1) Take a stand Mother’s Day is all about pampering, breakfast in bed, and taking it easy, but one of the best ways to prevent pounds from piling up is also the easiest: Just stand up. Sitting for too long shuts down an important enzyme that controls fat storage (which kinda explains the 5 pounds most of us put on at our first office job). See our top desk exercises here!
2) Have your cake—and walk it off, too You deserve a treat, so you should have one. Then head out for a brisk walk with this encouraging study in mind: French researchers found that exercisers who biked after a high-fat meal metabolized more stored belly fat than exercisers who worked out on an empty stomach.
3) Hire a sitter and grab your husband or a pal and go hiking, Rollerblading, or even bungee jumping—whatever sounds fun to do à deux. Research shows that you’re more likely to stick with exercise when you pair up with someone else.
4) Know that exercise literally makes you younger Researchers recently discovered that a certain type of DNA strand called a “telemore,” known to shorten as you age, actually gets longer the more active you are.
5) Do only what you love (or at least like), because if there’s one thing I know, researchers know, and your tennis-fanatic friend knows: Working out is a blast when you enjoy it—and deadly boring when you don’t. If retreating to your dingy basement to use your treadmill on this, the holiest of all Hallmark holidays, bums you out, inform everyone you’re headed out to a [fill in your favorite] class. Or tell your guy to dismantle the machine and put it in a prettier room (it IS Mother’s Day after all), one with a view, a flat screen TV, or your framed poster of Duran Duran.
What inspires you to stay active? And what’s the one workout that never, ever gets boring?
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[photo credit: Getty Images]
