185: 100 Days of Movement: Five Lessons Learned from Moving 30 Minutes a Day

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And what I really loved about this is that you can find that the joy is in the doing and that embracing that imperfection can reduce the stress and increase the enjoyment of actually getting the thing done. So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice.

How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams. We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know this is call me CEO. Welcome back everyone to call me CEO.

This is a solo episode today, and I am sharing with you five lessons that I learned from being active for 30 minutes a day for 100 days. Now this idea came to me because I was inspired by a friend, Kelly France, who recently wrote a book called one goal for a hundred days. This was a challenge that she adopted from someone else.

I can't remember exactly where I think she sources it in the book, but the whole concept is that you choose one goal that you stick to for 100 days. And it can be something that you have been working on previously. It could be something that you're trying to work up towards.

So it's a bigger goal that you eventually go to. But for me specifically, I didn't want to do drinking water and watching my protein intake and not eating sugar. Those are all things I could do at a different time and certainly goals I want to make and improve on.

But this one specifically, I wanted to focus on movement. I don't know if some of you may or may not know this, but I had a surgery about a year and a half ago. It was my diastasis recti repair in my stomach area.

What you would maybe consider a mommy makeover. And yeah, after I had that surgery repair and I had a couple hernias removed and repaired, I had a fascial tear in my stomach about four months after that surgery. And it was, I had been cleared for working out and the doctor said that I could go ahead and do that.

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But I went to a Pilates class and I was using what is called a breathing bar, which was, I was seated, I was holding onto this bar and I was very, very, very slowly moving backward, back laying onto the table and being so cautious. And for whatever reason, a stitch in my stomach tore. I had a fascial tear.

The doctor says that it wasn't the stitch, but something in my tissue ripped. And for about a year and a half since then, I've woken up with pain in my stomach to the point where it feels like someone was stabbing me. And I had to be very patient with myself in recovery.

At about a year after my surgery, I met with the surgeon again and we talked about going in and putting in a mesh to protect the tissue and bring it back together. But ultimately I decided that that wasn't worth the risk to me. And I wanted to do it a little more slowly and just be patient with my recovery.

Now that I am 18 months past that point, I am feeling much better and I'm now able to strength train and do HIIT exercises without being in a lot of pain. However, because I wasn't able to move and strengthen my body the way that I like to, I got pretty depressed. I gained weight.

I went up in clothes size that I just wasn't feeling like myself. And it was a very interesting mental load to take on where I went from being in a very strong place of feeling like, oh, I'm in really good shape. I'm going to be even stronger after the surgery to then having to start over and really be patient with the process of healing.

So for me, this 100 day goal for me was movement. I wanted to move. And it didn't mean that I had to have any specific requirement of the amount of calories I had to burn or exactly what the movement or the exercise had to be, but it had to be purposeful.

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So even on what you would consider, say, a rest day, I could still go for a walk, or I could still do a little yoga, or I could still do mindful stretches or mindful cool downs, which is something that I love to do with the Apple Fitness app. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but there's actually exercises on Apple Fitness where you can do all sorts of different kinds of exercise that I love that you can do from home that even have exercises that you can use on a treadmill, on a row machine, on strength training, kickboxing, yoga, Pilates. There's so many offerings there, and I really, really love it.

So for me, it was movement for 30 minutes a day, and it was on purpose. And that was my only requirement. Now, I started this very shortly after Christmastime and knew that I would finish about the time that my children were on spring break.

And what I thought was really interesting about that is that you have kind of a base of, what does 100 days look like in seasons? Because a lot of times for me, it's harder for me to get out in the wintertime than it is, say, in the summertime when it's a little bit warmer and it's easier to get out and not be cooped up in the house. So these are five lessons I wanted to go through of what I have learned from doing these 30 minutes a day. Now, the very first lesson that I learned is that done is fun.

Now, there weren't always these perfect scenarios of me getting out and going to a class every day or that I went running for 30 minutes a day. It wasn't about that. It really was doing it imperfectly.

And this sometimes looked like dancing around the kitchen or going for a walk with my kids, or yes, even some days walking and getting steps in the hallway or around the kitchen island or doing just dance with my kids. And what I really loved about this is that you can find that the joy is in the doing and that embracing that imperfection can reduce the stress and increase the enjoyment of actually getting the thing done. Number two, I found that making it a priority makes it so that you really create the time.

So many times when I'm coaching women, whether it's setting a new goal for launching a program, a product, a service, a podcast, we talk about, is this a priority? Because if it is a priority, we can make the time. So the initial challenges of finding the time to move every day is what is the sequence of your life, your day? What does it look like? How can you find little bits of time? Maybe it's not a 30-minute chunk, but maybe it's 10-minute stretches that you do throughout the day. And finding a strategy to prioritize the movement amidst the busy schedule.

So for me specifically, I, during part of this time, was doing a step bet challenge. And I love step bet because it gets you accountable in a way that you're putting money into a pot through an app. And it challenges everyone that is in that challenge to get an amount of steps in that's the same percentage of challenge for everyone in the challenge.

I just said challenge a lot. And what is good about that is that it keeps you accountable to that movement and those steps. And so you really have to be creative about when you can get that time in.

So for me, when I was in that time that I was doing that part of my movement, I would have to get steps in early in the morning, midday, and later in the evening, just breaking up what I was doing throughout the day. And I think that if you really sit down and look at your hours in the day and how much time you're spending scrolling or just wasting time, you can find the time. And that was a lesson that I learned is you can find the time when it's a priority.

Now, a lot of times with these hidden pockets of time, it also gave me energy. So I spend a lot of time at the computer, whether it's recording podcast episodes, doing blog posts or interviews, and taking a minute to break up the day and go for the walk is such a good boost for me. So those 30 minutes really would add up before I realized it would, but I would have to make it on purpose.

So I would use my Apple watch to track it and to know, okay, I'm going for a 10 minute walk and I'm tracking it. And it really made that helpful. Now, number three, the side benefits and positive influence of moving 30 minutes a day.

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And one of those was having an improved mood, increased energy, and enhanced creativity. This has been a huge wake up call for me to realizing the movement and what it allowed for me to do, especially with, we know that movement is good for our bodies. I mean, that's a very basic understanding of the way that movement works, but committing to the personal growth aspect and inspiring that influence.

And with those around me, I actually was able to have a lot of one-on-one walks with my kids. I spent time doing different activities with my husband. In fact, I actually picked up one of my favorite hobbies I used to have as a kid, which was snowboarding.

And oh my gosh, you guys, snowboarding. I love it so much. It freaks me out because I get nervous about getting up on the hill and my feet cramp.

And I'm worried about if I'm going to be able to do it again, right after having babies and just not being as strong, especially in my core health of my stomach, like getting back up and getting up off the ground. And I found that I could, but I needed my husband's help. And he would use his ski pole to help pull me up.

And it was really bonding for us and humbling for me that I would do it anyway, even if it didn't look perfect. It was a positive change in the resolve to do something. And even if I wasn't great at it, that I was showing up and doing it anyway.

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And my husband will tell you that it was one of the best winters we've ever had because we were active together. And it really gave me an extra incentive to stick to that 100 day goal because I was doing it and I was going to stick to it. And so a positive byproduct by that is I actually have started a community through Instagram that just started last week.

So if you're hearing this and you want to join us, it's not too late. You can start your clock one week later and that's just fine. But I'm actually doing a one goal a day for a hundred days in an Instagram group.

And with that, my husband actually committed to doing his own hundred days of activity for 30 minutes for the next 100 days. So I'm now starting the journey of my next 100 and moving into 200 days of being active for 30 minutes a day, every day. And last night I came home from an activity and I saw him kind of doing some weird like arm and leg lifting movements.

And I'm like, what are you doing? And he said, Oh, I'm doing my 30 minutes. I was doing jumping jacks, but I was shaking the whole house. And he's like, it was just funny because there's a sense of sometimes annoyance at the end of the day when you haven't done it.

And you're like, but I, I will do it because I'm committed to myself. And once you're done, it really feels good. So whether it was walking with my kids more, getting my husband or friends involved, I think that when you decide to make it a positive change for yourself, you will for sure inspire other people around you to make positive changes for themselves.

And I think that that is such a powerful place to be. Now, number four, I learned that movement and nutrition and sleep go hand in hand in hand. So what happens when I am more active, I noticed that I pay better attention to what I'm eating and the amount of water I'm consuming.

I want to drink more when I'm more active and my sleep quality went way up because I was more tired. It was just a natural by-product of being more active. I slept better.

And I think that that was a huge wake up call for how regular movement can lead to healthier choices for eating, improving my sleep, and then integrating it into overall wellbeing. So some tips for integrating movement for how to get that into your system and into your day is find a time that movement feels best for you. I know some people love to wake up super, super early in the morning, 4, 5, 6 a.m. For me right now in this stage of my life, I am at a really good spot where I can get my kids off to school and go attend a 9 a.m. class where the first thing when I wake up in the morning, I'm putting those clothes on and I know that I'm committing to movement first thing.

It's not even a question of if I'm going to do it. It's a matter of when. So if I can get it done sooner in the day rather than later in the day, that really works for me.

But maybe for you, you're working through the day and you have time to go get a 30-minute walk-in in the middle of the day. Or maybe for you, you like to get movement in at night. Try to identify something that can be a repetitive pattern for you and a really good book that I would suggest to help you identify that is Atomic Habits.

That's a really good book to help you learn how to habit stack and create a rhythm that works well for you. Now number five is keeping promises to myself. Help me build self-trust and confidence in myself.

So one thing to think about with this 100-day challenge, especially for me, is that I remember once I was in this in a fitness class and we were talking about the new year and the instructor said, I want you to look at yourself in the mirror and I would challenge you to do this too. Look at yourself in the mirror and I want you to keep promises to that person looking back at you, which of course is yourself. And I found that by setting small achievable goals and celebrating those accomplishments really helped me to build trust within myself, not only within this 100-day challenge, but also in trusting my intuition with knowing what I can accept onto my plate, trusting myself in my motherhood intuition, intuition for myself, listening to my body and what it needs, and also being really patient with myself.

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So in conclusion, I want to encourage you to pick up a 100-day goal. It doesn't have to be movement like mine was, but if this has inspired you, I want you to think about what it could be for yourself and your own self-discovery. Maybe it's sending one email a day to a prospect in your business.

Maybe it's getting in a gallon of water a day, if that's something that you're trying to do, or maybe it's in sending a positive message or gratitude for someone who has impacted your life for good. There are so many ways to encourage positivity and change into your life, and sometimes it's focusing on the one that really helps us redirect and understand our priorities in the way that we are hoping to do that. Now I want to invite you to be a part of my weekly newsletter.

There is a link to join below, but I am always sending up updates of the weekly episodes that we're talking about, as well as I have a huge announcement that I am opening up a group coaching program called SheEO with my sister. Now my sister does brain performance psychology. She's getting her doctorate right now, and we are bringing together women in business who are looking to improve commitments to themselves, reaching their goals, having a mastermind, and networking community to help you create that life balance that you're looking for.

And what's really neat about that is we're using brain performance psychology to help you achieve those goals, and setting small attainable goals and having accountability is one of the best ways to do that. So if you are interested, please email me at callmeceopodcast at gmail.com, or you can go to sheeo.co to get more information to sign up. We are actually starting our group June 6th, so plenty of time to join, and I think it'll be something that is going to be incredible.

I really do. This is something that's been in the making for years, and we are bringing together some of the best women. We already have people that have signed up, and we're so excited.

It's going to be two times virtual trainings on Zoom in the month, and then we're also doing four in-person meetings as well. I think there's a different energy when we get together and really can support each other. So thank you so much for tuning in.

Please share this podcast with friends, family, or anyone who you think may find this to be a benefit and a course. If you want to join the 100-Day Goal, there's still time to do that as well. Reach out to me at camillewalker.co on Instagram, or of course you can email me as well.

Thank you so much, and as we're wrapping up, because I want to share a motherhood moment, I wanted to share with you something that happened this last week. We were at spring break, and my son, that is the oldest, was teaching my youngest how to tie his shoe, and what I think is really interesting about watching him teach his brother how to tie his shoe is that it wasn't how I taught him to tie his shoe. It was his own way of tying his shoe that makes a lot of sense and is really fast for him, and it just reminded me that sometimes, even with our best efforts, we can teach our kids to do something, but then the way that they discover to learn to do something and help each other learn how to do something can be just as impactful, if not more, and it was just such a beautiful moment to step back and look at that bond that siblings can have for each other, and also what teaching and learning can do within our families, and my mother heart was so proud.

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It was such a happy time to see them teaching each other how to tie shoes, and I hope that you know your gift of teaching and loving is translated into your children, and they can turn that into their own interpretation, whether it's tying shoes or learning how to communicate or helping other people around them. So, I'm cheering you on. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I will see you next time.

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