Get on Board with Fitness & Experimenting

So, the Octagon of Wellness continues to be unpacked this week, as well as another pitch to join my health and fitness challenge, which I introduced last week. You can check it out here: The 100-Day Wellness Adventure Challenge. A little more on that further down.

Pillar Unpacking ~

Pillar #1 is “Eat life-giving, nutrient-dense food; avoid life-sucking food. Supplement at times”. I went into this one in my 2/26/25 newsletter, What Do You Know About What to Eat.

Now for Pillar #2 of my 8 Pillars: “Get plenty of exercise, movement, & activity. Exercise your body and your brain”.

Last year when I taught Health & Fitness to a group of high schoolers, I came up with the acronym F:AME (Fitness: Activity, Movement, Exercise). On each of the 22 weeks we dealt with a related aspect. I wrote the curriculum, thus, I could probably write a short book on the subject, but will just highlight a few things today.  

Why is fitness important? Here are a few reasons, in no particular order:

• Enables you to climb stairs without looking sweaty and out of breath.

• Reduces stress - burns up cortisol

• Improves balance

• Enhances mitochondrial function, especially burst training or sprinting

• Reduces risk of looking lame as you age

• Improves mood - releases endorphins and dopamine

• Enables you to hike, bike, and other fun stuff

• Delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and organs

• Assuages feelings of guilt for not doing it

• Builds stronger bones

• Decreases blood sugar levels

• Increases your likelihood of winning the lottery (So you are still reading this!)

Now, for the Fab 4 (Not the Beatles)

I invented this exercise to incorporate strength and aerobic movements. Fab 4 works various muscle groups, is invigorating, and is mood lifting. Also, when done consistently, it has proven to be very effective in increasing my fitness level, even better than I would have thought. It can be adjusted to various fitness levels, and is easy too.

How to do the Fab 4

• Put on some music with a good beat. You will need 4 songs. Here is one you won’t be able to resist moving to. Try this one too, especially to see some good dance moves.

• Dance or march in place. Move in a variety of ways to the music.

• Do 4 different movements within each of the 4 songs: like 15 squats, 15 pushups (counter or knee pushups are fine), 15 jumping jacks, 15 seconds of rapid running in place like a football player training.

• Maybe do a 5th song with a slower beat to stretch out. But often I skip this, get on with my day, and do stretches later.

  Of course, it is also really good to implement plain old walking into your day whenever possible. Anyway, do something. START*BUILD*CONTINUE as I like to say.

Now for my 100-Day Wellness Adventure Challenge plug

Tomorrow is the 1st day of Spring. Doesn’t a Spring to Summer challenge sound compelling? Find the plan here. I started it last Thursday, and I am already seeing a bit of encouraging results like my pants are looser, I have way less acid reflux, and I am sleeping better.

A few caveats that come to mind when beginning:

• You must have a strong WHY, and write it down.

• You must also write down what you are curious to see happen by the end of the 100-Days.

• You must determine that this will be fun, that it will be worth it, that it will be interesting (see the above item), and that you won’t let a “I feel so deprived” attitude creep in. Hey, I happily made it through St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

• You will probably need to pray to succeed.

Factoids: Spring is on average 92.8 days. This year Summer begins on June 20. (So if you are brave enough to start tomorrow, you have 93 days until Summer. Just sayin’.) Seasons are determined by equinoxes in March and September, when the days have an equal amount of daylight and darkness.

I double dare you to join the 100-Day Wellness Adventure Challenge.

I am pretty serious about the 100-Day experiment because I really want to be consistently consistent (because typically I am consistently inconsistent), increase my overall health and fitness levels, and see just what will happen. So think about joining me and the others who are on this adventure. And let me know. I will send you my 100-Day tracking grid.

And try the Fab 4! I think you will love it.

If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it with someone you think might like it as well. Next week I will share some derailment threats to sticking with this plan, or any health plan for that matter.

Springing into Summer,
~Vanessa
www.vanessamarsden.com
Instagram @wellnessadventure_RN