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| The goal? 10,000 steps a day |
Looking to improve your health and fitness? One of the simplest ways to go about it is to focus on taking more total steps all throughout your day.
By increasing your total step count, you’ll naturally be burning more calories, you’ll increase your heart health, and you’ll take one giant step towards accelerated body fat loss.
Wearing a pedometer on a daily basis is one of the best ways to be aware of how many total steps you’re taking and make changes to gradually increase that number aiming eventually for a total of 10,000 steps a day. Wearing a pedometer is a great way to make yourself
more conscious of your total movement throughout the day. Even on a day to day basis, you can see the variation in total steps you’ll take depending on the types of activities your day consists of.
So what are some simple ways to help boost your total step count? Here are some ways to get started.
Park and Walk
The easiest way to add more steps to your daily count is to park slightly further away from work or any other destination and walk the rest of the way.
It may be only five minutes to start, but any “extra” steps get tacked onto your day’s total. Each week, park slightly further away than last time and pretty soon you’ll easily be adding 30 minutes of extra walking total on the way to and from work and other destinations. Simple but cumulatively effective.
Socialize at Lunch
Socializing at lunch is another great way to increase your overall step count. Try getting out with a co-worker and going for a brisk walk to a lunch location rather than just sitting in the break room through lunch, or as some people do, working right through your lunch break (this is not a good idea.)
Getting out for some fresh air will also benefit your focus and concentration when you get back into the office for the afternoon.
Window shop with a friend
Next time you’re setting up a date for coffee with a friend, consider going window shopping instead. This is a great way to still catch up with each other, but include movement in the process as well.
Window shop for an hour and you can easily burn 200-300 calories depending on how fast you’re moving and how often you’re stopping to check out…shoes of course!
Use a bathroom on another floor
While at work throughout the day, whenever you need to use the bathroom, consider getting up and using one located on another floor from where you are. But you won’t be using the elevator….take the stairs. This will not only boost your total step count over the course of the day, but will also provide lower body strengthening benefits. Walking up and down stairs is really an excellent way to burn a lot of calories.
Increasing your heart rate periodically throughout the day helps more oxygen flow throughout the body and is one of the best ways to enhance your overall level of mental focus and concentration while also improving your energy level. If you stay sitting for hours on end throughout the course of the day, don’t be surprised if by day’s end, you don’t’ feel much like doing anything.
Get active after dinner
Once you get home for the evening, consider getting up and getting active after dinner. So many people get into the habit of simply retiring to their couch after cooking dinner which has their calorie burning on super slow speed. If they’ve just finished a carb-heavy dinner, they are set them up for fat gain.
Instead, get out and about. Go for a short walk to check the mail, check out a new area of the city with your significant other, or take your kids out for a game of Frisbee or catch instead. This will not only boost your step count for the day, but will also help you digest that food that you’ve just eaten.
Walk to speak with co-workers
If you have a message that you need to deliver a co-worker while at work, rather than writing up that email and pressing send, consider walking to their office and speaking to them instead.
Making the trek over to their office to deliver the message in person will get you up on your feet and can enhance your total daily calorie burn; easily.
There has been so much talk recently about the negative health impacts of sitting for too long. I call it being “an active couch potato (someone who works out an hour everyday but sits out the remainder of it.) Everything from increased risk of diabetes to increased chance of becoming depressed can be attributed to this type of inactivity. Walking over to speak to your co-workers as often as possible will really help prevent you from sitting for hours on end.
Get up 10 minutes earlier
Wake up 10 minutes earlier and head out for a brief walk before you get your day started. That’s all. No long power walk. Just 10 extra minutes of moderate walking.
There’s nothing quite like the fresh breeze in the morning to leave you feeling re-invigorated and energized and ready to face your day.
Use this to your advantage. Wake up those few minutes early and you won’t regret not hitting that snooze button.
Set a Timer
Last but not least, make yourself more aware of how long you’re sitting at your desk by setting a timer to go off once every hour.
As it does, get up and move around. Even if it’s just for two to three minutes, some movement is always better than no movement.
Keep these quick tips in mind and you can help boost your daily step count more than you realize. It all adds up….to better fitness and more calories burned.
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| Fitness expert and strength coach Jini Cicero, CSCS, teaches intermediate exercisers how to blast through plateaus to create incredible transformations. Are you ready to take your fitness to a whole new level? Find out now! Take Jini's "Are you Ready?" Quiz at www.Jinifit.com. © 2011 Jinifit, Inc. |
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