Giving Your Best Life
Join Stephanie Jones aka Giving Gal, as she chats about “Giving Your Best Life"! In each episode, she shares intentional ways to give to yourself and others, how giving and gratitude changes your life and ways to go after living your big dreams and accomplishing goals.
Giving Your Best Life
Episode 109: Spring into Action with Everyday Fitness Hacks with Guest Zach Lloyd
Spring has sprung and so have Stephanie and I, Zach, straight into the heart of outdoor fitness—and we're taking you with us! As the days grow longer, it's time to shed those winter blues and find exhilaration in the most unexpected places: your very own backyard. From transforming mundane yard work into a heart-pumping exercise to venturing out with your four-legged friends, we're here to show you how simple, everyday tasks can invigorate both mind and body. Discover with us how the change of seasons is the perfect backdrop for family adventures that won't break the bank but will fill your life with joyous movement.
Connect with Stephanie:
Get a free resource The 4G Method Journal here.
Shop Stephanie's books here.
Follow me on IG: @Giving_Gal or FB/GivingGal
hey friends, it's stephanie here with another episode of giving your best life with my I'm going to start saying co-host zach lloyd, sustainable anti-diet coach wonderful co-host.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm gonna own it. I love it. Uh. So today we want to talk about um. Whenever you're hearing this, it's getting warmer outside, sunshine longer days, and this weekend my husband had cut down a tree during the winter. You know, I was about ready to fall in the barn and he's like we have to pick all this up. So it was like 70 minutes of hauling limbs and and I was not happy camper half of the time. But then I realized, oh, this is my workout for today. I didn't have to go run or walk or do weights or whatever. So I thought it would be fun, as we're getting in the warmer weather, especially if you live in a place like Zach and I do, where it's depressing all winter long and it's cold and you just get stuck in your house and it's cold and you just get stuck in your house like let's talk about getting outside exercise, movement, whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good, that's a good start. I think a lot of us too, because it's so dark and dreary. There's almost this, like when spring starts coming. There's a friction where we actually like stay in the house longer than we need to, yeah, and and I think that's kind of what we're talking about as well.
Speaker 2:It's like just get out there now Like don't wait and do whatever appeals to you or, you know, challenge yourself, like you did with the, with the branches Right, like I did something similar actually yesterday. Um, I had to do some yard work and I just did not make the time to do it, but I was like I'm just going to go out for 15 minutes and at least I'll do something to move it forward a little bit, and then I'll get outside. And you know, I like the saying touch grass don't touch grass right and so, yeah, I think that was.
Speaker 2:I felt better after I did that too. It kind of revamped my afternoon. I had more energy to like make it through the evening funny enough, um, and I think that that friction that we might feel to just get outside when it starts actually getting nicer outside, like find what you can do outside to enjoy, yeah, I feel like that's so good, the friction, because it's almost like we've stayed in.
Speaker 1:So we've set this like contentment with being inside, and that's one thing like I on giving your best life is you want to be content with what you have in life, like your material things, so you're not constantly buying and spending, but you don't want to be content of like where you're at, and I think that's one thing you can get really content during the winter months. Um, and I also like the idea of getting creative. It doesn't have to be a long time, like 15 minutes. Let's go out. And I think, too, is just start making this mental list of okay, what are things that you can do that you can't do in the winter, or maybe you don't want to do because it's cold. Yeah, so for you, what are some things that you can do?
Speaker 2:or like you would recommend people hey, you can go out and do this yeah, I've been pushing a lot of clients lately actually to get outside more, to just move, and it's always a different discussion with any different kind like what does that look like? Some clients love gardening, so it's like, alright, start gardening like it's pointing to do. Their other clients have dogs. So if you need a reason to walk, buy a dog. Just kidding, but those are kind of the easy ones. And then two, just like, I think, experimenting and challenging yourself, especially if you have a spouse or a loved one that you can challenge yourself together with.
Speaker 2:So, whatever that looks like, whether it's like there's a hike close by, that you've never done before, or last summer is when I had my six-month-old and three-month-old. So I was like in that stage of like, okay, he's got to take a lot of naps, but then I also have a toddler that's like let's go. So I was like, well, have I really investigated this area of like 20-mile radius from my house? Have we really investigated it to the full extent? Do I know, like, all of the nature preserves? Do I know all the playgrounds? Do I know all of the different places? And just like going and checking them out and I found some like diamonds in the rough that I didn't even know were there and had a really good time doing that. So just challenging yourself in different ways to just get outside, hike, move, pickle ball is becoming a big sport for everybody, it seems like so talk about that.
Speaker 2:If you haven't tried it, try it again, just try things like try whatever you can try and, again, just try to have fun doing it. And I think that's the big thing with workouts like we kind of have this, um, this mental framework of workouts are always hard and like if they're not hard it's like not valuable. We're really just moving and having fun doing it. You're gonna move more if you have fun doing it. So try to find something that you enjoy and can just play around with.
Speaker 1:I like that idea of like exploring where you are. You know you don't have to go on a big, big vacation or you don't have to spend a lot of money. There's so much, um, no matter where you are in your backyard. I mean, I grew up in rural indiana but we had an amazing state park where I was always amazed. I mean, I had tons of friends that really had never been to the state park where we were there every week as a family like sheep entertainment. Um, my dad took us. My mom worked late on Thursday nights so my dad took us to the park. So I love that idea of like with your family. Um, I know my husband and I last week is he's like let's get out and go for a walk, and I said let's go to the university and walk around.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, like we had never done it just walked around campus and we loved it.
Speaker 1:And it was a short drive, you know, it took us less than 10 minutes to get there. And then it was like, once we were there, we found a loop that we were like, oh, this is easy, we could do this, but just gets us out where we are, um, so I like it. Incorporating it just doesn't have to be you, um, be with your kids. I know another thing too is for me. I live down a lane, so, like our garbage, we'll like throw it in the back of the truck, or, if I have boxes, I'll throw it in my car. And so the last couple of weeks I've just been saying, no, just walk it down there yeah, so even think about maybe some small things that you do, that you do to make it easier.
Speaker 1:It's like no, incorporate those little things that maybe it's a little bit harder, maybe it's going to take you extra time, but it gets you moving, definitely excuse me, stairs are a big one.
Speaker 2:I I have a lot of clients that I learned are avoiding stairs in their life, which I didn't know was a thing, but it is. I I have. I I try to make the rule and I try to talk people into this rule of whenever you see stairs, you do stairs, no matter what, as much as you possibly can. Um, I was bored at the airport one time and I saw stairs so I just did stairs until my mom came out of the airplane that was more stairs than I was expecting it to be.
Speaker 2:That flight was a little late, but I think that's. Another good thing too is like what are you avoiding? Stop, because there's really something true about like if you don't use it, you lose it. There's a lot of truth in that silly little phrase, and so, whether it's at work, it's like stop taking the elevator, whatever it is. Those little changes add up over time and make a big difference.
Speaker 1:Right, I love that you talk about that too, is what. I'm one of those too, if I see stairs. So if you're traveling this summer, I'm always going up and down the stairs, like wherever, and I'm not doing it like you are, but it's like if there's an option to take the elevator or there's stairs, I take stairs If there is the moving walkway. I will just walk like not take the moving walkway. But what I found is, if you do those things enough for me, I almost can't not take the stairs now or I can't get on that moving walkway because I've trained myself as like no don't be lazy like take the stairs.
Speaker 1:I also, too, think another thing you can do now that it's not so cold out is park as far away that you can when you're going to the grocery store or you're shopping, just to get some extra steps in. And I always say that's a gift, like allison can't stand what I do. That's such a good one, I love that one. Oh, sorry, allison, sorry uh, but you got two littles so maybe there is like this balance of like.
Speaker 1:Who wants to walk with the littles that far um? I always say it's a gift too, because you're like passing up maybe on a good parking spot and then somebody comes behind you like.
Speaker 2:Why didn't they take that? It's like I'm giving you a gift.
Speaker 1:I'm getting the work out of it, right, uh, yeah, so just look for the opportunities. Like, think about what you're avoiding and why and then look for those opportunities. Yeah, excellent, cool. Anything else, I think that's it. That's good. Get out there, hopefully. Yeah, we would love to see you. This is just another way to get to giving your best life, of get out there. Don't avoid the small movements or things that you want to avoid.