Daily Personal Dance Parties Get You Moving — Wellthy Living
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I don’t like to “exercise” (you’re shocked, I know). Just the idea of the gym has me cringing. BUT my whole life I have always loved dancing. I have a fitbit that I wear to make sure I’m not spending 100% of my time at my desk or reading books in a cozy chair somewhere. When I updated it a few days ago, I noticed that a new feature had been added in my stats tracking. Now it’s going to tell me how many hours of the day I was “active” for at least 5 minutes (yeah, not many green dots there). I usually do most of my activity in one go, with an hour long walk around the park or along the river near my house. Apparently, that’s not going to cut it anymore. My solution? Personal dance parties.
A shout out to Constance Mears for reminding me of this as a fitness option at our last retreat day, and here are the 3 reasons why I think this is an AWESOME solution.
I actually enjoy it.
I was the little girl with her entire bedroom (pink, of course) filled wall to wall with ballet pictures. I did all the kinds of dance I could, all the hours of the day for about a decade. While I abandoned my formal dance training after puberty struck, I never abandoned my love of dancing. Why do we care? Because when there’s something you love that much, there’s some chance that it can become a regular part of your daily routines without feeling like punishment. And that’s a big win, right off the top.
All I need is the right music.
No special equipment required. That means it’s free to do, no storage space in your home is required, and as long as you’ve got the right tunes, you can have your own dance party anytime, anywhere. Even better? It’s a private dance party just for you. That means you don’t have to care about anyone’s music tastes but your own. This is about shaking YOUR booty. So you get to be the DJ. There are a couple ways to set yourself up for success on the music front. You can just have Google Play Music, or the radio on and dance every time a good song comes on, OR you can set up a playlist of boogie-tunes that always get you going and hit play when your timer goes off every 50 minutes.
It doesn’t completely bust up my work schedule.
I work from home most of the time (which is why this article isn’t about people looking at me funny when I break into dance in my workplace) so I have lots of freedom to set my own schedule and structure my day however I want. Which is both benefit and danger, as anyone who is their own boss can tell you. Getting out to exercise regularly throughout the day can break the flow of creativity and grind your project progress to a halt if you’re not careful. The mini-dance party? It’s only two songs required to get you the magic 5 minute break each hour. And that’s actually good for productivity. Oxygen to the brain and the rest of you goes up, water intake goes up (you’ll probably down some water after each song) and you’ll be jazzed and ready to tackle that next bit of work — whatever it may be.
In conclusion? You’re going down, fitbit. I OWN you.
My nemesis, the fitbit, will not relegate me to red dot status without a fight. Competitive, much? Well, yeah. With myself though, not so much with others. When I set goals, I go after them in fairly single-minded fashion until they are achieved. Or I’m dead. Which fortunately hasn’t happened yet. Until it does, I plan to use each and every day to conquer my foes (fitbit, I’m looking at you here) and try to do the best I can to keep myself health and happy. And if that means daily personal dance parties? I’m happy to step up, step out, and take one for the team.
Got any good suggestions for shake-your-booty dance tunes? Here’s a little something to get you started. Go on, I dare you.
xo Crystal
Originally published at wellthyliving.ca on April 21, 2016.
Share the Wellthy Living love!
If you like what you read — be sure to click recommend❤️ below.
For more recipes for awesome, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest!
