Exercise at Home: Build a Routine You’ll Keep

Hi! I’m excited to share this blog post with you. It’s longer than usual because I wanted to cover everything I think matters when you’re getting started with working out at home.

We’ll merge insights from experts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Glucose Goddess, several of our previous 1Focus articles, my own experience, and more into a simple at‑home system you can start today. As always, you’ll find the complete list of references at the end.

Today, you will learn how to start exercising at home. We will:

• clarify the difference between physical activity and exercise,
• show how much you need each week,
• teach you the Talk Test to gauge intensity without a heart rate monitor,
• outline immediate and long‑term health and cognitive benefits,
• share a simple habit system (action + coping plans) that keeps you on track,
• cover basic fueling pointers and sleep‑first recovery habits, and
• offer home‑friendly workout options plus a 1Focus workflow to keep sessions distraction‑free.

The information here is valuable, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you’d like more posts like this, send me an email—I’ll be very happy to hear from you.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have enough information to create your own at‑home routine and take control of your energy, focus, and health. Ready to start?

💡 Physical Activity vs. Exercise

Physical Activity

Physical activity refers to any bodily movement produced by the contraction of skeletal muscles that increases energy expenditure above a resting level.

In other words, it’s any movement that burns more energy than sitting still—for example, walking up stairs, carrying groceries, vacuuming, or dancing in your kitchen.

Exercise

Exercise is a planned, structured, and repetitive form of physical activity performed with the goal of improving health or fitness (for example, a 30‑minute strength‑training session).

Both count, and both help. Although all exercise is physical activity, not all physical activity is exercise.

A note on health: Health is more than “the absence of illness.” It includes how your body feels, how your mind functions, and how you perform daily tasks. Regular physical activity supports all three—lifting energy and mood, sharpening focus, improving sleep, and making everyday tasks (from stairs to groceries) feel easier.

Question: On a typical weekday, where do you already get physical activity? Where could you fit in a short planned exercise session?

📏 How Much Should I Exercise?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests that adults should aim for:

• 150–300 minutes per week of moderate‑intensity activity (2 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours),
• or 75–150 minutes per week of vigorous‑intensity activity (1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes), or a combination of both;
• include muscle‑strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity that involve all major muscle groups on at least 2 days per week;
• and, preferably, spread aerobic activity throughout the week.
• We should also try to move more and sit less throughout the day.

Evidence shows that what matters most for your health is the total amount of physical activity you accumulate each week. How you break it up—by session length, intensity, or frequency—matters less.

Every minute of moderate‑ or vigorous‑intensity activity adds up toward meeting the guidelines.

🤸‍♀️ Light, Moderate, and Vigorous Intensity Activities

Here’s what light‑, moderate‑, and vigorous‑intensity activities look like:

Light‑Intensity Activity

• Walking at a slow pace (2 mph—about 3.2 km/h—or less)
• Cooking
• Household chores

Moderate‑Intensity Activity

• Brisk walking (2.5 to 4 mph—about 4.0 to 6.4 km/h)
• Recreational swimming or water aerobics
• Bicycling slower than 10 mph (slower than about 16 km/h) on level terrain
• Playing doubles tennis
• Active forms of yoga
• Ballroom or line dancing
• General yard work and home‑repair tasks (e.g. raking, gardening)

Vigorous‑Intensity Activity

• Jogging or running
• Carrying heavy groceries (especially upstairs)
• Swimming laps
• Bicycling faster than 10 mph (more than 16 km/h)
• Tennis (singles)
• A strenuous fitness class
• Jumping rope
• Vigorous dancing
• Hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack
• High‑intensity interval training (HIIT)
• Vigorous step aerobics or kickboxing

💪 Muscle‑Strengthening Activities

• Resistance training (e.g. using resistance bands) and weight lifting
• Planks and other body‑weight exercises (push‑ups, pull‑ups)
• Carrying heavy loads, heavy gardening, or climbing stairs

Work all the major muscle groups—the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.

🗣️ Talk Test

The Talk Test is an easy way to measure the intensity of your workouts. It’s useful for guiding exercise intensity to meet health or fitness goals and for adapting workouts in real time.

As a general rule:

• During a moderate‑intensity aerobic activity, you can talk but not sing.
• During a vigorous‑intensity activity, you can say only a few words before needing to pause for air.
• During a low‑intensity activity, you can speak full sentences comfortably.

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🩺 Benefits of Exercise

Top line: Lower risk of all‑cause mortality and improved quality of life.

Regular physical activity also lowers cardiovascular disease mortality and reduces the risk of many chronic diseases.

Physical activity gives you the opportunity to have fun, spend time with friends and family, enjoy the outdoors, and improve your fitness level so you can keep doing the activities you love.

Even a single session of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity can lower blood pressure, improve insulin sensitivity, enhance sleep quality, ease anxiety symptoms, and boost cognitive function that same day. With regular activity, these gains build, including reduced disease risk and better physical function—benefits that begin within days to weeks of becoming more active.

Below are benefits of exercise summarized from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2nd ed.):

Immediate Benefits of Exercising

• Reduced anxiety symptoms
• Better sleep (quality, efficiency, more deep sleep; less daytime sleepiness)
• Improved insulin sensitivity
• Lower blood pressure
• A boost to some aspects of cognition (e.g. attention and executive function—skills used to plan, organize, start tasks, monitor behavior, and regulate emotions)

Long‑Term Benefits of Regular Exercise

• A stronger heart and lungs; improved cardiorespiratory fitness
• Increased muscular strength
• Improved bone health
• Fewer depressive symptoms and a reduced risk of depression
• Improved quality of life
• Healthier blood lipids; slowed or reduced weight gain; weight loss when combined with reduced calorie intake; prevention of weight regain following initial weight loss
• Lower risk of type 2 diabetes and several cancers (bladder, breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, lung, stomach)
• Improved physical function
• In older adults, lower risk of falls and fall‑related injuries

Brain Benefits of Exercising

• Sharper attention, memory, and executive function with greater amounts of moderate‑to‑vigorous activity
• Lower risk of cognitive impairment and dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease)
• Better performance on academic and neuropsychological tasks (processing speed, memory, executive function)

🚦 From Intention to Habit: Build a Routine You’ll Keep

When it comes to building the motivation to exercise, transitioning from “I should” to “I do this every week” typically involves predictable stages. It takes time, effort, and a firm commitment to make a change.

Research has tested which programs and strategies are most effective in helping people start exercising and maintain the habit. Interestingly, the steps toward “wanting to start exercising” are similar to the steps toward “wanting to stop smoking.” (Gerrig, 2018)

Find Your Stage: Where Are You Now?

Identify your stage to choose the right next step—don’t skip ahead:

1. Precontemplation: Barriers dominate your thinking and prevent you from taking the first step (for example, “I don’t have time”), and the benefits seem abstract. You may not yet recognize the problem—here, a sedentary lifestyle—so you have no intention of changing your behavior.
2. Contemplation: You’re weighing pros and cons, becoming aware of the harmful behavior that needs to change, and beginning to consider changing it at some point. However, there are still no concrete plans for behavioral change.
3. Preparation: Focus shifts from barriers to implementation—this is where planning matters most. You’re sufficiently aware of the problem to make concrete plans and set goals for changing behavior (start exercising, move more), and you may take the first steps toward this change.
4. Action: Active modification of behavior. You’ve been active for less than six months.
5. Maintenance: You’ve kept it up for six months or more.

Note: Some descriptions of this model include a sixth stage, “Termination,” in which the new behavior is fully consolidated and relapse is unlikely. Relapse is recognized as returning to an earlier stage from Action or Maintenance.

Action Plans + Coping Plans

How do we move from precontemplation to the maintenance phase? One strategy is to formulate action and coping plans:

• Action plans: decide when, where, and how you’ll be active. Think specifics you can put on a calendar. “I will work out every day after dinner for 30 minutes.”
• Coping plans: anticipate obstacles and predecide your response (if X happens, I’ll do Y). “If it starts raining, instead of cycling in the park I’ll take a brisk walk on my treadmill.”

Put It in Writing

• A short action plan plus a few coping if‑thens is enough.
• In preparation, people naturally shift from “why it’s hard” to “how I’ll do it.” Written action plans turn that intention into a concrete step. Coping plans add an if‑then safety net so typical disruptions (weather, low energy, schedule changes) don’t end the streak.
• People who create both types of plans are more likely to keep exercising months later than those who don’t plan this way.

🍽️ Fueling Basics

What and when you eat can influence how you feel and how much energy you have later in the day. Remember the last time you ate a hamburger with fries, a cola, and a double ice cream? Did you feel like working out afterward, or more like lying in bed?

Here are some tips from the “Glucose Goddess” on what to eat before, during, and after exercise; and how much protein to aim for.

Protein Basics

Protein is the foundation of our body’s structure and function. It plays a crucial role in: building and repairing tissues (muscles, skin, hair, nails, etc.), supporting immune function (antibodies are proteins), regulating metabolism (enzymes and hormones like insulin are proteins), and maintaining muscle mass, which is crucial for aging well and preventing frailty.

Here are some protein basics to keep in mind when planning your meals:

• Daily target: about 1.1–1.6 g per kg of body weight for general health; 1.6–2.0 g/kg for athletes or older adults to protect muscle.
• Spread protein across the day (3–4 protein‑rich meals).
• You don’t need a shake right away after working out. Eating protein within 1–2 hours after training is fine.
• For best results, pair adequate daily protein with regular resistance training (for example, squats, deadlifts, presses).
• Eat protein in the mornings with a savory breakfast to reduce cravings during the day and reduce mid‑morning brain fog (among other benefits).
• A good, protein‑rich meal will keep you satiated for about four hours.

For Everyday Moderate Activity

• If your workouts are easy to moderate and under about 2 hours, you usually don’t need special extra carbs. For harder sessions, make sure your glycogen is topped up by eating carbs beforehand.

Before a Workout (Match Food to Effort)

• Low intensity: For low‑intensity exercise, you don’t need to eat extra carbs unless you’re already low on energy. Fasted sessions can be fine—especially at low intensity—but women may find fasted training more stressful; pay attention to how you feel.
• High intensity: you’ll do better with carbs available. Eat carbs the day before and again the morning of hard sessions. Skip fasted training for peak performance.

During a Workout

• Under about 2 hours at high intensity: often no food is needed if you started with enough energy and your glycogen stores are topped up.
• Very long endurance (2–3+ hours): plan on carb intake during the session; otherwise performance will drop once glycogen runs low.

After a Workout

• Refill your energy with foods like sweet potatoes, rice, or quinoa, or whole fruit.
• Skip sugary sweets or fruit juice unless you’ve done a very long, hard workout.

Read our article on the impact of glucose on your energy and focus to complement the information presented in this section.

🚶‍♀️ Walking

• Walking is an easy activity to incorporate into an active lifestyle.
• Walking doesn’t require any special skills, facilities, or expensive equipment.
• Studies show that walking is beneficial to your health and has a low risk of injury.
• You can walk year‑round and in many settings.

How Many Steps Should I Walk Each Day?

The U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines do not set a specific step count target, such as “10,000 steps.” Instead, the key recommendations focus on the amount of time spent in moderate‑to‑vigorous aerobic activity (e.g. 150–300 minutes per week). However, a step counter can be a useful tool for tracking and building toward those minutes. Short episodes of walking add up, too.

How to Set a Step Goal

To use a fitness tracker to meet the key guidelines, first set a time goal (minutes of walking per day), then calculate how many steps are needed each day to reach that goal, as explained below:

1. Find your baseline. Wear a fitness tracker on several ordinary days with no planned exercise to track your usual total of steps (many people average around 5,000 steps/day, but your baseline may be higher or lower).
2. Measure your walking pace. On a separate day, count how many steps you take during a 10‑minute brisk walk (2.5 to 4 mph—about 4.0 to 6.4 km/h). For example, if you log about 1,000 steps in 10 minutes, keep that number in mind for the next step.
3. Set a daily step goal. To calculate your daily step goal, add your usual daily steps to the steps required for a 20‑minute walk. Example: 5,000 baseline + 2,000 steps for 20 minutes of brisk walking = 7,000 steps/day.
4. Progress gradually. Increase total daily steps week by week at a comfortable rate (for some, about +500 steps/day each week; others may need a smaller increment).

Notes

• Use the “talk test” to measure walking intensity.
• You can add extra steps while working by taking short, light‑intensity walking breaks. Another option is to use a treadmill desk.
• If you have a family dog, offer to take it for regular walks. It’s a fun way to add steps, enjoy time with your pet, and support your health. If you work from home, walks often help your dog settle and rest during your focused work sessions—it’s a win‑win!

You can find some tips on working from home with pets and the benefits of walking your dog in the articles below:

• Managing Distractions in Your Work Environment
• Home Office With a Weimaraner
• Cognitive Benefits of Walking Your Dog

🏋️ How to Exercise at Home

We all know that regular exercise supports physical and mental health, yet after a busy day when we’re exhausted, the idea of “vigorous physical activity” can seem unattainable. After all, who wants to exercise after a bad night’s sleep, a ten‑hour workday, caring for kids, pets, and parents, managing household tasks, and keeping everyone’s schedule on track? In these moments, the couch and Netflix sound more appealing than burpees.

Then we see a “bikini body” on screen and promise we’ll start tomorrow—or next Monday—but the cycle keeps repeating. So how do we change this? How do we get started? Even thinking about it can feel intimidating.

The usual barriers are lack of energy and time.

💤 Recovery

First things first, how long and how well do you sleep?

This is the first question my personal trainer asked me a few years ago when I started exercising. Until that moment, I didn’t really link a lack of sleep with being overweight. It turns out, however, that sleep deprivation can be detrimental to your health in many ways.

For example, a lack of sleep can intensify cravings the next day because your body struggles to regulate glucose. You’re more likely to reach for sugary foods, which leads to glucose spikes during the day, followed by energy dips, irritability, and poorer sleep at night.

The same loop repeats—cravings → sugar intake → glucose spike → subsequent drop → fluctuating energy, fatigue, and more cravings—and evening workouts often don’t happen. Sound familiar?

For more information on the relationship between sleep, sugar, and a glucose crash, click here.

On mornings after a rough night, lean on a simple routine:

• Get natural light as soon as you wake up.
• Choose a savory, protein‑rich breakfast for steady energy.
• Do about 10 minutes of movement (a walk or light activity—especially after breakfast).
• At night keep your room cool and dark and turn screens off at least 30–60 minutes before bed.
• If screens are hard to cut, schedule an evening block with 1Focus.

Sleep is essential, which is why we mention it so often in the 1Focus blog. For a full picture, please read the following articles:

• Sleep Hygiene Tips: Best Practices for Focus & Productivity
• How to Improve the Quality of Your Sleep
• How to Use 1Focus for a Distraction-Free Sleep Environment
• How Blue Light Affects Your Sleep and What You Can Do About It

What’s one small change you can make tonight to improve your sleep—an earlier cut‑off for caffeine, reduced screen time, or a stretching routine before bed?

🚶 Treadmill Desk

Working on a treadmill desk is truly one of the best things you can do for your health if you spend all day on the computer and don’t have time to go for a long walk outside. It’s one of the most life‑changing things I’ve ever done to increase daily movement with low effort!

Creating a treadmill desk is as simple as getting a long, height‑adjustable IKEA desk and a small walking pad (from Amazon, for example) that you can place underneath while still having enough space for your chair next to it. Of course, there are several options out there, and how you set up your active workstation will depend mainly on the space you have and the overall cost.

I keep the treadmill on one side and alternate between sitting and walking. I walk at about 2 km/h (about 1.2 mph) for 45 minutes after breakfast and lunch. I also walk whenever I need a boost to regain my focus. Most days, I end up with 10,000–15,000 steps.

I use two fitness trackers—one on my ankle (in an ankle band) for step counting, and a smartwatch on my wrist for heart rate and sleep tracking. Because my hands barely move while I type and walk, wrist step counts can be inaccurate, but the watch reliably tracks HR and sleep.

Since my walking pad is only for easy effort, I also go to the gym 2–3 times a week to jog or run on a standard treadmill.

Safety tips for treadmill desks:

• Start with short bouts (15–30 minutes) and build up time gradually.
• For typing, many people find 1–2 mph (1.6–3.2 km/h) comfortable.
• Wear supportive shoes, keep shoulders relaxed, and check posture regularly. If anything hurts, stop.

For more information about treadmill desks, click here.

🏋️ Fitness Blender

I’ve mentioned Fitness Blender before. It’s my favorite site for exercising at home.

The workouts are created by certified trainers and a broader expert team, designed specifically for home training. They tell you what to do, which equipment you need, and how to modify the exercises if you are using only bodyweight. You can follow their weekly challenges or create your own schedule, and there are thousands of workout videos (many free, with additional programs available via FB Plus). Really well done.

Some of my favorite routines from Fitness Blender are:

• Desk stretches
• Stretching workout – easy stretches to do at work
• Squats and deadlifts workout
• Lower body strength
• Upper body strength supersets
• Stretches for flexibility & stress relief

🪑 LazyFit

The LazyFit app offers easy and short workouts you can do at home. I got into the chair workouts after meals—you don’t have to leave the table, and no extra equipment is needed. Super easy to fit in!

⚽️ Equipment to Exercise at Home

As for equipment, it’s helpful to get some dumbbells. I bought mine at Decathlon, but there are often deals on Amazon or even in supermarkets. It helps to have a few different weights so you can adjust the intensity for lower and upper body work. Increase the weight once your body adapts to keep the effort challenging.

Extra things you can get: mini stepper, blackrolls, yoga mat, yoga ball, jump rope, hula hoop.

Build up gradually with higher‑impact tools like a jump rope, and skip anything that bothers your joints or doesn’t suit your space.

📈 Easy Moves You Can Do After Meals to Avoid Glucose Spikes

Small moves after meals help your muscles use the glucose from your food, so less of it stays in your bloodstream—giving you fewer spikes, fewer cravings, and steadier energy after a meal.

Do one of the options below for 10 minutes within 90 minutes after you finish eating:

Calf raises (soleus “push‑ups”):

• How to do it: Sit with your feet flat on the floor. Slowly raise your heels, hold, lower your feet. Repeat.
• Do this exercise immediately after eating while you’re still sitting at the table.
• Always pay attention to how you feel, and stop if you experience pain.

10‑minute walk:

• Walk the dog after lunch, go up and down the stairs, or hop on the treadmill.

House chores:

• Clean the kitchen after cooking, clean the windows, fold the laundry, etc.
• Basically, do any light chore that keeps you gently moving.

Doing these movements after meals helps reduce glucose spikes.

Sharp spikes followed by steep crashes can trigger inflammation, accelerate aging through glycation, and put a strain on the pancreas, forcing it to produce more insulin. Over time, this can lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic health issues.

Exercising after a meal helps your muscles absorb glucose without the need for extra insulin. This keeps your system steadier, your cells healthier, and lowers the risk of long‑term complications.

🖥️ 1Focus

Working from home on the computer can be a blessing—you can work in your pajamas and at your own pace—but it can also turn quickly into chaos without rules and boundaries, like working extra hours because you never “leave” your workplace. This becomes a major obstacle when you’re trying to modify your routine.

One way to prevent working extra hours is to schedule a block session with 1Focus in advance. For example, if you want to work out at 18:00 but still need the computer to watch a Fitness Blender video, create a “Workout” preset that blocks all websites every day (including weekends) except Fitness Blender at the times you usually exercise. You can do this by creating an allowlist (whitelist). That’s what I do.

It’s a precommitment to the intention I had, so there isn’t much willpower needed since my computer is basically useless during that time.

👨‍⚕️ Medical Check

If you’ve tried different routines and still have difficulty focusing, sleeping, or managing your eating habits, and it feels like nothing is helping, please reach out for support.

A quick checkup with your doctor can rule out underlying issues and connect you with the right resources. Remember, you don’t have to figure this out alone.

💭 Keep in Mind

If you’re unfamiliar with how to use fitness equipment or are unsure whether you’re following the online video instructions correctly, consider asking for help.

You could ask a personal trainer to show you how to exercise with the equipment you have at home. Alternatively, you could join a gym for a few months and inform your trainer that your goal is to develop a routine you can follow at home.

It’s also helpful to exercise in front of a mirror or record yourself to evaluate whether you are maintaining good posture.

📌 Final Note Based on Personal Experience

If your goal is to lose weight, it can be misleading to only track your total weight. You need healthy muscles, so be sure you aren’t losing muscle by carefully tracking your progress and eating enough.

You can use a smart scale at home or ask your trainer at the gym for help. They usually have special machines that can measure muscle and fat mass (among other things).

There is more to the “move more, eat less” recommendation. I’d tried that and it didn’t work. I think I tried many things to lose weight and keep a healthy weight, and nothing worked. What really worked for me was a combination of a set routine, a healthy diet, good sleep, cardio, strength training, and improving mental health—several things we talked about today.

Being overweight can be a symptom or an expression of deeper things happening in your life, which is why it is so important not to focus only on weight, but rather on the big picture and to add little things one at a time.

Read our article Breaking Bad Habits: Strategies for Lasting Change for more strategies on building new routines.

🏡 Getting Started With Home Workouts

Action Plan

• Track your sleeping habits. Improve your sleep quality and quantity so that you have enough energy the next day to complete your daily tasks and still have enough energy left over to work out.
• Avoid glucose spikes. Start your day with enough protein to keep your blood sugar levels stable and avoid cravings.
• Start easy. Look for ways you can daily add extra steps: take the stairs, walk the dog a longer route, use your treadmill while working on the computer. Can you think of more ways you could increase your daily steps without much extra effort?
• Don’t forget strength training. Schedule at least two days for strength training; be specific: “On Tue/Thu, I’ll do a 30‑minute strength circuit in the living room after dinner.”
• Reduce screen time at least 30 minutes before bed.
• Start small, and increase the intensity after you establish your first solid routine.

Coping Plan

Develop a coping plan so you can adapt when things don’t go perfectly:

• If I’m low on energy → I’ll do just one round.
• If it rains → I’ll do a bodyweight video at home instead of training in the park.
• If a meeting runs late → I’ll move the session to 8:15 p.m. and still keep the 10‑minute post‑meal walk.

Checklist for the Morning

Track progress and adjust accordingly.

Check insights from the previous day and make adjustments for today:

• How do you feel after waking up?
• Did you sleep well?
• How many hours did you sleep?
• Did you reduce your screen time?
• Did you eat enough protein?
• Did you hit your daily steps target?
• When did you eat your last meal?
• What kind of physical activity and exercise did you do? Which intensity?
• What do you need to modify today?

Can you think of any other question to add to the list?

🚀 Takeaways

• Assess your comfort level with home workouts. If you feel uncertain about training alone, consider consulting a trainer or joining a gym for support and guidance. Both home and gym workouts can help you get fit; choose the option that suits you best.
• Aim for 150–300 minutes per week of moderate activity, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity, plus muscle‑strengthening on at least 2 days.
• Use the Talk Test to gauge your workout intensity: during moderate exercise, you can talk but not sing; during vigorous exercise, you can only say a few words before catching your breath.
• A 10‑minute post‑meal walk or light movement helps steady your energy and mood.
• Prioritize sleep. Good sleep supports appetite regulation, energy, motivation, and healthy routines.
• Combine cardio and strength work.
• Pay attention to the content and timing of your meals: anchor meals with protein, add plenty of vegetables, hydrate, and time carbs around harder efforts if needed.
• Make it a routine: write an action plan and a few “if‑then” coping plans; stick to the same time and setting each week.
• Increase your daily steps by using low‑effort options (stairs, dog walks, treadmill desk), and progress gradually.
• Guard your workout time with 1Focus—block distractions and allow only what you need.

Track key basics (sleep, steps, workout type, and intensity), and adjust your routine as you go.

Consistency beats willpower—start small and build over time!

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📚 Keep Reading

Read our expert interviews on sports, health, and focus with:

• Sports and health trainer: Kevin Harscheidt
• Biomedical engineer and fitness coach: Marius Nguedia
• Gymnast, yoga instructor, and emotional coach: Susana López
• Psychologist, performance coach, and holistic health expert: Kate Otte

This article is not sponsored; no compensation was received for its creation. It reflects the author’s personal interpretation of the cited research and her own experience and opinions. It is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.