When was the last time you cracked a nut?
When was the last time you cracked a nut? 🤔
When people ask me “How many nuts is it okay to eat in one sitting?” I tell them “as many as you would crack yourself”.
When we think about our sedentary culture, we forget about all of the non-exercise movement behaviors that we’ve outsourced.
When you enjoy a jar of almond butter, there was energy input by someone/something else, somewhere else to grow, collect, crack and grind those almonds; energy that you had the privilege not to perform. As a result, you are at a movement deficit and then need to perform structured movement (exercise) elsewhere in your day to essentially make up for the lack of movement in obtaining your calories.
Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to crack their own nuts every time you want almond butter or to source their own food for all their meals, this is the benefit of a modern society where we can each choose an occupation that suits our talents and skills. BUT this does not negate the necessity for our bodies to move!
Regardless of our career choice, movement is a necessary part of life. And arguably, the excess of calories we consume would be considered nonessential given the lack of physical demand.
What are ways you think you can realign your body’s need for movement with the foods you choose to eat?
For some ideas, check out this step-by-step post by Katy Bowman, author of Move Your DNA and Movement Matters, to see what it means to live a movement-rich lifestyle and practical ways to reintroduce movement into your life without taking additional timeout of your day to “exercise”.
On that note, if this concept intrigues you, Katy Bowman recently published a paper in the Journal of Evolution and Health titled “Move Your DNA: Movement Ecology and the Difference Between Exercise and Movement”. Click here to read.
