189. Do This for 5 Minutes After Eating

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Hey, what's going on.

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Welcome back.

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You're listening to the elemental Evon

podcast designed to provide you with

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a simplified and holistic breakdown

of health and wellness topics.

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So you can walk away from these episodes

ready to apply this knowledge to your

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life and take control of your health.

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As always, this is your

host, Evan Roberts.

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And today's episode, we are going to

be talking about the smallest little

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form of movement that you can pretty

much do, and the massive benefits

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that it can have for your health.

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And it comes in the form of a

simple short five minute walk.

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Yes.

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It's literally that small, that easy.

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And we're going to dive into it.

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So first off, please,

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Let's jump into today's episode.

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So.

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I love walking.

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It is an incredible form

of movement and exercise.

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I know there's a lot of

people who still kind of.

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Have the stigma around walking

as not really being a form of

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exercise, but it absolutely is.

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It uses.

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You know, multiple parts of the body

and it is a great form of movement.

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One of the big, big reasons that I love.

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Walking is also that it has a

very low barrier of entry, right.

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It's accessible to practically.

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Practically anyone.

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I mean, it's a very

accessible movement practice.

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So, you know, regardless of your, uh,

physical activity level, even your weight

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for the most part, pretty much everyone

can go for a walk with the exception

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of some very few rare cases, right?

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So walking is super accessible and

it has a huge benefit on our health.

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It's also something that we

were born and designed to do.

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You were given two legs to walk

and move around on this earth.

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It's something that our body expects

of us to do, but we do so very

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little of it in today's world.

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And trust me, I am.

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First to raise my hand and say that

I'm guilty of not walking as much as I

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should, but after today's episode, I feel

very encouraged and happy to encourage

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all of you in even taking a short five

minute walk and the power and benefits.

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Of doing a short five minute walk.

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So the five minute walk, the reason

I'm focusing on specifically that

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number five minutes is because of a

study that was looking at the benefits

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of walking on blood glucose levels.

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After eating a meal and with walking.

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So.

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They did the study on, I think it was

two minutes and then five minutes now,

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why I didn't go with the two minute?

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One is because two

minutes is it's so short.

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Like if you're going to go

out for a walk, you might as

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well, at least do five minutes.

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I mean, five minutes is like

walking around the block, basically.

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So.

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It's still super attainable and

as well, there's always going to

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be a little bit more benefit if

you do a little more, obviously.

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Um, so getting out there and

doing five minutes is kind of

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the one that I want to shoot for.

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But in this study, they were looking

at blood glucose levels and the

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impact or effect that going for

just a short two to five minute walk

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would have on blood glucose levels.

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Now.

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Why is that important?

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Well, if you were a pre-diabetic or a

person with type two diabetes, of course,

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you already know why this is important,

but for most people out there who maybe

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don't deal with diabetes of any kind.

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It's really important for us to walk after

a meal for a few reasons, because for one,

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not only does it lower your blood glucose

levels, which I will break down what.

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Why that's important and kind of what

that all means in your body, but as

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well, it helps out with your digestion.

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So going for a walk after a meal

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can stimulate peristalsis, which

essentially helps to move food

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through the digestive system.

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So it can help with things like

constipation, bloating, and acid reflux.

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So super good for your digestion.

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Especially after eating a meal, I

already mentioned the blood glucose

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levels and then as well, it can

help with your cardiovascular health

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can help reduce your risk of heart

disease, uh, mental health as well.

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It's very good for that.

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It's good at, uh, improving mental

clarity and improving your mood.

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It's great for your energy levels.

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It can increase your circulation and

just overall boost your energy levels

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and last but not least, it helps to

prevent a lot of chronic diseases.

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Um, of course a five minute walk is

not going to be the end all be all,

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but it is a good place to start.

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So very quickly for those of you who

are unfamiliar with glucose and blood

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glucose levels and all of that good stuff.

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When you eat food, especially sugar

or carbohydrates, carbohydrates,

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obviously artists that'd be broken

down into sugar, but once your body

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breaks down all the food that it's

eating your leftover with some, uh,

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some glucose and you can only have so

much glucose in your blood at one time.

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So glucose is obviously a form of energy,

but if your body is not using that

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energy, AKA, you eat a meal and then

go sit down at your desk or lay down.

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So essentially you're not moving

your body in any way, what your body

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has this energy or this access to

energy, but it has nowhere to put it.

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So what it has to do is then send

that glucose to your liver and your

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muscles to be stored as glycogen.

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So when that happens.

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Over time.

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If you continue this, you know, the

same process of eating these very

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sugary or carb heavy meals, and then

having very little to no activity

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throughout your day, especially,

you know, right after your meals.

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And you just go and sit down over time.

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This can lead to some serious health

complications down the road, such as

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things like type two diabetes, right.

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So it's very important that

we don't allow that to happen.

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And one of the best ways and easiest ways

to at least have some impact on that is

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to at least go out for a five minute walk.

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Because when you go for a walk, you're

going to be using your muscles and guess

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what your muscles need energy to move.

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So they're going to require.

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A very quick, accessible, easy form

of energy, which is going to be

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that glucose that is in your body

because you've just ate a meal.

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And so your body will provide that glucose

to your muscles so that they can function.

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Move, carry you through the nice five

minute walk, which is then in turn,

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going to lower the blood glucose levels.

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Right.

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And, and as well, there's going to

be less of it stored as glycogen

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in your liver and your muscles.

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So it's a really excellent and easy

way to help kind of put a buffer

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on those meals that you're eating.

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And your blood glucose levels.

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So instead of having a massive

spike, maybe it's just a little

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more of a speed bump, right.

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Which is something that

we want to shoot for.

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Especially because we eat a ton of carbs

and a ton of sugar in today's society.

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So this is, you know, in a very.

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Tangible issue that we have in

our society right now, where a lot

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of people are, you know, having

type two diabetes or pre-diabetic.

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So this is a very easy.

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Process at easy step that you

can do to help kind of at least

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mitigate that a little bit.

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Um, now I'm going to give you

another thing here, and I hope

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that you can at least do the five

minute walk, because if you can't.

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I think that we have bigger

problems, like time management.

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Um, and if you can't fit in

a five minute walk, yeah.

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We need to work on our scheduling

here because I think everyone, after

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a meal can fit in a quick little five

minute walk, like I said, it's pretty

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much going just around the block.

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So.

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If you can't do that though, and

you absolutely just have to go

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back to your desk and do whatever

task it is that you need to do.

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Then at the least please stand.

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Because even in this study, they were

able to see that standing still had some

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benefit to lowering blood glucose levels,

not as powerful as going for the walk,

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but still was more beneficial than if you

went back to sitting or to laying down.

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So at the minimum, please, after

your meals, especially if they're

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super sugary and carby at least

stand at your desk or with whatever

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task it is that you're doing.

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Uh, and if you can do at least

a little bit better than please

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go for that five minute walk.

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And of course, if you can

extend that walk to 10, 15, 20

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minutes all the better, right?

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Like you're just going to receive

more benefits from going for

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a little bit of a longer walk.

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But it's really awesome to see

that at least five minutes is

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still going to be super beneficial.

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And the reason I want to highlight five

minutes here as well is because I think

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it's important for us to mention that.

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The best form of exercise or healthy

habits for that matter, or even

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just good habits for that matter.

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Go, as far as that goes, is.

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The best habits are going to be the ones

that you can actually stick to and do

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consistently over a long period of time.

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If for example, I was recommending

for you to go do a 25 or 30 minute

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walk after eating your meal.

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And let's say you did it for like a week,

but then after that week you just died

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off and just never returned back to it.

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That's a loss, right?

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Like that's, it was great for that week.

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But then after that, I mean,

we're back to square one.

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However, if getting out for a five

minute walk is something that you can

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absolutely do for eight, you know,

consistently every single day after

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your meal for a long period of time.

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And even if you missed a couple

of days where you didn't go out

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for a walk, but then it was easy

to pick it back up because you

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know, it's just a five minute walk.

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Then by all means, please

go ahead and do that.

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I think it's really important for us

to look for consistency, as opposed

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to just trying to shoot for the stars,

trying to like dream big here, you

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know, and then we go out and we start

doing it and we're all gung ho about it.

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And then come to find out like two weeks

later we just have completely fallen

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off and it feels like too big of a

barrier of entry to get back into it.

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So.

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Five minute walks, incredible

benefit for what it's worth.

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It has a huge return on investment.

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And honestly, who doesn't have five

minutes to go for a short little walk.

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And like I said, walking

is just so accessible.

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I think it's one of the best

forms of movement that we can

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do for the general population.

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Like if there's one thing I could

have us do in terms of more movement

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would be to start walking more.

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So anyways, Five minutes, improve

your blood glucose levels.

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Feel better.

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Improve your digestion.

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And just have better energy levels and be

in a better mood and just know that you're

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really helping your body and using up

some of that glucose that you're eating.

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Um, of course that's not an

excuse to go ahead and eat

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some super carby sugary meals.

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And then go ahead and just feel like

you can go for a short little walk.

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Of course, we need to also watch our diet.

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But nonetheless, this is a really

simple, easy thing to do, and it's going

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to have a big return on investment.

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Okay, that's going to do it for today.

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Today's episode was a little bit shorter.

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I hope you all enjoyed this.

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That's the goal is to just

give you some really simple.

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Uh, tips and tricks that

you can apply to your life.

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That don't feel like a huge barrier

of entry or hard to get into.

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Um, then again, like who can't

do a five minute walk, right?

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So.

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I hope you enjoyed this.

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I hope you found some benefit.

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I hope you learned something today and

hopefully you can apply this to your life.

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If you aren't already.

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Um, it's a great practice to start

incorporating, and honestly, don't

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limit the five minute walk to just

after your lunch meal, you can do it

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for breakfast, lunch, dinner, you can.

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Walk, anytime you want, you're still

going to receive a ton of benefit from it.

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Um, there's never a bad

time to go for a walk.

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So anyways, you guys, I hope you

enjoyed today's episode greatly.

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Um, I always love hopping on

this podcast and just sharing

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some thoughts with all of you.

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Um, yeah.

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I love you all so much.

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I hope you have a beautiful

rest of your day, please.

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Tune in for next week's

awesome episode as well.

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And I will see you all next week.

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Much love everybody, connect your

elements, uh, connect your elements.

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Do everything with good intention.

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Sorry, I'm getting mixed up here.

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Y'all.

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Um, and have just a

beautiful rest of your day.

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Much love everybody piece.