Keep Fit While Doing Everyday Activities

Trying to fit any level of exercise into a woman's life, especially after age of 40, is almost mission impossible for so many women.

We caught up with nutrition and fitness expert Dr. Pamela Peeke.

Here are her tips for busy women trying to stay fit to keep up with their lives.

"The best thing to do is just be as creative as possible, a little here a little there. That means ramp up your simple activities of daily living. Do not live in a gym, do not go there, this is not what the goal is supposed to be.

"It's all about trying to use your ambient surroundings, where you live, where you work.

"Just find ways of trying to stay vertical, quit doing the horizontal.

Do a little here, a little there. It accrues by the end of the day.

"Then, as far as weight training every day, use your own body weight.

I challenge every woman out there, Hit the deck! Right now! Give me a bent knee push up! Why? It could save your life. If I knock you over? How are you gonna' get up? By doing a push up. That's what you do and if you had to do that to save your life, or someone else's, hey! At the same time you hit five muscle groups at one time. What's not to love? You can do this anywhere. Start with just one. You know how it is, you do one push up, with your thumb on the speed dial to call 911. That's a joke. It's ugly then after that get over it.

"It takes awhile to build strength, we're not used to it. You see how easy that is?

"In my book, "Body for Life for Women", everything's gym-free.

"I try to make it so simple because my heart's out there for everyone, it is hard to fit this in.
"Just remember, everything counts, everything. If you walk a little extra, if you took those stairs, if you're able to kind of give it a little bit more speed when you're going up that hill, come on. Everything counts.

"It's called activities of daily living. No one's got a block of time, are you kidding? You wake up in the morning, it's like you have to schedule breathing half the time. So you just have to stay creative, stay vertical. Alert and vertical."

More ways to fit fitness into your day:
Lug your groceries. Walk on your lunch hour. Do your dishes by hand. Pace while you talk. Get out of your car. Clean your house.

Dr. Pamela Peeke is also the author of: "Fight Fat after Forty" and "Body for Life"