every little helps
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been formally notified by the-powers-that-be that it’s fine and dandy to again stuff our faces with as much bacon, sausages and steak as we like, but we can no longer dine on our perennial favourite fish, the elegant cod, as it’s back on the endangered list, having been removed only a few short years ago. To many, this contradictory advice sends their poor heads spinning and the only solace is a lie-down in a darkened room, Big Mac, as opposed to Filet o’ Fish, in hand.
A similar reaction has always accompanied authoritarian advice concerning our activity levels and, according to new government guidelines, even a minute or two of physical exercise is better than nothing. Apparently, merely walking upstairs and down again, before resuming our sofa-centred afternoon of nibbles and Escape To The Country, makes for a noticeably healthier life than if we hadn’t bothered. Furthermore, it counts towards the two-and-a-half hours of sweat-breaking exercise you should be getting every week. ‘Ow much I hear you cry? Yep that much.
The previous recommendation was for a continuous ten-minute minimum, but recently the school of thought has concluded there is, in fact, and at the risk of stating the bleedin’ obvious, no minimum. And this doesn’t just go for exercise, either. Small amounts of relaxation, mindfulness and meditation make a tangible difference to your mental health. A few minutes in the fresh air with the sun on your face will give you a great internal buzz. Eating an apple a day might not necessarily keep the doctor away but it’s preferable to none. If you are, even as we email, contemplating whether or not walking to the shops is worth the effort, the answer is always yes. Provided you don’t fill the basket with Coke and cake!
Obviously, it goes without saying that anything is better than nothing. Tiny actions are invaluable in themselves but also, and perhaps more importantly, those small levels of change could genuinely lead to the building of more substantial habits. This is where the effort really starts to pay-off in spades and, whilst the annoying cliché may state ‘every marathon starts with a single step’, they’re sadly not wrong. To my warped mind, this appears to be an entirely sensible approach to much of our busy, sh*g & hassle-filled lives, from popping in for a cuppa with a friend, putting down the smarty-pants phone and playing hide-and-seek with the kids, spending less on wasteful fast-fashion, to oiling the rusty chain on your trusty steed and getting a wiggle on. However much you do, it’ll probably never be enough but that’s no reason to not do it, it’s absolutely the reason to do so.
