‘Surreal’ experience
As Lauren Parsons stands on stage, the lights in her eyes with 400 people sitting in the dark in front of her and thousands more live-streaming from around the world waiting, she’s struck with the most surreal feeling.
Parsons is a huge fan of TED Talks, a series on scientific and cultural ideas with the potential to shape our future – she’s watched so many people do what she’s about to do. She pauses to calm her nerves, takes a deep breath, and begins her talk at the upstate New York auditorium – Snack on Exercise – Boost Your Body, Brain and Mood.
TEDX Talks, like the one Parsons spoke at, are the smaller versions of the two main TED conferences held each year.
But even these were highly competitive and speakers had to beat hundreds of top-notch applicants, Parsons said.
She is back home in Palmerston North for the first time in five years, after her family followed her husband when the army posted him overseas.
Her TED Talk grew from a very personal seed. In 2014, while pregnant with their youngest daughter, Bethany, she found out she had gestational diabetes, where the demands of pregnancy interfere with a mother’s ability to produce insulin.
‘‘My doctor told me that me and my baby were now at a high risk of getting type-2 diabetes, and it was just heart-breaking.’’
Parsons and Bethany will have to be extra vigilant with their fitness and eating habits.
Parsons, a wellbeing and fitness consultant, started researching ways to make that easier and found the most recent research shows that frequent, small bursts of exercise are more effective at maintaining fitness than a few lengthy gym sessions.
That was the basis of her talk and the heart of the Snack on Exercise movement she started to promote a change in Western lifestyles. ‘‘We need to change our approach to exercise, make it a bit fun and an integral part of our lives. Not just something tacked on to our already busy schedules.’’
Most modern jobs were less physical but at least as time consuming as our parents and grandparents’ livelihoods were, so bite-sized bits of exercise were important, she said.
Push-ups off the counter while waiting for the kettle, a spontaneous 30-second dance, racing the kids up the stairs, holding standing meetings – it all adds up.