This week’s Thrive In Five is about Small Changes for Health
I want to share an insight with you. An insight that Apple watch gave me last week. It said that I’m burning exactly 31 fewer active calories this year than I was same time last year. Now over time, this stuff adds up. And the reason I’m telling you this is because positive steps add up, even though they’re small. As well as more perhaps negative ones and 31 calories a day less in terms of total burn actually adds up. It adds up to 11,315 calories over the course of 12 months, which is roughly the equivalent of three pounds of fat gain a year.
So you can see that just 31 calories a day over time actually makes quite a difference. A pound of fat is about the size of a hand or a large chicken breasts. So imagine putting three of those on round your waist, year on year, and you can see where that would lead you.
Small changes impact health over time
The reason I bring this up is to illustrate to you the effect that small, even tiny, changes have over time. Using my example if you were to do 31 extra calories burned a day, you can see that that would potentially lead to three pounds of fat loss over the course of a year. Similarly, if you were to take a hundred steps extra day or do a four minute tabata every day. Just to be a little bit more active, a bit more physical, or spend more time in the sun, or take more movement snacks. It adds up, it can have a significant effect over time.
It’s the aggregation of marginal gains that have this significant improvement over time. So see that as a motivator. Don’t worry too much about my data and number of calories burned or any of that stuff. See this as motivation. Even small, minimal effective dose type stuff has an impact over time. So you have to be patient, health is a long game.
My takeaway from this is just a kick that idea around in your head, but also think about what small, almost indiscernible change that you can make that gets you in a positive direction. And then sit back, be patient and reap the rewards. As always give it a go and let us know how you get on!
At Bodyshot Performance we work with businesses looking to bring energy and vitality to their teams, leading with wellbeing as a competitive advantage. Find out more about how we can support you and your teams.
Checkout our upcoming Workplace Wellbeing webinars.
For more great wellbeing content follow us on social LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free personalised 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.
