The Art of Adapting: Squats, Snacks, and Surprising Success!
Feeling weighed down by change?
Well, you’re not alone! Join me, Heather Master, as I dive into my own fitness journey and the surprising hurdles I faced when my workout routine began to eat into my precious morning time.
I’ll share how I creatively combined dog-walking with squats and lunges to keep moving without sacrificing my schedule. We’ll explore the importance of embracing change, shifting our mindset, and recognising the gifts that come with adapting. Whether it's exercise, work, or life in general, let’s tackle those pesky disruptions together and find ways to keep our spirits high while juggling it all! So grab your cuppa, pop on those headphones, and let’s get our happy on!
The Details
Life can feel like a never-ending game of dodgeball, and just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, BOOM – change comes flying at you!
In this episode, I’m spilling the beans on my fitness journey and how I managed to juggle workout challenges while keeping my mornings intact.
After realising I was turning into a couch potato over winter (gasp!), I hopped on the fitness bandwagon with some challenges.
But when my 30-day challenge morphed into a time-consuming beast, I knew I had to get crafty. Enter the genius idea of combining dog walking with workouts – because why not make Fido your workout buddy? Trust me, squatting by the lamppost while your dog sniffs every blade of grass is a sight to behold!
But this episode isn’t just about my doggie workouts; we’re diving deep into how to adapt to change in our lives.
I’ll share three golden nuggets: First, let’s shift our mindset and embrace that change is just part of the ride. Second, we’ll explore how to creatively leverage our time and resources – can your housework double as a workout?
Spoiler: yes! And third, we’ll tap into that magical gift of intuition. Sometimes, it’s our gut that knows best, especially when logic starts leading us in circles.
So, whether you’re in the midst of a life transition or just trying to figure out how to fit in a workout, join me for a fun-filled chat on how to keep choosing happiness amidst the chaos!
Chapters:
- 00:05 - Starting a New Fitness Journey
- 02:50 - Adapting to Change: Strategies for Resilience
- 06:18 - Incorporating Exercise into Daily Life
- 09:11 - The Role of Intuition in Navigating Change
- 12:19 - Embracing Intuition and Creativity
Takeaways:
- Adapting to change is essential, and often requires us to shift our mindset and focus on what we can control, rather than resisting change.
- Combining tasks creatively can save time and boost motivation, like exercising while walking the dog – multitasking for the win!
- Using our intuition can be a powerful guide when facing uncertainty, allowing us to make quicker, more effective decisions.
- Recognising the gifts of our unconscious mind can open up new paths and opportunities, especially in times of rapid change and uncertainty.
- When faced with challenges, it’s a good idea to ask ourselves: what can we learn from this situation, rather than dwelling on what we’ve lost?
- Flexibility and creativity in problem-solving can lead to unexpected solutions, so let's embrace the chaos and find the fun in adapting!
Podcast Details and Links
Heather Masters
Copyright 2026 Heather Masters
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Transcript
Maybe you can relate to this.
Speaker A:My holidays are coming up.
Speaker A:I realized all of a sudden how overweight I was.
Speaker A:It's something I kind of ignored through winter and I decided to get back to exercising and I've mentioned this in previous podcasts.
Speaker A:So I did a 60 day challenge and then I started a 30 day challenge and and I got to day 28 and stalled.
Speaker A:And I'm thinking, what's the problem here?
Speaker A:And what I realized was that as the 30 days went on, the length of time allocated to the exercises took longer.
Speaker A:So it started off at seven minutes and we were over 20 minutes when it got to day 28.
Speaker A:Now I work out first thing in the morning before I do anything else and usually that isn't an issue.
Speaker A:However, the time length had now become a bit of a constraint.
Speaker A:It was eating into the rest of my morning routine and preventing me from getting started in my work in the usual way at the usual time at my desk at 8:30am Yeah, I could have got up earlier.
Speaker A:I just don't function much before 6am I'm not one of these 5am people.
Speaker A:I have tried it.
Speaker A:So what I want to explore with you is how I actually resolved it in a bit of a unique and interesting way.
Speaker A:But more importantly, how we can all adapt in a time where things are changing so quickly that things that were everyday and normal can get shifted from under you very, very quickly.
Speaker A:Join me for this episode of the Choosing Happy podcast.
Speaker A:As I said, change can be really disruptive and as though change is actually one of the can guarantee in life that it's consistent in all areas of life.
Speaker A:Many of us still resist, especially when the change hits us at our beliefs and values, when we're asked to reconsider things that we once believed as true.
Speaker A:And it also can cause us to question our identity and requires us to often change our behaviors and patterns.
Speaker A:For instance, in my workout, one is just a simple example of it, but here are three ways to make adapting to change easier to support you in maintaining a resilient and hopefully a happy life.
Speaker A:So number one is the mindset shift to acknowledge that change and uncertainty are a constant and where we put energy is really important.
Speaker A:Once we've acknowledged this, most of us put our energy into resisting to fighting that change rather than focusing on the things that we can control.
Speaker A:There are things out there that we can't control.
Speaker A:So yes, we can control potentially our environment up to a point.
Speaker A:The main thing we can control is our response, how we respond in each situation by being present and by understanding what we actually want, rather than fighting against what we don't want, choosing what we want out of the situation based on the circumstances at the time.
Speaker A:So if something's changed and you're unhappy about it, stop focusing on what you're unhappy about.
Speaker A:What are you learning?
Speaker A:What's the shift taught you, and what can you do differently to get the results that you're looking for?
Speaker A:Number two is being creative and identifying the leverage.
Speaker A:So this is, as I said, this is about my thing, about working out.
Speaker A:The first part of that is when it's a time issue.
Speaker A:So mine was a time issue and it then fed into motivation because I didn't want to spend 20 minutes.
Speaker A:That's not what my unconscious mind had signed up for.
Speaker A:And I found that quite a barrier to getting up and thinking I had 20 minutes exercise to do when it averaged it 15 minutes before.
Speaker A:And for some reason that five minutes was a barrier.
Speaker A:Now this is what happened.
Speaker A:I started walking my dog and doing the workout while I walked my dog.
Speaker A:So when she was mooching about in the fields, I would do some squats and then I'd do some lunges and I'd do some jumping jacks.
Speaker A:And I walk early in the morning.
Speaker A:As I say, I'm walking at about 6:30 in the morning.
Speaker A:And combining that meant that the time was kind of swallowed up in the time that I would walk my dog anyway.
Speaker A:And that had the additional advantage that I was getting fresh air into my lungs, I was moving, and I felt so much better and more energized when I got back from the walk.
Speaker A:So if you have something that's eating into your time, is there something you can do in parallel or actually combine so that you have an outcome that you want?
Speaker A:So you know exercise when you're doing your cleaning of the house, can you incorporate exercise into that?
Speaker A:Where can you incorporate something into what you do?
Speaker A:Now working with AI, what I'm finding is I can now ask AI to do things for me.
Speaker A:For instance, do my engagement on LinkedIn while I'm doing something else because I've trained it enough that I can trust it most of the time to actually post comments for me.
Speaker A:So what can you do that can save you time and leverage your time as well?
Speaker A:Now, if it's a resource issue, can you use something else?
Speaker A:If we go back to health fitness, I don't use any equipment other than a yoga mat.
Speaker A:If I want to use weights, I do have free weights.
Speaker A:But if I wanted to use something else, I can always use tinned cans instead of dumbbells for instance.
Speaker A:And where there are stepping up, I actually use the stairs to do the step ups rather than having a bench or some other equipment.
Speaker A:And I'll often use a chair if I have to do tricep dips or use my sofa if I'm doing raised press ups.
Speaker A:So I'm using what I have, I'm using what's in my environment and adapting my resources to be able to do the exercises.
Speaker A:So I'm avoiding the excuses.
Speaker A:It's easy to come up with an excuse of why you can't do something especially well for me anyway around exercise, it's so easy to say, you know, I haven't got the resources to do this.
Speaker A:I can't get to the gym for instance.
Speaker A:And it is a choice, really.
Speaker A:It is absolutely a choice of what you can do to identify the resources you already have around you that you can use, that you may not have thought about using before.
Speaker A:People issues this one's interesting.
Speaker A:It's easy to assume that we can control people and often we can't and we shouldn't even try.
Speaker A:What we really can control is our own responses.
Speaker A:As I said earlier, if there's a situation where you're waiting on people and they're just not getting back to you, then it comes to a point where you maybe have to decide can you do whatever it is without them?
Speaker A:And sometimes working out a way to do it without them suddenly kicks them into action because they suddenly see that you can go ahead anyway and they have no leverage or over the situation.
Speaker A:So those are all things, as I said, about being creative and identifying that leverage.
Speaker A:Number three is recognizing the gift.
Speaker A:This is my favourite, this is the magic one.
Speaker A:Recognizing the gift you have with your unconscious mind and your intuition being adaptable, making decisions from your gut and your intuition being present through the day and going with your intuition about what's the next step.
Speaker A:It may seem illogical and it is illogical.
Speaker A:Often logic will take you down a ten step process, whereas following your intuition might have only taken two steps.
Speaker A:There's something that you didn't know about or didn't see.
Speaker A:But taking that first step opened the door you never expected.
Speaker A:That's kind of the gift of intuition and why it works is our logic mind is based on our history, it's based on what we've done before.
Speaker A:So our logical mind is looking for patterns, it's looking for things that worked in the past, but with change and with unprecedented change like we've never seen before.
Speaker A:For instance, you Know, AI is something that we've never experienced before and it's changing the world, it's shaping the world in ways we couldn't have anticipated.
Speaker A:So going with logic around AI can be restricting.
Speaker A:If we open our minds to our creativity, to our intuition, to our curiosity, to exploring, then we can learn faster with AI than spending a lot of the time basing our experience on the past, when there is no blueprint from the past that can help us with AI.
Speaker A:And talking from my own experience here in terms of being in tech for so long and then using AI and realizing there isn't an experience of this in the past.
Speaker A:And the same thing happened for me, and I've mentioned this before, when Windows came out.
Speaker A:Yes, I'm that old to have a Windows PC put in front of me and being told to use it when I had never even heard of the concept of a mouse before.
Speaker A:You know, it's.
Speaker A:You can't apply that logic.
Speaker A:You can't apply history to something that's so new and that happens in all places in life.
Speaker A:And using your intuition, your creativity, your unconscious mind in a situation where perhaps you haven't had that experience before can really, really help.
Speaker A:Obviously, the other logical part is if it comes with instructions, use the instructions, read the instructions.
Speaker A:And that's something I know I tend to resist.
Speaker A:But coming up with answers for situations that.
Speaker A:Where we feel absolutely stuck, probably the best place is our intuition, going with our guidance system from the unconscious, from higher self, which is.
Speaker A:And giving ourselves the space to be able to do that, having a shower, going for a walk, whatever it is that works for us.
Speaker A:And the important thing is really listening to our gut and going with our guts rather than perhaps dismissing it and then having to come back to it, you know, 10 days later when everything that we've applied logically hasn't really worked.
Speaker A:So give your unconscious mind permission to come up with the results, to allow you to adapt and to be creative and actually have fun with it as well.
Speaker A:To live in that tote which I constantly mention, that test, operate, test, exit, play with it, allow yourself to adapt with the change rather than spend so much energy resisting.
Speaker A:I hope you find something valuable in this today.
Speaker A:It's less structured than usual.
Speaker A:I'm going with my intuition on this, so I hope you've enjoyed it.
Speaker A:And here's to happiness and Hobnobs.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this week's episode.
Speaker A:If you enjoyed it or think it would be valuable to others, please do share.
Speaker A:And if you really enjoyed it.
Speaker A:Please leave me a review.
Speaker A:It really helps the podcast.
Speaker A:All of the links are in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you next week on the Choosing Happy Podcast.
Speaker A:Sa.
