GUT HEALTH & MOVEMENT What is considered movement? Things that increase your heart rate, develop muscle growth or maintenance, use glucose in your blood. Physical activity is a movement that is carried out by the skeletal muscles that require energy. In other words, any movement one does is actually physical activity. Exercise, however, is planned, a structured, repetitive, and intentional movement intended to improve or maintain physical fitness. Exercise is a subcategory of physical activity. All physical activity promotes healthier well-being but exercise will additionally improve your cardiorespiratory function, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and your body composition(ie: body fat percentages, visceral fat, muscle: body fat percentages). Why is movement important? In research studies, the physically active mice contained more Lactobacillales bacteria which, in conjunction with Bifidobacterium, has been known to enhance nutrient absorption, lower cholesterol levels, prevent heart disease, and exert an anti-inflammatory response and while we might not understand how and why this happens the evidence of it happening is clear and overwhelming. It also helps with stress and when we control stress we aid in cortisol controls that will reduce our risk of weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease among others. What can/do we do to achieve that? 30 minutes of daily exercise is the recommendation. These do not have to be done consecutively. In fact, I encourage breaking these up, especially when you are starting to introduce movement into your life/routine. Schedule your exercise. We have phones, use them to your advantage! Schedule alarms to go off and remind you to exercise. Referenced Articles: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32845171/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5357536/ Find Nicole Carter at www.healthywithnicole.com Find Erika Smith at www.keepinitrealcoaching.com