2977: Playtime is Back - Act Accordingly by Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness on Emotional Wellbeing & Healthy Living

[00:00:00] You can find Davo the Actionist there, when gaming anyway. Now dive deep into your gameplay. On the big main display of the new foldable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 with adaptive 120Hz image recovery device. Your skills will make the opponent look blabber.

[00:00:16] While the strong Snapdragon HN3 for Galaxy processor keeps your back free with a smooth gaming experience. That's how you're in the middle and in the front. Erfahre jetzt mehr über das neue Galaxy Z Fold 6 auf Samsung D. This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 2977. Playtime is Back.

[00:00:36] Act Accordingly by Steve Kamb of NerdFitness.com And I'm Justin Malik. This is the show where I usually read to you kind of like an audiobook, but on Sundays I think it's nice to share an episode from another podcast where we read to you.

[00:00:50] Today's comes from my brother's show Optimal Health Daily. If you'd like to hear more about fitness, nutrition, diet, anything health related, you can find Optimal Health Daily wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:01:02] And you can even submit your own questions and have them answered on Friday editions of the show. You can send a health related question to health at oldpodcast.com Even get a copy of our workbook just for doing that.

[00:01:14] Again, you can send a question to health at oldpodcast.com And then listen to Optimal Health Daily on Fridays, especially for Q&As. But with that, let's get right to the bonus episode as we optimize your life. Playtime is Back. Act Accordingly by Steve Kamb of NerdFitness.com

[00:01:38] I remember the good old days like they were yesterday. Climbing trees in the backyard, riding my bike to Matt's house down the road, rolling down a massive hill just to see if I can make it all the way to the bottom,

[00:01:51] playing epic games of capture the flag at recess, battling with water guns and water balloons to fight off the summer heat. Being a kid was freaking awesome. Whenever I wasn't running and jumping around, I was watching shows like Guts, Legends of the Hidden Temple,

[00:02:07] and Double Dare and yelling at my screen, Where is your sense of urgency? Try harder. I know I'm not alone in reminiscing about the good old days. We never asked, when can I be done? But rather, why is this so much fun? We lost track of time.

[00:02:24] We came home dirty and exhausted with big smiles on our faces. We raced and our hearts raced faster, and we loved every minute of it. What happened? We grew up. Are you ready to take a brisk stroll down memory lane

[00:02:39] and put a plan in place to return to your roots and have some fun this weekend? I am. Why playing is good for us? Everybody is so stressed out these days. We have these things called obligations and responsibility, full of taxes, bills, and office drama.

[00:02:59] Instead of releasing stress by kicking a ball or kicking the can, we release stress by kicking our feet up, watching hours of TV, or running around with a character in Diablo 3. The thought of going outside and losing oneself in any physical activity

[00:03:14] is a foreign concept to most folks these days. They spend their days stuck on treadmills or in boring fitness classes that make them miserable. They assume if they're unhappy and hating life while exercising, well then it must be effective.

[00:03:28] It's easy to turn happy hour to forget about life for a while, right Billy Joel? But playing can have similar effects while also making you healthier. From Mark's Daily Apple, quote, besides its stress-reducing social qualities, play has other quantifiable benefits.

[00:03:47] A New Zealand study showed that workers were 82% more productive following a vacation and their sleep habits were better. Australian researchers suggested that frequent breaks for sedentary workers results in better weight control and improved triglyceride and blood glucose numbers.

[00:04:05] The New York Times recently covered a study showing that increasing leisure activities improves immune function faster than stress can suppress it. It seems like the more you reduce stress, the more easily everything else falls into place. End quote.

[00:04:22] On top of that, a recent study showed that compared with exercising indoors, exercising in a natural environment showed greater feelings of revitalization, energy and positive engagement. Not to mention seeing decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression.

[00:04:40] Although I'm a huge fan of weight training and meticulous tracking of my workouts for leveling up purposes, I also understand the importance of stress release and the pure joy that comes from getting lost in the moment.

[00:04:52] Do you think Matt felt like he was exercising while dancing all over the world? Heck no! He was having too much fun. Do you think I felt like I was exercising while jumping and running like a fool around the world? Okay, maybe the handstand push-ups.

[00:05:08] Channel your inner child. I want you to set aside at least an hour on Saturday or Sunday this weekend to play. No seriously, put it on your calendar. I'll wait. You're going to schedule play outside for the fun of it on your calendar.

[00:05:25] This weekend, bust out your play clothes, go outside and don't allow yourself back inside until you're dirty. I want to see grass stains on the knees of your old jeans, mud under your fingernails, dirt on your shirt, leaves in your hair. That's right, dirty.

[00:05:44] If you have kids, cousins, nephews, nieces that are free that weekend, invite them to help you act like a kid. They'll know the rules and all of the games and make you feel more alive.

[00:05:56] Once you've committed yourself to at least an hour of childish fun this weekend, plan it out. Pick your activity. Now let's figure out how you're going to be acting like a kid this weekend. Remember, it needs to be something that is completely out of the ordinary,

[00:06:11] that preferably exists as an activity solely for the fun of it. Go with your gut on this. Hopefully one of these brings back a great childhood memory that you can recreate. One, run through a field. Look at that pretty field.

[00:06:26] Don't you wonder what's on the other side of that hill? Wouldn't it be fun to just run, jump, sprint and dash through it? Two, climb a tree. Depending on your particular level of physical fitness, this particular activity might not be an option.

[00:06:42] If it is, find a tree with some low and sturdy branches and jump and climb your way up. It's a great back, bicep and core exercise. Three, roll down a hill and then sprinting back up. Find the biggest greenest hill you can in your neighborhood.

[00:07:00] Lie down at the top and start rolling sideways. At the bottom, jog your way back up and repeat. Four, dig a hole. Find a spot in your backyard where you won't screw up your lawn, take a shovel and just start digging.

[00:07:16] If anybody asks, tell them you don't want to know and look at them with shifty eyes. Totally kidding. Five, go exploring in the woods. Kids might see a path but they really don't care about it. Find the other way more interesting things off the path and follow those.

[00:07:34] And six, have a water balloon fight. Go buy a bag of biodegradable water balloons, fill them up and have a water balloon fight in your backyard. If you have kids who have friends nearby, turn it into a neighborhood battle.

[00:07:48] Let's say you don't happen to have a crew to go run around with this weekend. It doesn't mean you can't find one. Ever heard of meetup.com? You can use meetup to find hiking groups, dancing groups, even epic capture the flag games.

[00:08:02] You can also find people that are interested in having fun through the Nerd Fitness Message Boards. It's free and people are organizing meetups all over the world. Tag, you're it. Please listen to the 5 year old me. Life doesn't need to be boring, routine and mundane.

[00:08:19] Just because you're 25, 35, 45, 55 or 65 doesn't mean you need to act like it all the time. It's amazing what acting young and feeling young can do for you. So please join me. Make a pledge to yourself this summer to start enjoying yourself outdoors.

[00:08:38] This was what life looked like for me as a 6 year old bobblehead. I climbed trees because there were trees that needed climbing. I explored the cranberry bog by the railroad tracks and walked in one direction for no particular reason.

[00:08:51] I hiked through the nature path in the woods behind my house. I dug holes with my friends, Cash and Seth because we had a shovel and decided that the world needed another hole. We built tree forts. We had water gun wars around the neighborhood.

[00:09:05] We captured the flag for hours upon hours. We made bows and arrows and were characters in a video game. We jumped, we ran, we swam and we climbed. Why? Because we wanted to. You just listened to the post titled, Playtime is Back.

[00:09:26] Act accordingly by Steve Cam of NerdFitness.com. Dr. Neal here for my commentary. The other day, my family celebrated a birthday party at a public park. Even though only one of the party goers was under the age of 18,

[00:09:42] for the majority of the afternoon we actually all played like kids. We kicked around a soccer ball and had a contest to see who could kick at the farthest. And after kicking the ball you had to run and get it yourself of course.

[00:09:55] We ran around and threw snowballs at each other. Well not real snowballs. After all, I live in an area where the temperature rarely drops below 70 degrees Fahrenheit or about 21 degrees centigrade. So instead these were fake snowballs made of giant cotton balls.

[00:10:11] We ended up running around and playing for most of the afternoon. Now by the time we went home, I was exhausted. I was even a little sore the next day. My body hadn't moved around like that for who knows how long. But it was definitely fun and memorable.

[00:10:27] So I agree with today's author Steve Kamp. Play can be a great way to break up our typical routines and may leave some lasting memories in the process. Alright that'll do it for me for today. I'll be back here tomorrow for our usual Friday Q&A.

[00:10:43] So stay tuned for that where your optimal life awaits.