Walking Your Way To A Healthier Life – Much Easier To Track Today
I realize not everyone is in good shape or have the money for a gym or personal trainer. I know many think they don’t have the time. But you do have the time to start walking your way to fitness. It may sound silly but walking is one of the best things you can do for your body. Just like with overeating, many people think they move their body more than they actually do. Fortunately today, there are several simple ways to count your steps. Much like when you track calories and can’t believe how many you are eating in a day, when you start tracking your steps, my guess is you’ll be shocked how little you actually move. No one gains weight or is overweight for no reason. Your either overeating, not moving enough or both. This is how to get fit by walking.
Set a goal
We all know nothing gets achieved without a goal moving should become your top priority. Unless you have a broken leg, or some other lower body injury that prevents you from walking then your first goal is to obtain a certain amount of steps per day. Most smart phones come with a Pedometer so it’s pretty easy to track. If your phone doesn’t have one you can find one to download in any app store. Now decide how much are you going to walk per day. If you are overweight, talk to your doctor before adding any type of exercise to your everyday life. When your ready, start with baby steps i.e. set a goal of 5000 steps a day. If you’re in average shape and can walk with no pain, set a goal of 10,000 steps a day. Even if you don’t make this goal right away that’s okay. Make sure you write down when exactly you will reach this goal. If you find 10,000 steps a day, increase your steps to 12,000 or even 15,000 if you want to get a little crazy.
Get 75% of your steps done first thing in the morning
Most people are extremely busy either with work, kids, volunteer commitments etc… The best way to reach your steps goal is do them first thing in the morning. If you think you’re mornings are just too busy set your alarm clock for an hour earlier. There’s something special about being up early in the morning and even if you’re a night owl at this time, getting up early will help you go to sleep at a more decent time. Depending on your condition, you will probably reach around 6000 steps per hour. If your goal is 10,000 and you only have an hour in the morning then you will not hit your 75% goal. This means you need to make a point throughout the day to get up and walk. Instead of taking an hour for lunch to relax, give yourself 15 minutes to walk. Park your car a couple of blocks from work. You can get more steps in an hour by speed walking. You could also jog lightly for short periods of time. For example, if you’re walking in town, you can jog for one block and walk for one block. If you are unable to jog for one block, then jog across the street. You can also set a timer and double time walk for however long you can make it. For example, try to double time walk for a minute and then walk at your regular pace for three or four minutes. Repeat this over and over and you will reach at least 7500 steps in an hour. You can apply this type of “speed stepping” when walking on a treadmill at the gym. Whatever your leisure walk pace is, let’s say a 3, increase ot to four for one minute, then come back to 3 for two minutes. Repeat. Finally, if you have steps to do at night, you can do them in front of your tv while watching your favorite program. Instead of sitting on the couch, walk in circles for the entire show. You can still laugh, watch the ball game whatever but instead of just sitting there, you are doing something good for your body.
Become Obsessed With Reaching Your Daily Goal
Whether your using a device on your wrist or using your Mobile device to count your steps be sure to check it often. Put it in your mind “I am going to reach X Steps today” – whatever amount of steps is you’re goal. It’s okay to put pressure on yourself this is a good thing to obsess. After a month of walking it will become routine and you will notice great health benefits.
Walking is the simplest and easiest form of exercise than anyone can do. And believe me, walking in a park in morning could be really amazing and can keep you fresh for longer time during your day.
Whenever I feel stressed, I just go out on a walk in the park and gulp down some fresh air. Really helps me out a lot. Apart from this, whenever I am idle or feeling bored or not working, I would be in the park, strolling around.
I do not have enough time to spare for the workouts or even for a simple walk, thanks to my job -_- But I do get phone calls everyday. A hell lot of phone calls. So what I do now is, walk while I talk. Thank you to the mobile phones 🙂
You’re right. It is best to take most of our daily steps first thing in the morning. That’s what I do everyday. We have an amazing place here where people come every morning for a walk. A good 4KM walk that is, everyday. 🙂
It is very important to set daily goals for yourself otherwise soon you will find that no matter how hard you tried you will never be doing enough.
I use one of those smart bands to check how many steps I walk everyday. Initially, I was surprised to know that my daily steps were only around 375. I have now managed to take the number up to 1100.
Walking is the simplest and easiest thing anyone can do for a better health. Seriously. Even a mere 15-20 minutes walk daily can dramatically improve your health in a few days.
All the modern devices that can now easily track your health in different ways are doing really great job at it. The wrist bands and other such things are really handy things now-a-days.
I am a very healthy person but I never exercise or do any kind of workout.. Too lazy for that. But there are two things I do regular without fail which keeps me in good health. Those are: a 20 minutes walk everyday and drinking a lot of water.
Keeping a regular check on yourself about how much exercise you do everyday is really helpful. If you find yourself doing less than what needs to be done, better start doing more 🙂