Increasing your daily activity can help you lose weight, maintain long-term weight loss, and decrease your risk for many diseases and medical complications such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and colon cancer. A great way to track your daily activity is counting how many steps you take in a day using a pedometer. Setting a goal for a certain number of steps per day to achieve can motivate you to move around more. You just might find yourself parking in a far away spot and walking to the store!
The general recommendation for the average individual is 10,000 steps per day, the equivalent of five miles of walking distance. If you find that you are not reaching 10,000 steps per day, use some of the tips below to increase your daily step count. Try to increase your daily steps by 500 each week. For example, if you reach 3,000 steps per day, try for 3,500 steps next week and 4,000 steps the week after.
Click here for a weekly log where you can record your steps!
Tips:
-Take the stairs instead of the escalator/elevator
-Walk over to a neighbor’s house to say hi
-Walk around the room or outside while you talk on the phone
-Walk your dog or a friend’s dog
-Walk through each aisle of the grocery store and circle the perimeter
-Bring your walking shoes to the office in case you get a chance to run errands on your lunch break
-Use a restroom, copy room and/or kitchen that is farther away from your office
-Walk to a co-workers desk to deliver a message instead of emailing
-Go on a walk with your friend
-Walk into the bank rather than using the drive through
-Walk to nearby stores instead of than driving
This entry is filed under Activities, Fitness.
