Goals: Schedule workouts on the calendar and try a new family activity together
My graduate work focused on the effects of cardiovascular disease risk factors on age-related memory decline. Spoiler alert: it’s not good! I often summarize six years of research with the phrase, “What’s bad for your heart is also bad for your brain.” So I’ve long understood the importance of exercise—though, as more of a bookworm than an athlete, I’m not always consistent with my own workouts. That’s why this week of Our Best Life Project focused on building the foundation of exercise. Movement fuels our best life by boosting mood, sharpening focus, strengthening the body, improving sleep, protecting long-term health, and much more. It’s truly one of the most powerful things we can do for ourselves.
My husband and I have been part of an international workout program called My Peak Challenge (MPC) for many years. Founded by actor Sam Heughan, MPC blends workouts, nutrition, charitable giving, and community. We love it! The program’s workouts are CrossFit-style, and we follow along using printed worksheets with our dumbbells at home, along with yoga videos. Over the years, our consistency has varied, but for this week we got intentional: we sat down with a calendar and committed to three HIIT workouts and at least one yoga session each week. Yoga is my happy place, and my husband enjoys it now too. We wrote them down to make them non-negotiable. For cardio, we’re racking up steps as part of “Step-tember” with MPC—once that ends, we’ll choose our next challenge.
Our oldest teen has been mountain biking and lifting weights, though his strength sessions were inconsistent. This week, he set a dedicated time each day to build more structure. The younger two get plenty of activity through recess and organized sports, so we didn’t add extra workouts for them.
Another goal for exercise week was to try a new family activity. We picked up a spikeball set and headed to the park one Saturday. Our oldest, who’d played in PE, taught us the rules, and we had a blast chasing the tiny ball and spiking it onto the trampoline net. The set broke after the first use (RIP spikeball), but it was so much fun that I immediately picked up some pickleball paddles for our next family game day.
Key Takeaways: When we treat exercise like a true priority, it finds a place in our schedule. Movement is non-negotiable for a healthy life, and trying something new together reminds us that exercise isn’t just good for us—it’s fun.