Do Something, ANYTHING, Every Day

It was a long, hard, tiring day, and I was feeling particularly haggish. Don’t get me wrong, I really love my evil twin, but I also like having control over her – calling her out when the time is right and enjoying her appearance.

When she controls me, it means that I’m not feeling so hot. A big part of my taming the shrew is movement. Cliché I know, but it is my truth.

It just so happened that Susan and I were feeling the same way, at the very same time. We had been on an exercise streak, but 3 days later we had completely lost our groove. And the motivation or inclination to do anything was long forgotten. And we were both lamenting our dilemma over twitter.

Since I’m a little by little gal, the idea of 20 minutes of movement everyday always appealed to me. For me, it is much easier to say, “I will go for a 20 minute walk,” rather than, “I will go to the gym for an hour.”

So the stars were aligned, exhausted or not, and Susan and I agreed at the same moment to do something, ANYTHING for 20 minutes that day.

And so it began.

We got off the computer and we went out.

We did it. Together.

We giggled.

We tweeted.

We felt better.

So we did it again.

And again.

And again.

Sometimes she got on her elliptical. Sometimes we got in the pool. Sometimes we got on a real bike. Sometimes we walked to work. But we always checked in with each other. We confirmed our 20 minute plans, and we encouraged each other every day.

There were days I was physically tired a day after a swim or a workout with my trainer. On those days, I spent 20 minutes on my mat. (My body loves my mat time.) There were other days where time and schedules seemed to get in the way, and Susan parked further from her work to sneak in the walk. There were also days that I was mentally tired, but I got up and got out anyway.

I walked. I didn’t even break a sweat. It counted.

Despite the physical or mental exhaustion, we did it. I can say that for me, I always shot for 20 minutes and many times I moved for longer. There were a few times when I did NO MORE than 20 minutes.

We did this for 14 days.

In a row.

20 minutes of ANYTHING.

EVERY day.

For 14 days.

Together.

And we felt better.

We found our groove again.

Thanks to 20 minute trickery and an amazing tribe.

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Care to join us? 20 minutes is all we ask.

Kris is a wannabe fitness/culinary guru who can neither cook nor jog. You can find her on The Heart and Humor of Being Human where she learns to mince basil and do kettlebell swings while tweeting, all while trying to find some balance in this distracting world. You can also find her on twitter @krazy_kris.