older and it's harder on their bodies, I could see them maybe turning to swimming. Yeah. Because it's a similar. Uh, as far as the cardio element of it, it's similar in that way, but it's easier on your joints. Yeah, definitely. If we had like a pool in our backyard, I would swim all the time for recovery. I could see it. Cooper really loves swimming, but I'm trying to convince him to get a membership so he can swim at a pool. But yeah, I don't know if he will. Yeah, that makes we'll see sense. Well, I think that's everything. I kind of wanna, I'm gonna real quick kind of recap some of what we said.'cause we went through a lot of good stuff. Oh yeah, there's a lot. But first, like, first things first I would say find what is fun for you and figure out what matters and is motivating for you have a goal that is not related to weight loss. That would be like where I would say to start and finding activity that is fun Then. Find a routine that works for you. So whether that's before, after work, whatever is the most attainable, or you know, whether that is outside, inside in, in a fitness class or at a community center or at home, whatever works for you. Yeah. I will say with that too, if you're somebody who has no clue where to start, there are so many like free apps. Yeah. Free plans on Pinterest. Yes. Fitness influencers that we'll put out. Like a workout you can do at home. Definitely. Or maybe a run schedule or you know, whatever. Mm-hmm. That you can at least, like if you absolutely no idea where you wanna start. Mm-hmm. You have somewhere to start jumping off from. Yeah, definitely. And then habit stacking, we went all into that, but that's a huge tip. Accountability. Finding a buddy. That's a huge tip. Focus on recovery that isn't very important. And then using your local resources. So those were kind of the main things that we went through, and that's where what we would encourage you guys to do, if you are looking to. Start or stay active, especially going into the winter when it can be hard. Like right now it is fall and it's still hot, and so we maybe not, aren't thinking about how soon we're gonna be holed up in the house. Yes. But it is, it is important to start thinking about these things now. And if you guys, if you guys need a buddy or need someone to cheer you on, we're probably both here for you. I mean, at least I am. I can't speak for Morgan, but, but we would be happy to cheer you on. And if you enjoyed this episode, if you are ready and gearing to go send it to someone that you wanna start a workout routine with. Mm-hmm. Or start a run club with somebody you wanna get coffees and walk with. Yes. Send your sweaty selfies too. Yes. Whatever. Please send it to them. We would love that. And otherwise we, well, I at least will talk to you next week. Maybe Morgan will, I don't know yet. Yeah, we'll see. But we'll see you next week. Cheers. Cheers. A good, yeah.