Who Surrounds You? 

Have you ever thought about how the people you surround yourself with influence your lifestyle and decisions? Being part of my Pilates business group has had a huge impact on growing my business, and it inspires me to be around so many successful, creative, empowering women. When it comes to fitness, I also surround myself with like-minded people. I like to be active, and my active friends make it easier to do more of the things I love. 

Travelling With Friends

My husband and I just got back from a three-day mini-vacation with another couple. We’ve travelled several times with them and it’s always easy because we have similar interests and enjoy a mix of relaxing and being active while we are away. On this trip, we arrived at the mountain late at night, but were all up early and at the golf course for a 7:30 tee time. After golf, we had lunch and a walk (and a nap!), followed by a bike ride before dinner. 

The next day we headed to the chair lifts to go up top for a hike to The Top of the World. Thanks to some crazy mountain weather, it started pouring rain and was only two degrees when we got to the top. Rather than head back down the lift, we decided to have a coffee break and see if the weather would change. It cleared up enough that we took our chances, and did the hour-long hike. It was steep and the altitude made it a challenge, but we all said how happy we were to have done it.  

Choose People to Inspire You

A friend once told me a story about her elementary-aged daughter. She had decided to join run club with her friends even though she had never done running before. Every so often, she would share with her mom how many laps she did, though it never exceeded a handful. One evening, she told her mom that she had run ten laps that day! My friend asked how she did so many, and her daughter shrugged and said, “I just decided to hang out with the runners.”

I guess my husband and I like to hang out with the runners because our next vacation with our friends includes our kids, when we’ll be doing a fifty-mile running relay together! My husband and I were talking about how it’s normal for us to spend time with friends who like to be active, but it turns out that we are the exception. The statistics say that very few Canadians do the recommended amount of physical activity required to stay healthy, and only 16% of people meet the minimum.

If you want to move more, a fun way to do it is to spend time with others who are active! If you don’t have any (yet), pursuing your active interests is a great way to make some. Here are some tips to help you increase your activity levels and maybe make some active friends along the way. 

• Start small. Do a little bit on most days. Try a ten-minute walk or ten minutes of stretching. 
• Schedule it. Write the activity on your calendar, and then adjust the schedule until it works for you. Mornings, after lunch, after work – you won’t know what you like the best until you try. 
• Join others. Invite a friend for a weekly walk or sign up for a class. Not only will you get some socialization in, but it will keep you accountable, too. 
• Mix it up. There is a never-ending list of active things you can try. Just like the hike we went on with friends, you just might find something amazing you love. The weekend might be a good time to try something new like axe throwing, aerial silks, or even a different trail to walk, run, or hike. 

Increasing your activity level or trying new forms of fitness can be daunting! Helping clients manage their expectations is one of the things I do as a fitness instructor, and am even quoted in this article about it. There are a lot of great tips in it to help you get started, keep going, and have fun being active.