I remember when I was at New York University. There was a time when he was 30 pounds heavier than he is now. It was probably the ricotta cheese in my lacto-vegetarian diet or the melted cheese on the pasta and sitting down and practicing the piano and then eating, definitely.

30 pounds is not a serious amount of weight compared to other people, but that was my load and a lot of problems for me. Every morning, I sat in my foam room (there was no bed in those days) and squeezed my stomach to see how my weight was doing. Since that was the first place the weight settled on me, I wanted to know how much excess I had right after I woke up. I could immediately figure out where I was and maybe tiptoe to the scale in my study and weigh myself. I always knew the day had a gray cloud over it when I woke up and had that gut, but I went about my day getting my music therapy training, anyway.

It is important to remember that for anyone with weight problems, regular activities are not so regular for everyone. The simplest thing in our lives can be a monumental task in someone else’s.

Imagine our height as five feet six inches, we weigh 120 pounds, and we are in decent overall health. We’re going to run across the street because we see a friend, we get in a car, we jump rope, we’re going to dance. None of these activities concern us; each one is part of a very normal day.

Now, let’s imagine we’re the same 5-foot-6, but our 230 pounds change the way we move, the way we think, the way we feel physically, and the way we look at our day. We are not going to be so happy to move because there are more of us to move, because people may judge us, because our balance is off. Therefore, not only do we favor activities that do not require moving, but we do not have the same energetic will to be away from home and we do not spend enough energy to balance what we eat. And we prefer to have a company snack while sitting in front of the computer than to go for a run.

Some of us really don’t like exercise. We prefer to read or write a book, play an online game or watch entertainment. Fond memories of Mom come to mind, that she would rather go to a Broadway play or a ballet than go dancing. She always preferred a book to a sport, and she did. She went for walks when she married my stepfather because walks were romantic.

He did one thing every morning that added value to his life. He always did his exercises in bed: squats and some stretches, every morning, from I don’t know when until his last year of 83. This movement, although he did it in bed, made a big difference in his quality of life and his health . . She was never sick a day in her life until her last year, which was a mostly peaceful step. (Shout out to Gertrude!)

Let’s go back to how easy it is to sit in one place and “go to school.” During high school, we may be (or soon will be) in “blended education,” where some of our public education is done in a face-to-face classroom, some online, some is done through mobile events.

In all three settings, some students are highly connected to their peers through electronic messaging, electronic tracking of friends’ physical whereabouts through standard phone apps that identify their friends; others of us try to be invisible in school, hibernate in our homes, only show our heads when we have study groups or webcam meetings, even while earning college degrees or pursuing full-time careers.

The blessing of new learning is that we don’t have to bother dressing up to learn or talk to people. We don’t have to travel and we save time, money and energy by staying at home. The negative side, obviously, is twofold. Our social skills do not have to be developed. More than this and an all-time favorite for people who are uncomfortable with themselves is that they don’t have to MOVE.

The same goes for running a race from home. Our interactions are very different from the face-to-face method, and we could lead our lives from home, never learning the nuances of real social interaction.

When we are at home, whether we are studying, working, creating, hiding or vegetating; we don’t get the natural exercise that we get if we go to school or work. We don’t pass the mailbox; we probably won’t pull our own weeds. We don’t hunt for our food, well most of us don’t, in modern society. We don’t have to run to catch a bus or even get in our car. Our bodies literally stall.

We don’t have to move to go shopping. We press a button, for the most part, and go shopping from our chair or bed. We click on a remote control and it transmits a video to us. We can opt for a job where we do the work online, we never see our co-workers or we are a solopreneur, we remain invisible and we eliminate the need to move. Except, to be healthy, we have to move.

So, whether we don’t like exercise or we don’t like it, there are many ways we can slowly but surely, almost secretly, without even realizing it, start moving when we go about our daily lives, even if you go from the bed to the shower, to the chair, to the video projection, to the sofa, to the chair and back to bed.

Even if we go from bed to bathroom to sofa, if we add one little thing to it; we will be happier, we will feel that the endorphins fill our body with life, we will be more vigorous, we will be more vital, our muscles will tone up, our blood will circulate more, our bones and tendons will become more flexible, our brain will work, it will increase and we will move towards balance of our weight.

This is what you need to do:

1. Before sitting up in bed for the first time of the day, wiggle your toes 9X. If you like, do one foot at a time so you can focus on the action. This will stimulate the brain and tell it to wake up and have a good day.

two. When you sit on the bed to get up, sometimes we stretch. Then raise your arms above your head. Keep them up. Lean into the L like a teapot. Then lean into R like a teapot, a few seconds on each side. This will wake up your digestive tract so you can eat.

3. When you are in the bathroom sitting on the throne (toilet seat), put your feet flat on the floor. Place your palms on your lower stomach and rock forward with your feet on the ground 9X, without moving from your hips down. This will relax your lower intestine, good for the throne. It will also tighten your abs a bit. Be careful not to break the toilet seat. If it’s too fragile, you can do it in person.

Four. Every time you walk from the bathroom to the kitchen (or from the bathroom or kitchen to anywhere, if you like), put your hands on your hips like you’re a model walking down a fashion runway. Straight back, regal gait, relaxed chin. This will make you feel good, strengthen your back, and establish good posture.

5. When you get to the kitchen; fold, cut, stir, mix, serve and eat with the same “catwalk” posture. This will remind you that you are real. It also helps with digestion.

6. Sitting in your chair, hands on your desk, computer keys, or (whether you’re typing on your phone or not) hands on the tops of your thighs, elbows against your body, not moving your hips or below ; rotate left shoulder back, then right shoulder back, 9X, alternating (that’s L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R, L, R , Left, Right). Good for moving organs and sides.

That’s it. Should You Do These Moves When You Go Out? Whichever of these helps you and makes you feel good is the thing to do wherever you are. If you like the chair exercise and you’re at the mall, take a seat and do the exercise. It will take about 6 seconds. Nobody is looking at you.

Now, if someone is watching, saying hello is always good. Then get up and be on your way. As a reminder, put a small sign on the wall near your feet in the bedroom, across from where you face in the bathroom, by the bathroom exit, in the kitchen, on your chair, and definitely on your phone.

“9X TOE MOVEMENTS”

“TEAPOT STRETCHES”

“ROCK YOUR BACK 9X”

“walk the catwalk”

“PREPARING AND EATING WITH A STRAIGHT BACK”

“9X SHOULDER TURNS”

CONCLUSION

There are so many media about the benefit of cumulative work, the story of how Aesop’s tortoise defeated the hare through persistent work, how a little mouse saved Aesop’s lion. In the same way, when we constantly move a little bit; we do so much to save our hearts, our minds, our bodies, and our social lives. Don’t worry, if you’re not interested in trying one or all of these moves. Keep them in the back of your mind for a rainy day. The time will come.

Let me know if these exercises encourage you if you try them. They may seem too small to bother. However, after more than thirty years of work in recreation, education and martial arts; I have seen how simply taking one step prepares you for the next.