209: Snacks Clinically Proven to Increase Your Healthspan

Did you know there are snacks clinically proven in multitudes of scientific studies to put more years lived in good health into your future?  I can confidently guarantee you that snacking this way regularly for years will create a different physiology than if you don’t.

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In Episode 209 of the Health Courage Collective Podcast titled 'Snacks Clinically Proven to Increase Your Health Span,' the host explores the science behind how small, frequent movement 'snacks' throughout the day can play a significant role in prolonging good health. The episode emphasizes the importance of continuous movement to combat the adverse effects of a sedentary lifestyle, comparing the benefits to those of consistent physical exertion experienced by our ancestors. Additionally, it highlights the deleterious effects of prolonged sitting and introduces the concept of 'exercise snacks' or 'movement snacks,' underscoring how these small, frequent activities can vastly improve various health aspects, from reducing the risk of chronic diseases to enhancing mental well-being. The host explains the biological mechanisms at play, such as senescence and telomere health, and provides practical tips for incorporating simple, enjoyable movement routines into daily life. A variety of actual food snack suggestions that align with common health guidelines are also discussed, alongside the core message that intermittent movement is vital for long-term health.00:00 Introduction to Health-Boosting Snacks01:07 Imagining Your Future Health05:33 The Science Behind Movement and Aging07:52 The Dangers of a Sedentary Lifestyle14:46 Introducing Movement Snacks19:35 Practical Tips for Movement Snacks30:29 Fun and Engaging Movement Ideas38:13 Conclusion and Next Steps

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you know that there are snacks clinically proven in
multitudes of scientific studies to put more years lived in
good health into your future. I can complidently guarantee you
that snacking this way regularly for years will create a
different physiology than if you don't. You're listening to the

(00:21):
Health Courage Collective Podcast, Episode two hundred and nine, Snacks
clinically proven to increase your health spare Welcome to the
Health Courage Collective Podcast, the show for women who are
too busy to slog through hours of generalized, in applicable,
and often contradictory health information, but too smart to ignore

(00:41):
that a few minutes of focused attention now can prevent
years of suffering in the future. I'm your host, Christina Hackett,
a pharmacist who doesn't want you to live on prescriptions,
a certified coach specifically trained to maximize your potential, and
a compulsive learner obsessed with preventative, cutting edge, holistic and
integrated medicine. I'm on a mission to increase your physical

(01:03):
and mental resilience so you can fearlessly look forward to
your next forty plus limitless years. Your time is now.
Let's go Hello and welcome to today's episode. I hope
that you are having a great day. How is your character?
I think it's so important to remind ourselves that all

(01:25):
this work we're doing to be healthy now and stay
healthy for decades to come, isn't something that will magically
make our lives blissfully untroubled. It's not the endgame. It's
a means to an end. Today we're talking about snacks.
It might not be exactly what you're expecting, but I
hope that you find it valuable. Let's hop in a

(01:47):
time machine and go forward in time to your sixty
ninth birthday. What year will that be for you? For me,
it will be November of twenty forty eight. I better
have a flying car that I can park on my
roof by then. Imagine you wake up in your bedroom
wherever you want to be living when you're sixty nine.

(02:08):
What will the light be like in the morning of
your birthday month? Any certain sounds or smells? Do birds
chirp in the morning? Not for me in Utah in November,
but maybe for you in Hawaii in May or whatever.
Imagine you haul yourself out of bed to get ready

(02:28):
for your sixty ninth birthday. Activities, and everything feels pretty
creaky and uncomfortable. Your posture has changed. Getting up off
the floor would be an event if you had to
do it, and your balance is more than a bit questionable.
You're a good patient, so you head to the kitchen
to take your blood pressure medication and your blood sugar

(02:51):
medication and the pain medication that takes the edge off
the pain in your joints. You're determined to enjoy your
birthday because you're starting to feel the effects of your
age and that you're at an increased risk for dementia, cancer,
and stroke because of your age. Now, imagine a different
twist on the same scenario. We get in our time
machine and jump forward to the morning of your sixty

(03:13):
ninth birthday. Birds are chirping, or not, smell of fresh
cut grass drifting in through the open window, or that
weird smell that the furnace turning on for the first
time of the winter. Does I actually love that day
the first day it's cold enough to have to turn
on the furnace, But for now, imagine that you feel energetic,

(03:34):
enthusiastic about your day. You don't have a stooped posture,
you didn't have to give yourself a pep talk to
get up and get going. You look forward to lifting
some heavy stuff today, and last you checked your insulin levels,
glucose levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol numbers are all in
optimal ranges. Your risk of dementia, cancer, and heart attack

(03:54):
and stroke are low because you actually have a different
physiology than the you in scenario one. You don't feel
limited by anything. Really, you can fully engage in whatever
matters most to you in your life. You can keep
up with your kids and grandkids and work tirelessly for
important causes that light you up. I don't have to

(04:16):
ask you which physiology you'd rather have. But what if
I told you the prescription for scenario too isn't to
start running marathons, to have to ignore your family because
you practically live at the gym and only associate with
sweaty people and spandex, or to only ever eat meals
that taste like you put grass clippings on cardboard. What

(04:38):
if the prescription was snacks. Little snacks, snacks that have
been scientifically proven to change your physiology and after twenty
plus years, will for sure lower your risk of all
of the common chronic diseases. Of aging that cause you
to slowly stop living before you die. Would you be interested?
Could I sell you some of these snacks? What if

(04:59):
I told you that the snacks were free, You'd probably
start wondering what the catch is? Well, there is one
the catches that, in order to end up with a
different physiology in the future, one that's more resilient and
less likely to start malfunctioning in all the ways that
we're told are normal, you have to be willing to
think and act a little differently, starting right now, to

(05:22):
pick what seems like the harder present in order to
get the easier future. To find a way to find
joy in something that might feel weird or uncomfortable. So
is it worth it? This is something I talk about
a lot because it's crazy important to your health span
and is easy to overlook or forget. Our spirits and

(05:44):
minds were designed to thrive on challenge and exertion, but
so were our bodies. Nowadays, we can push our limits
and alter our environment without having to get up from
our desk chair. We can acquire safety, shelter, water, and
calorie without having to run, hide, climb, build, walk, carry, dig, twist,

(06:05):
or bend. It's very convenient. I happen to love it,
but it's also aging us faster. There are several mechanisms
to aging, but one of them is called sinescence. We
talked all about it in episode fifty five Zombies Inside You.
Our cells can divide about fifty to seventy times each
and then they need to die, but some of them don't.

(06:27):
They stick around as an undead cell, causing molecular mayhem.
Our daily choices can affect how many sinescent cells we
have hanging around and causing problems. Our daily choices also
affect how rapidly our cells divide, so some people burn
through their allotted number of divisions more quickly than others.
You've probably also heard about telomeres before. They're like the

(06:50):
end caps on chromosomes. People always compare them to the
end caps on the ends of shoelaces that keep them
from unraveling. Telomeres prevent our DNA from f praying on
the ends of becoming so garbled that it's unsafe for
our cells to keep replicating, which can put an early
end to cells being able to divide. And that's only
one of the ways movement matters to your biology. Little

(07:13):
things matter because one of the main ways you can
control the rate at which you biologically age is by
moving frequently throughout the day. Whether we change into our
subplex cool macs, moisture wicking outfit of choice, and scan
our barcode at the gym or not, the health of
our eyes, brain, mitochondria, metabolism, et cetera depend on whether

(07:39):
we move frequently throughout the day or not. Whether or
not we formally exercise, moving our bodies matters to every
cell in our body. Movement is pretty ubiquitous as a
thing that prevents almost every single medical issue. We talked
about being a sedentary exerciser way back in episode twenty eight.
If you haven't heard that one, it's a good one

(08:00):
about how you can be someone who exercises regularly and
still have the same negative effects on your body as
astronauts do in space. If you sit for the rest
of the day, even if you crushed an intense workout today,
you can still suffer the effects of sedentariness. For real.
Have you heard that sitting is the new smoking? Probably?

(08:21):
But what does that actually mean. Doctor Joan Vernico says
sitting is now considered an independent risk factor for many
chronic diseases as well as premature death. Even if you
smoke like a chimney or are a heavy drinker or both,
it's actually the constant sitting that does the most damage.
End quote. Wow, I would never consider smoking like a

(08:45):
chimney or becoming a heavy drinker, So why would I
sit for hours at a time. Well, because it's the
normal and easy thing to do. Chairs, one of our
most ubiquitous furniture pieces, used to be rare. We used
to squat or kneel rather than It wasn't until the
seventeenth century that chairs became common in the Western world.
Now we sit to work, sit to eat, sit in

(09:08):
our cars, and finish the day sitting on the couch.
It's easier than ever to sit all the time. A
great deal of studies have shown that the more we sit,
the greater our chances of dying of heart disease, stroke, cancer,
or diabetes. Not only that, but we are more likely
to get back and joint pain and sitting SAPs our energy,

(09:28):
which is kind of counterintuitive, making us more tired than ever.
Inactivity directly causes two point four percent of US healthcare expenditures,
or about twenty four billion dollars a year and indirectly
causes much, much, much more than that. The physiologic changes
to our bodies when we sit are similar to those

(09:50):
of astronauts in zero gravity, which are both similar to
those of elderly people. Sitting accelerates the aging process on
your body, even if you're a regular exerciser. Let me
say that again, Sitting accelerates the aging process on your body,

(10:10):
even if you exercise regularly. The main cause of these
problems is gravity deprivation. When you sit or lie down,
you are under using the valuable body strengthener called gravity.
I've never thought about how I underuse or undervalue gravity before,
just another thing I've been taken for granted all these years.

(10:33):
On Earth. We lose roughly one percent of our bone
density every year. In space, astronauts lose as much as
one percent per week. Their muscles become weaker, their immune
systems are suppressed, and their sleep is disturbed. When astronauts
come home from space, they have less stamina, they shuffle
when they walk, and they lose their sense of balance,

(10:55):
all because they've missed out on the benefits of gravity
on their bodies. These are the same things that happen
to us when we sit for an hour or more.
While it's clear that exercising improves your overall health, steady
after study shows that reducing the amount of time you
spend consecuatively sitting has more of an influence on your

(11:16):
health than exercising. As little as one to two hours
of consecutive sitting can reduce your ability to regulate your
blood sugar, and it can increase your risk for cancer, diabetes,
and cardiovascular disease. In her book Move Your DNA, Katie
Bowman tells us that we have fifteen to seventy trillion
cells in our body, almost everyone with a receptor tied

(11:40):
to our movement or lack thereof. This is one of
the reasons that astronauts health plummets when they leave gravity.
They lose the force of gravity on all of their cells.
Katie Bowman is an epigeneticist who says that most epigeneticists
are missing one of the biggest very in our gene expression.

(12:02):
Remember that we have our set genes, but what turns
our genes on and off is called epigenetics. While we
can't change which genes we inherited, we can have a
huge influence on the expression of those genes. Our environment
and choices make a bigger difference than what genes we inherit,
Katie says. Quote. Of course, diet, stress, and environmental factors

(12:26):
can all change the expression or physical outcome of your DNA,
But it is my professional opinion as a biomechanist that
movement is what most humans are missing more than any
other factor, and the bulk of the scientific community has
dropped the ball with respect to disease. The humans internal
mechanical environment has been the least discussed environment of all,

(12:51):
a staggering oversight when almost every selling your body has
specialized equipment just to sense the mechanical movement. Every single
thing our bodies do requires movement initiated by our muscular
skeletal system. To be performed with ease, digestion, immunity, reproduction,

(13:12):
All of these functions require us to move. You can
eat the perfect diet, sleep eight hours a night, and
use only baking, soda and vinegar to clean your house,
but without the loads created by natural movement, all of
these worthy efforts are thwarted at a cellular level, and
your optimal wellness level remains elusive. End quote. We don't

(13:37):
want our optimal wellness level to be elusive. We can
only be our healthiest and turn on the genes we
want on and turn off the genes we want off
if we move. We really, truly are designed to move
all day, every day. There's no way around it. The
health of our trillions of cells depend on it. According

(13:57):
to my quick Google search, ay percent of American workers
have primarily sedentary jobs. So what do we do? Then?
Insert drum roll here, enter exercise snacks. I'd prefer to
call them movement snacks, but I could see how out
of contact that sounds more ambiguous. But that's exactly what
all of the cells in every part of our body crave,

(14:20):
little snacks of movement sprinkled throughout your day. The science
is clear that several small sessions of movement spread throughout
the day is better for you than the same amount
of exercise done all in one session. And your movement
snacks don't need to be hard. It's fine if they are,
but it's not required. If you're feeling like you've been

(14:42):
duped because you wanted a list of actual snack foods
that increase your health span, you probably wouldn't have made
it this far into this episode. But if you did,
and I'll leave you disappointed without some snack ideas. Here
are some actual snack ideas that came to mind for me.
You can always find people who think that something is unhealthy.
Doctor George Eed, who I think is brilliant, would say

(15:04):
that almost everything on this list is unhealthy, especially nuts, seeds,
and dairy products, So ignore anything that doesn't go along
with your personal nutrition ideology. The one core truth that
I think is pretty true across this board is that
the healthiest snack is no snack. I never thought about
it this way before, but our natural eating requirement is

(15:27):
pretty much the opposite of our natural movement requirement, in
that the healthiest way to get the same volume of
movement throughout the day is to space it out as
much as possible throughout the day, and the healthiest way
to get the same number of calories and macronutrients is
to not space them out throughout the day. If you
can get all the nutrients you need in two meals

(15:50):
per day, you'll be healthier. It's not always easy to do,
but we're not optimized to have three meals and five
snacks a day. You for sure need a certain number
of hours per day where you're not eating anything in
order for yourselves to do their house cleaning and be
optimally healthy. So the number one, very best snacking strategy
is not to snack, to eat in such a way

(16:12):
that you're not hungry between meals. I think that should
be the goal. If you fall short of that ideal,
sometimes that's okay. And here are a few options. A
hard boiled egg. Those are easy to make ahead of
time and keep on hand, or you can even just
buy them at Costco, which is fabulous. A string cheese
or a slice of cheese, cottage cheese, handful of nuts,

(16:33):
a handful of dark berries, chia or basil seed pudding.
I recently listened to a fascinating book called Real Food,
Fake Food by Larry Olmsted, and I learned more than
I ever knew there was to know about real parmesan cheese,
the real stuff from Italy. That would be a great option.
A piece or two cut off of an actual wedge

(16:54):
of real parmesan imported from Italy, maybe with a couple
of drops of aged Balsama vinegar on it. Fancy beef
jerky or other jerkys, turkey roll ups, sugar free Greek yogurt,
a mini cucumber sub the cue veggies with guacamole are
ex Sugar brand, all Yolo scummies or chocolate bars. I

(17:17):
love to get little square pouch thingies of cooked chicken
at Costco and I just eat those sometimes. I recently
bought a freeze dryer, so I love playing with that
to make things like zucchini chips and cheese crackers. Moving
into the realm of snacks that don't improve your house band,
but definitely don't decrease it the way there correl it would.

(17:38):
One of my favorite toys is my Ninja Creamy ice
cream maker. I can make the exact same protein cheeke
that I make for myself after the gym freeze it,
and then use my Ninja Creamy to turn it into
some pretty delicious, silky smooth ice cream. I love it
so much. I also like the Wild brand chips. Wild
with an e Spicy Queso is the best, but Buffalo

(17:59):
is also pretty good. Quick Google search came up with
lots of other fun things to try. Homemade sugar free
chocolate nut butter like Natella, but with no sugar, reeses,
protein balls, and sugar free protein mugcakes and cookies. Those
definitely don't make your health better, but they're better options
than their health destroying counterparts. Okay, but back to what

(18:22):
we're really here to talk about, movement snacks. How can
you see yourself incorporating movement into your regular day. Your
auto generated attitude might be that it sounds overwhelming or annoying,
that this is just another thing to add to your
already too long to do list, something else that you

(18:42):
should be doing but don't have the bandwidth for yet
another unpleasant thing to constantly nag at the back of
your mind. But here's what I'm hoping you'll see. It
doesn't have to be that way, I promise. If I've
convinced you of the value to your cellular health of
doing this, which I hope I have, but it feels
heavy to you, decide right now that you're only going

(19:05):
to do movement snacks that are fun and easy. If
it's not fun, you're not doing it the end. Sound good? Okay,
So I've talked about this before, and here's what I
think needs to be your foundational snack. This will for sure,
one hundred percent guaranteed make your health and your future better.
If this is all you can do, you'll still be winning.

(19:25):
Remember that it's sitting for long stretches of time that's
so bad for you, so the solution is pretty obvious.
Stand up sometimes work against your new friend gravity. The
optimal time to not sit longer than is twenty minutes.
If you can stand up every twenty minutes, you'll be
so much healthier. Some research says twenty to thirty minutes,

(19:49):
so you could maybe get away with thirty minutes. My
coach Brian Johnson talks a lot about how he sets
a tim around his watch and moves every sixteen minutes
and forty seconds because that's every one thousand seconds. He
does tens sets of eleven burpies throughout the day and
sometimes hangs from a pull up bar to train his grip.
I thought it sounded nice for him, but didn't really

(20:09):
see how it would work for me or connect the
dots for myself until I really understood that it's just
moving your body against gravity every twenty to thirty minutes
that makes a huge difference. One hundred and ten burpies
are not required. Could be better, but not required, especially
when you're just getting started. It seems like it would
be a huge distraction to have a timer going off

(20:31):
every twenty minutes, and I know that deep work and
deep focus are so important. But then I heard Brian
explain that he thinks of this timer as just a
meditation bell, and if he's really into what he's working on,
when the timer go off goes off, he just lifts
his butt off the seat. That's it. I've seen him
do it every time we're in a workshop, and it's
really no big deal, like a little fidget almost. That's

(20:54):
when I started to think that maybe I could actually
do this. Hey, I just wanted to quickly interrupt and
ask if you really love your protein bars. If not,
you might want to check out built bars. Built bars
have fifteen to nineteen grams of protein from whey and
only one hundred and thirty to one hundred and eighty
calories and forty eight grams of sugar per bar, depending

(21:14):
on what flavor you choose. They're so good I eat
one almost every day. Every flavor is covered in real chocolate,
and they taste like a candy bar as long as
you've never tasted a real candy bar before. Just kidding,
I'm totally kidding. They may not be quite as decadent
as your favorite candy bar, but they're seriously good, especially
for one hundred and thirty calories and four grams of sugar.

(21:35):
They have tons of flavors and textures to choose from.
I always order the eighteen bar variety box plus a
box of whatever's new or strikes my fancy. My favorite
is peanut butter Brownie, but the seasonal candy Cane Brownie
is awesome when it's that time of year, and the
cookie dough and cherry Barcia are so good too. If
you want to give them a try, there's a link
in the show notes that will get you fifteen percent

(21:56):
off your first order. Is my gift to you. You
can't go wrong, Okay the episode, I knew I didn't
want to have to touch my phone every twenty minutes,
so I bought a clip on timer at Walmart for
ninety seven cents, and I try to wear it whenever
I'm sitting. I use a silent timer at work that
turns from green to red so I don't disturb anyone
with any sounds there. I do intervals of seventeen minutes. Usually,

(22:19):
sometimes I set it for eighteen minutes and that goes
by really fast. But I make sure to get my
butt off the seat every time it goes off, no
matter what. And guess what, it's not distracting. It doesn't
pull me out of my train of thought. I'm like
a laboratory animal that just does a thing in response
to a queue, and it's fabulous. Sometimes doing things mindlessly

(22:40):
is awesome. I do sometimes stand up for longer, do
a twist or a neck roll, or even go for
a micro walk around the broom. But all I require
of myself is to get my seat off the seat.
I do different things at home when nobody can see
me that then I do at work. There are some
kickboxing moves and nineties and see hammer type moves and

(23:01):
other embarrassing stuff that I would only do at home
when nobody's looking. But it really does help me feel
like my blood is flowing and I'm just more alive.
And I truly believe that I am. At a cellular level,
I'm less alive when I don't give my organ systems
and epigenetics that turn off my unhealthy genes and turn
on my healthy genes the movement that they crave. If

(23:26):
you aren't moving you might be mistaken for dead by
passers by, by your coworkers, your kids, your muscles, your neurotransmitters,
your subcellular organelles. Movement is life. Researcher doctor Joan Vernicos
has proven that sitting for periods of longer than thirty
minutes causes all of the same deterioration that happens to

(23:48):
astronauts bodies in space. Doctor Kelly McGonagall has proven that
consistently moving throughout the day is correlated with a higher
sense of purpose in life, greater life satisfaction, less anxiety, depression,
and hostility if you remember from a previous episode. She
even found a step count for the day that will
put you above the threshold for increased risk of anxiety,

(24:11):
depression and hostility five thousand, six hundred and fifty steps
a day. If you get more than five thousand, six
hundred and fifty steps a day, your chances of anxiety,
depression and hostility go down. If you consistently incorporate movement
snacks into your day for the next many years, you
will end up with a different physiology than if you don't.

(24:34):
You will have improved mental health, a better sense of life, purpose,
reduced risk of dementia, all of the benefits of more
lymphatic movement throughout your body, better immune system function, better
cardiovascular health, a stronger skeleton, stronger muscles, improved insulin and
blood sugar levels, and depending on which snacks you choose,

(24:54):
possibly better balance, coordination, flexibility, and a reduced risk of
injury and or chronic pain. That's a big list. I
think the baseline is to get up out of your
chair every twenty to thirty minutes. So start there once
you're okay with that, and do it pretty consistently. Start
adding in some things that feel fun, useful, and non overwhelming.

(25:17):
You don't have to do them every twenty minutes, just
when you have a natural break, like after one hundred
and twenty minutes of grinding it out. If you've been
hunched forward for a long time, extend back and look
at the ceiling. Twist to the side. Hanging from above.
Is that awesome thing to do? If if you have
something you can hang from, get down on the floor,

(25:37):
anything that puts you in a different body position. Try
something that moves the four quarters of your body left right,
top bottom, Do something barefoot. Our bodies are constructed to walk.
If you have sixty seconds for an exercise snack and
can't think of what to do walk, what else can
you think of? I think exercise snacks or movement snacks

(25:59):
are a great opportunity to work on something you're trying
to get better at. So what's that for you? Is
there something that will improve your jiu jitsu performance, your
pickleball serve? Are you rehabbing an injury? I have this
ongoing subscapularists shoulder impingement or something. I've seen professionals for it,

(26:20):
and they gave me some therapy to do for it.
But I tried giving chat GPT this prompt act as
if you are a highly skilled physical therapist, can you
help me think of a few shoulder exercises I can
do throughout the day to strengthen my subscapularist muscle and
improve my shoulder stability so that I have proper scapular
movement during pull ups, strict overhead presses, and other shoulder exercises. So,

(26:44):
of course you have to be very careful and take
everything AI feed you with more than one grain of salt.
But I was pretty happy with its response, which was
absolutely as a highly skilled physical therapist. I'm happy to help.
The subscapularist plays a critical role in internal rotation, anterior
shoulders stability, and scapular positioning to properly support movements like
pull ups and strict overhead presses. We want to address

(27:05):
not only subscapulary's strength, but also scapulo humoral rhythm, rotator
cuff coordination, and scapular stip stabilizer balance. Here are several effective,
low load, repeatable exercises you can integrate throughout your day,
ideal for building endurance, neuromuscular control, and postural strength. Then
it gave me five exercises with the name of the exercise,

(27:28):
the why it's important, and how to do it, on
the dosage of how many reps and how often, so
that's pretty cool. It even gave me bonus cues about
focusing on seratus, anterior engagement and relaxing the upper traps,
which are definitely problems for me. Then it asked me,
would you like me to build a daily mini routine

(27:49):
or printable chart from this list, and I said yes,
please chat GPT came back with excellent, here's a daily
mini routine specifically designed to strengthen your subscapularis improve your
shoulder stability and promote optimal scapular mechanics during pull ups
and overhead pressing. It's split into three short sessions to
weave throughout your day, morning, midday, and evening. You can

(28:11):
easily perform most of this with a resistance band, a wall,
and your own body weight. Would you like this routine
in a printable PDF format or a mobile friendly checklist? So? Anyway,
that was pretty awesome. So you might be able to
use chat GPT to help you with something that you
want to work on. Just be careful because it can
get a lot of things wrong. Luckily, I'm married to

(28:32):
a physical therapist, so I can fact check check GPT
in this one. Okay, So we have standing up from
your chair every twenty to thirty minutes, moving in ways
that are opposite of your resting posture, walking, doing little
things you already want to be working on, either as
rehab or to improve your performance in something that matters
to you. The next most important thing I think would

(28:55):
be helpful for you to incorporate is anything you find fun.
What move movement sparks joying you. I've mentioned before that
my husband got me this thing called a GiB board,
and it's the funnest movement snack for me. I love
it so much. If you haven't heard of it, which
I hadn't before I got one as a gift, it
looks kind of like a snowboard, but without the boot bindings,

(29:15):
but then it has a slack line stretched across from
end to end, so it's basically just a portable indoor
slack line that doesn't require anchor points. It's fabulous and fun.
If you have somewhere you could string up an actual
slack line even better, or anything else you find fun
to do. When I was racking my brain for other

(29:36):
movements that just make me super happy, I had elementary
school flashbacks to Chinese jump rope. Did you ever do
Chinese jump rope? It was the best. I liked regular
jump rope and double Dutch fine, but Chinese jump rope
was where it was at hot back and forth, in
and out, twist, crisscross, apple sauce, bunny hop. It's so fun.

(30:00):
I ordered a Chinese jump rope on Amazon. I'm gonna
see if I can rig it out between four chair legs.
It might also require some Gloria estefan or Debbie Gibson
or something plus wearing two pairs of socks light pink
on the inside, hot pink on the outside on one
foot and hot pink on the inside, light pink on
the outside on the other foot. Did you ever do that?

(30:23):
Elementary school? I also loved hands up stands up? That
could be interesting. What did you love? What did you
do at recess in the nineties? Dance to a boombox,
teather ball? Any of that sound fun? Maybe instead of
calling your movement snacks an exercise snack, you call it recess. Ooh,
that is good time for recess. I'm sure you can

(30:47):
think of tons of other activities. Air squats, walking lunges,
push ups, planks, calf raises, knee raises, glut bridges, wall sits,
mountain climbers, skaterhouse, curtsy lunches. We could go on forever.
If doing an exercise sounds like fun for you, go
for it. If it sounds like it would be a

(31:09):
part of your data you would end up dreading. Just
focus on the fun stuff instead for now. Not everything
has to be a soul crushing grind. Make your movement
snacks like your recess, something you look forward to. An
opportunity to re energize and just play get some pleasure
out of it. Turning on a song you love and

(31:29):
dancing around to it is always an easy and fun option.
What do you think? What do you want to try?
I promise you girl Scouts Honor, that your future self
will thank you if you establish a movement snacking habit.
So many aspects of your health will be improved. I

(31:50):
was never actually a girl Scout, by the way, but
I promise you that it is the truth. I'd encourage
you to imagine in detail exactly when you're going to
do your movement snack. What time of day will it be,
What will you be interrupting to do it, What will
your Q be to remind you to do it? Clearly,

(32:11):
imagine that you're in the thick of your day, You've
been prompted by your queue, it's time for your movement snack,
and you really really don't want to do it. Why
not and what can you do about it? Imagine yourself
being in that emotional, can't be bothered kind of state
and doing it anyway. Commit to doing at least something

(32:35):
one easy toe touch. Pre committing to yourself and really
imagining what exactly you'll be in the middle of and
how it will feel to not want to do it,
and then doing it anyway, no matter what, increases your
chances of following through. Then when the time comes, do
it whether you feel like it or not. And don't
forget the most important part of installing a new habit.

(32:58):
Do you remember what it is? I on it all
the time because I don't want you to forget. Every
time you do your exercise snack, no matter how small
or how halfheartedly, celebrate, throw your arms up in victory,
do a little shimmy, tell yourself you're awesome. Whatever feels
like a celebration of your magnificence. My favorite is to

(33:20):
say that's like me. If it's motivating to you, put
a red X on a calendar somewhere, or do some
other kind of Jerry Seinfeld, don't break the chain marking
to indicate that you are a woman of integrity who
does what she says she'll do, and that is something
worth celebrating. I thought about making a done for you,

(33:41):
customizable free PDF download to go with this episode, but
I wasn't quite sure it would be super helpful since
we all have different preferences in different equipment available to us.
If you want one, I'd be happy to make one.
Email me at Healthcourage Collective at gmail dot com with
any version of exercise snack template in the subject or

(34:02):
body of the message, and if I get enough requests,
I'd be happy to make you one. I was thinking
it would have different templates for things that improve mobility
or flexibility, things for balance and coordination, things for strength,
things for cardio. Then you could pick whichever template you
wanted and just roll some dice and it will tell
you what to do. Anyhow, let me know if you
would want that, But I'm sure you could make one

(34:23):
on your own, and maybe you would like that one better.
I did find an app called Daily Movement Snacks. I
thought there would be more options, so that was the
only one I could find. I downloaded it and you
might find it to be fantastic. I didn't feel like
there were very many practical options, but you might feel differently.
Whatever you decide, I hope you at least consider giving

(34:43):
your future self the gift of an upgraded biology by
incorporating at least a few movement snacks into your day,
and I think predeciding some of them now will take
some of the burden of having to decide what to
do for your movement snack when the time comes. While
move that snacks our gift to your future physiology, it's
also a gift to your present self. I feel so

(35:05):
much better after I move around during the day, even
if it's only a little bit. I feel less strained
at the end of the day. It's really noticeable, and
I feel really good in the moment that I sit
back down to keep working. After I move a little bit,
it's even proven to boost your mood. Thanks so much
for being here today. This is such an important thing
to weave into your day because the results are phenomenal.

(35:28):
You don't have to stop living before you die, but
the price to pay is exerting a little extra effort.
Being a bit unusual right now. But those oddities don't
have to be grueling spirit crushers. It's possible for them
to be the funnest part of your day. Next week,
we're going to go on a hero's journey and see
if we can discover the biggest threat to our long

(35:50):
term health. Until then, start savoring some daily movement snacks
and don't be norming. Thank you so much. For tuning
into the Health Courage Collective podcast. Truly honored that you
have paid me the enormous compliment of your time and attention.
I would be so grateful if you would share this
podcast with someone you know and subscribe so you never
miss an episode. This podcast is for entertainment and information

(36:13):
purposes only. Statements and views on this podcast are not
medical advice. This podcast, including Christina Hackett and producers, disclaim
responsibility for any possible adverse events by use of information
contained hereo. If you think you have a medical problem,
consult a licensed Positions