Hi mama!

After I did my most recent poll on Instagram, I learned that you guys are actually really interested in learning more about health and fitness beyond what to eat and simple workouts. I feel like I’m learning about this stuff on a daily basis but I wasn’t sure how much ya’ll wanted to know so I kept things really simple BUT now that I know, I’m super stoked to take you guys through as much as I can :)

I just got home from SD which was super fun but it was also a lot of sitting, eating and drinking, AKA GAINING WEIGHT lol.

I just got back this afternoon and literally went for a 90 minute walk 5 minutes after I got home then went to Costco and walked around there then cleaned my house and now we’re here!

You might feel like that’s useless information for you right now but it actually is why I thought to do this post!

So let’s rewind a little and talk about the subject of today’s blog…N.E.A.T.

As I was explaining in this post - NEAT is one of the top 4 ways that we burn calories and I feel like it is HIGHLY underutilized.

The other three ways are, BMR (BASIL METABOLIC RATE), AF (ACTIVITY FACTOR), AND TEF (THERMOGENIC EFFECT OF FOOD), which I will talk more about over the next few weeks for this “How To Burn Calories Series”.

NEAT stands for, NON EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENESIS.

Say wha…?

Basically it’s the calories that you burn through movement that’s not considered your actual workout. In my opinion, a LOT of people could start dropping weight if they would increase their non exercise activity factor So I wanted to give you guys some examples today of how I do it on the daily, and other examples that you could potentially incorporate.

1. STOP LOOKING FOR THE CLOSEST PARKING SPOT.

Yoooo I used to be the BIGGEST front row parking snob. I would drive and drive and drive and wait around until the closest spot to where I was going would open up. Then I started occupying my boyfriends passenger seat and went through a phase where I wanted to murder him because he would park in the back of every parking lot without even CHECKING the front. (I legit would offer to drive so that I could park). Now I do the same thing because it’s an AMAZING way to get in so many more extra steps. TRUST ME.

2. DO EMAILS/TEXTS/POST WHILE WALKING.

If you’re not cautious of this, it’s super easy to sit in front of your phone or computer while you’re on the couch . It took me some time to be more aware of it but now I time batch my texts, emails, and posting into one 60-90 minute time slot during the day and regardless of where I am, I just put in my headphones and walk outside while I go through everything. It’s also WAY more relaxing, it' doesn’t feel like work it just feels more like a stress reliever.

3. WALK TO THE STORE INSTEAD OF DRIVE

Uhh yeah I also used to be pathetic at this. I would literally go to the bank and then instead of walking across the crosswalk and down the street a little to run my next errand, I would get back in my car and drive there. Seriously. TERRIBLE. Now one of my favorite things to do is bring a bag with me that can help me carry groceries or dry cleaning or whatever and just walk from place to place to knock out my errands. Remember if you’re thinking your too busy for this, that you’re knocking out exercise while you’re running errands! It’s a win.

4. SIT UP STRAIGHT > SLOUCHING

Sounds minimal but our bodies are wired to like minimal. Our bodies are always wanting to conserve energy so they will always want to take the path of least resistance but YOU have the power to tell you body who is boss and tell it that WE’RE MOVIN. Sitting up straight engages our core where as slouching most certainly does not, so sit up straight, work on that core and burn more calories.

5. FIDGET > SITTING STILL

This article is a really interesting read about how fidgeting burns more calories so check it out when you can. Sometimes I will be writing a blog and I’ll snap back to reality and realize that my leg is bouncing around and I have no idea how long it’s been doing it for haha and stopping just feels unnatural. This is why I can’t sit criss cross while working because then I can’t move anything and it’s almost more distracting than moving around.
if you’re not a fidgeter, see if you can pick up a little pep in your step while you’re at your desk.

OTHER WAYS TO DEVELOP YOUR N.E.A.T. THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

6. Clean your house for 20 minutes a day.

7. Walk while you chat on the phone, even if it’s just in circles around your apartment.

8. Stand > sit whenever possible.

9. ALWAYS take the stairs over the elevator. I’m always SO surprised when I see people skipping the stairs and taking the escalators and the airport. MOVE. Or when I go to the mall, my doctors office, parking garages, etc. I always take the stairs.

10. Squeeze your glutes at least 200 times while driving. Sounds weird, I know, but your glutes are totally turned off whenever you’re sitting so take a few minutes to wake them up and give your hip flexors a break.

11. Do planks, glute bridges and crunches during commercials. I did this during the last award show and seriously got in a full workout haha.

12. Do calf raises while you’re waiting in line. I do this OFTEN lol, at the grocery store or the bank and I always did it when i was waiting around as a cocktail server.

13. Tighten your core at stop lights until it turns green.

14. Read > scroll through insta. Using our brain burns more calories. According to this article, a person uses about 320 calories a day just to THINK. Just like with a lot of these tips, the calories burned won’t be a HUGE amount if you change your habits but say you burn 50 more calories a day just from reading instead of watching tv and you do that everyday, you could burn an extra 1,400 calories a month which is almost half a pound. Just something to think about ;)

15. Rent a bike for the day instead of driving.

16. If you sit a lot, set a timer for 1 hour and get up to walk for 5 minutes every time it goes off.

17. Make a simple workout challenge for yourself to complete by the end of the day like 50 push ups or 10K steps or 80 squats. Having little goals at least keeps movement on our minds and allows us to push ourselves a little bit further. Imagine doing 10 push ups 5 different times throughout the day. That’s 350 push ups a week! It would feel like nothing and your arms would LOOOOVE you!

I think that’s a good start haha. Pick 5 of these and comment below to let me know which ones you’re going to try to do starting this week! Also let me know if you liked this blog and if you have any other ideas I would love to read them!

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