ah ha moment - Lunch walk is NOT exercise

Here's a keeper for the Owners Manual.

So I read this article this morning, and it really resonated with me


http://www.precisionnutrition.com/cmd.php?ad=747591


Last year my PN Five Minute Habit was to get out for a lunch walk every day (especially important on office days). This was a perfect five minute habit, some days I go for a 5km power walk and some days I do a short walk over to the art supply store or book store, or if the weather is awful, drive to the mall and walk a couple of loops inside the building.
The key is, last year I didn't see it as "exercise", it was my "Five Minute Habit" that I almost never missed, rain or shine, winter, spring, fall or summer.
Fast forward to this year, since I felt I had mastered that five minute habit, it was now part of my routine. I chose as my five minute habit "to eat a healthy homemade breakfast", I wanted to get away from eating my 'usual' Tim Horton's bagel and coffee for breakfast (a pretty solid habit). So the breakfast habit was a natural choice to try and tackle. Now I sometimes classified my Lunch walk as Active Recovery... RED FLAG... My lunch walk was never exercise, it was me getting outside, grabbing fresh air, moving my body (so I don't cease up), and cleaning out my head space so I could be productive for the afternoon. It wasn't exercise :) (even though it totally is, at the pace I go I work up quite a sweat).

Since I started calling it active recovery and thinking of it as exercise it no longer became my lunch time routine... I started skipping the getting outside.

So, here's the note that I need to make in my Owner's Manual
Getting outside for my lunch walk is part of my routine
It is a mental health break that loosens my body and refreshes my mind, it is not exercise it is as essential as a glass of cold water to quench my thirst.

Today's selfie from my 'Lunch Walk'