We often look for The Exercise to do as if one should only do one form exercise. Or we have to go to the gym, or ride a bike, or go run, or get on the rowing torture machine, or...... This often turns exercise into a chore which is why so many people stop excercising.
With the Fitbit, I went from walking the quickest path to somewhere, ie, the fewest steps, to walking a path/route, that would get be more steps, not the least. That was easy, not hard to do, and did not take a bunch of time. Just the time and effort to GET to a gym can be too much in a busy day. And right now the gyms are all closed anyway.
When I started using the Fitbit, I was "only" doing 5,000 steps a day. Then I wanted to do 10,000 steps a day, and was wondering how in the heck I was going to do that many steps? Where would I find the time?
The answer was go a longer walking
route not the shortest. Prior to the virus and working from home, I would walk the longest
route to my desk. I would park my vehicle, if not the farthest from where I worked, then a good long walk. By the time I walked to my desk, I could have 2,000 steps. Then I got another 2,000 steps when I would walk to my vehicle to drive home.
Walking to get lunch I would take, not the shortest path, but the longest. Walking back from lunch was also a long path. During the day, I would try to go for a walk before lunch, and if I had time, after lunch. Just sitting at a desk all day is bad for you in so many ways, so getting up and taking a short walk helps you physically, mentally, and improves one's productivity.
Just doing these simple things to increase my walking, I could get 10-12,000 steps at work without any effort.
Then work had a challenge to see if you could walk a million steps in a few months. I forgot how many months. I signed up for the challenge since I was walking anyway so it was no big deal. After a few weeks, I realized if I walked a million steps I would get a T Shirt that said I had walked a million steps.
So I did the math to figure out how many steps I needed to walk each day to get that T Shirt.
I needed something like 15,000-17,000 steps each day to get a million steps in the time remaining, but I ended up doing 20,000 steps a day which is about 10 miles. I never thought I would be able to find the time to do that many steps but I did. If I am talking to the wife, I get up and walk in place. If I am watching TV, I get up and walk in place until I get my steps in. Over the last few years, I have gotten to the point that I can run in place for 30-40 minutes at a time to get steps even faster. All while watching TV.
Most days I do 20,000 steps. I try to do 20,000 steps 6 days a week with one day I try to get 15,000 on a slacker day. I really want 140,000 steps a week. Most weeks I am over 140,000 but some weeks might "only" be 130,000-140,000.
Working at home has sorta helped. If I am in a meeting, I get up and walk. If I have lots of meetings, I end up with lots of steps. If I am talking, or listening to someone talking, I am walking. This week I had 27,000 steps one day and 29,000 steps on another day because I was walking while talking/listening. It is freaking easy to do. Just get up and walk.
I try to do weights, stretches, push ups and sit ups. I don't do this as much as I want or should, but I do get them done from time to time. It all helps.
If I bend down to pick up something, I use that as a chance to stretch. To put on shoes and tie the laces, that turns into an opportunity to stretch.
I have a manual coffee grinder that I try to use once or twice a week. Using that coffee grinder builds up hand strength that is hard to believe and gets my heart rate up. One can turn the simple thing of grinding coffee into a work out.
We were in Waterford,
Ireland once upon a time and we spent hours walking around the city sight seeing, getting boat supplies,
food, etc. I remember seeing this little old lady who had gone out
food shopping. She was pulling a little cart that had her groceries and she was walking up a very steep hill. I would bet she did this 3-4 times a week. Now, I think she could have taken the bus but I do believe she decided to walk and pull her groceries to get exercise. She was going at a good pace too. That exercise, just a wee bit of walking, surely was helping her stay in good shape, mentally and physically, and all she was doing was walking to get her groceries.
Think about what you do in the day and try to turn that into a bit of a workout. Just a bit here and there, or a bit extra of something you are already doing, can end up being a decent workout without much extra time or effort.
Later,
Dan
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