In this solo podcast episode, Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, guides listeners through Day 12 of a 30‑day healthy‑habits challenge. She introduces the concept of a “movement snack”—a brief 2‑minute activity break taken after about 45 minutes of sitting. McColgan demonstrates simple stretches (wrist stretch, elbow‑to‑head stretch), a quick walk, and bodyweight air squats, explaining how these movements support circulation, focus, and blood‑glucose regulation. She cites a recent study showing air squats are as effective as walking for glucose control. The episode also addresses posture issues from prolonged sitting, offering a chest‑stretch to counter forward‑head posture and hip‑flexor shortening. Listeners are encouraged to sign up for the challenge via links in the show notes, and a standard disclaimer clarifies the content is not medical advice.
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Hey everyone, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and welcome to day 12 of your 30 Days of Healthy Habits Challenge. Today's habit is to do a movement snack after sitting too long. So I love the name of this, and normally I'm not a big— not opposed to snacks generally, but you'll do better if you just eat real meals. But movement snacks, we're all about those for sure. So all this is going to do is do some kind of movement after you have been sitting sitting for a while during the day. A lot of us have desk jobs where we sit in front of a computer. If you're very active throughout the day, you have an active job, maybe this is more like a movement snack in the evening after you've kind of wound down, you've been sitting around on the couch for a little bit. But anyway, just anytime that you've been sitting for, you know, say maybe 45 minutes. For some people, you might get antsy quicker than that. For other people, you might want to sit longer, but try not to sit longer than 45 minutes. So you'll just do like a 2-minute little movement break. Ideally, you want to stand up if you're working in front of the desk, doing stretches like I'm demonstrating here on camera. So if you're watching audio only, I'm pulling back my hand, uh, with the other hand just to stretch out my wrist. I do a lot of typing, so that is a really good one for me. You can also put your arms behind your head and grab one elbow and do a nice stretch there. Uh, so that could be the first part of your movement snack, and then to just get up for a minute, maybe go get a, a glass of water or, um, just wait, take a walk down the hall, maybe step outside for a minute, something like that. So your body is just really designed for frequent movement, and these long times that we're sitting just really aren't good for us. So especially if you've been sitting at a meal for a little bit, having that little bit of movement after a meal, whether it's a walk or something like that, is really good for blood glucose. So doing something like some air squats— that there's also a recent study on that where it showed doing some air squats Uh, when I say air squats, I just kind of mean like bodyweight squats where you don't need any equipment or anything like that, is as effective as walking for blood glucose control. So that's pretty cool. It also just can support circulation, energy, focus. These are just a nice way to break up your day. And again, just not have yourself sitting all the time. Eventually when you sit for long periods and you don't counteract that, it's, you know, shortens your hip flexors. Create a lot of issues in your body. We all get this kind of forward head when we're working in front of the computer. So things that you can do to counteract that, like bringing your arms behind your back and interlacing your hands and then really stretching back to create a stretch in the front of the chest, is a way that you can kind of counteract some of that, you know, hunched forward movement. So I am mentioning a lot of stretching, but I do want you to get out of the chair for sure. Again, try to keep it to 45 minutes. If you get up more frequently, of course, that's always amazing. As always, if you're not yet part of the challenge, you can go sign up. The link is in the show notes. If you're looking at YouTube in the description box, it'll be there. So that's today's habit, making sure you're not sitting too long, getting up outta your chair, maybe doing some stretching, but just taking a movement snack anytime you've sat for too long. So that's it for now, and I will see you again tomorrow.
This has been the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. Again, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. You can find show notes for this episode at healnourishgrowpodcast.com. If you have feedback on today's episode or questions about the content, please email us at podcast@healnourishgrow.com. We'd love to hear from you. Be sure to sign up for our email list at healnourishgrow.com and subscribe to the show with your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. Join us next time for more information that helps you live your best and healthiest life. Thanks for listening. Content on the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast does not constitute medical advice. Content contained in the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment. Neither the company nor its owner, Heal Nourish Grow LLC, nor any of the company's employees, agents, or guest speakers provide medical advice. The content provided on Heal Nourish Grow podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult your medical provider with any questions about what health practices are right for you.
