By Stacy Kennedy, MPH, RD, CSO, LDN; Reboot Nutritionist
The question often comes up when someone is about to start a Reboot: should I exercise? Well we all know that being active is important for good health but there are many factors that can influence how active you are while you’re on a Reboot. Some people feel like they can exercise more, while others prefer to take it easy. So I’m going to tackle these questions, so you can know with confidence whether or not you should lace up your running shoes.
Here are the most common questions I receive:
First, let’s quickly review some benefits of exercise and physical activity:
Next, let’s take a moment to understand physical activity. Physical activity can be different from exercise. Physical activity is simply movement that can enhance health. Exercise is physical activity that is structured and defined like: running 5 miles, jogging for 30 minutes, swimming laps, cycling for 50 miles, taking a yoga or zumba class, lifting weights or playing soccer with a team. Walking can be an exercise or a physical activity that gets you to and from work.
Exercise can be important for health and weight loss just like physical activity, but the research shows that just moving and being active matters most. In fact, studies have found that women with breast cancer who walk at a moderate pace for 150 minutes a week (about 30 minutes 5 days a week) have a 40-50% lower risk of their cancer coming back compared to women who engage in little activity. That’s better than most medications can claim!
Want to hear the best news? You don’t even need to be active all at once. If you choose to walk 30 minutes a day, doing 3, 10 minute walks is just as effective as doing 30 all at once. This flexibility is important to consider during your Reboot for a number of reasons including time and energy level.
Shopping more often for your produce and juicing requires planning and can be time consuming. If you have a busy schedule and think that getting to the gym for an hour most days of the week isn’t practical, rest assured that getting up and walking around your office, home or neighborhood for as little as 15 minutes twice a day will help give you healthy results.
We know that over-training or over-exercising, as well as being sedentary, can be immunosuppressive or weaken our immune defenses, while engaging in moderate exercise or activity can be immune supportive or enhancing. During your Reboot it is very important to avoid what your body would consider over-training because one key purpose of the Reboot is to help boost our immune defenses and doing too much exercise will interfere with this important benefit. Figuring out what is “too much” exercise and what is the “right amount” may sound tricky. It’s actually a very subjective thing so the best way to ensure you are hitting that sweet spot of being active without overdoing it is to check in with yourself. For example on a scale of 1-10 aim for a 5-7 if 1 is easy and 10 is hard. During moderate exercise your heart rate and breathing rate will increase and you may sweat, but you can still carry on a conversation.
Which activities are best during your Reboot?
The good news is that most forms of physical activity can fit because you can adjust the duration (how long) you exercise and the intensity based on how you’re feeling in the moment.
Here’s a short list of ideas:
Here’s what you need to do in order to make your workouts effective and most importantly safe during your Reboot:
What if you are training for an athletic event like a marathon, triathlon or you are already doing a lot of exercise and want to continue during your Reboot?
Some Rebooters have chosen to just juice while training for a marathon and report feeling amazing with loads of energy! But it’s important to plan ahead and be wise about your choices to ensure a safe and effective regimen.
Here are some tips for those wishing to continue their athletics during their Reboot:
Is juicing a workout?
Just about any activity can help to burn more calories and manage weight. Shopping for produce, preparing your veggies for juicing and clean up require work which mans that you are helping to expend energy or burn calories with juicing.
Here’s a rough estimate based on someone who weights 150 pounds/70 kg:
Have fun being active during your Reboot!