Walk More

Get outside and take a walk!

Want to walk more but having trouble fitting more steps into your daily routine?

Here are a few tips!

• Tell yourself to walk just a bit more. Each extra 10 minutes you walk at a decent pace adds about 1,000 steps or more.

• At work, go outside during your lunch break and walk for 15 to 40 minutes. Or ask your co-workers to take walking meetings. Start and end each meeting with a walk, build this in verses planning meetings back-to-back.

• Lean on your wearable for prompts - most buzz at 10 minutes to the hour if you have not achieved 250 steps in that hour. I also have a friend attached to my wearable, we can see each other’s steps and egg each other on to get just a few more…it’s fun and we banter back and forth, supporting each other.

• Enlist a walking buddy. They keep you accountable, keep you company and keep you moving!

• Take a lap around every store you visit or go up and down each isle. Use a fast pace in the tempting isles to give your walk an extra boost!

• If you arrive early, instead of standing, scrolling on your phone, or waiting, walk it out.

Why should you add steps? The answer is for you to tell me…we all know why. Our bodies are built to move, if we are not active, we do not burn as many calories. Our minds get foggy, we get stiff, and we have less energy. Pick a reason, it’s for you to decide, not for me to tell you what to do.

When you do something you value or choose to do, it will be easier than being told that “you must achieve 10,000 steps a day”. Maybe 10,000 doesn’t work for you…it doesn’t for me. I want to be active and try to move as much as the day allows. I listen to my chronic pain and do what I can. What I believe about my health and the core values I have support my desire to be active and respect my limitations. Each day brings its own challenges, but that also spices up how I decide to take more steps. It takes the boredom out of the same old thing and the same old path.

Here are a few more tips to increasing or getting your steps each day:

1. Get a dog or offer to walk a friend’s pooch! Many local animal shelters can use help walking their dogs or check pet rescue sites for foster home programs. I recently saw a business that had a special van full of dog cages, and people could “rent a dog” and take them for a walk. So many ways a dog can help you get more steps!

2. Take a movement break during the day. If you typically fade at 3pm, schedule a stretching or walk break to feed your brain some oxygen and power up those thought processes to finish the day strong.

3. Park far away. I know you have heard this before, but do you, do it? Then do it!

4. Take a walk after a meal. Taking a 15-minute walk can help you digest your food better!

5. If you have phone calls to make, walk and talk. Find a park or walking trail so that you aren’t running into road signs or spraining an ankle off a curb.

6. Drink more water…it will force you to hit the bathroom more often and get in more steps!

7. Instead of meeting a friend for coffee, meet them for a walk and then maybe a coffee, or skip that part and focus on the activity. Isn’t the real reason you are getting together to chat and see each other? Then make part of that “date” active.

8. Explore a local or state park. Pick a trail and do it! Once you’re committed it’s a great feeling to stick with it and finish the trail!

I hope this blog post inspires you to up your steps, adopt the attitude of activity or set a new goal and reach out to a walking buddy.