Make One Change: Get In Step
Up your exercise quotient with a pedometer—it will motivate you to move more wherever you are.
Tracey Pepper
10/2007
10/2007
Ten Thousand Steps:
That's the number
health and fitness experts
agree you should take each day
to keep your heart healthy and control your weight. It
sounds daunting—until you clip on a pedometer and
find out that many of the things you do every day add
up to several thousand steps.
Wearing a pedometer-a pager-sized device that
senses your body's movement and measures how many
steps you take-can encourage you to use the stairs
instead of the escalator, or walk instead of drive. "Once
you see the numbers on the pedometer go up, you'll get
creative about getting more steps into your day," says
Mark Fenton, host of the PBS series America's Walking
and coauthor of Pedometer Walking: Stepping Your Way
to Health, Weight Loss, and Fitness (Lyons Press, 2006).
"It's a great motivator because the reward is instant."
First, use a model that delivers an accurate step
count. (You don't need one that tracks distance or
calories.) Put it on as soon as you get out of bed, and go
about your normal routine, keeping it on until you get
into bed that night. Record the total number of steps
for the day, then reset it to zero. At the end of the first
week, add up your daily counts and divide by seven for
your average daily steps. To determine your daily target
for the following week, multiply that number by 1.2. The
goal is to increase your number of steps by 20 percent
each week for six to ten weeks until you reach 10,000.
"A reasonably active person takes between 5,000
and 6,000 steps a day, but if your count is only 3,000,
that's OK," Fenton says. "Even with a low number, you
can make quantum increases easily." Here are a few tips
from Fenton's book to get you started:
- Run more errands on foot: Two ten-minute errands add 2,400 steps.
- Dust off the treadmill and watch TV while you walk. One episode of Grey's Anatomy can log 7,000 steps.
- Skip e-mail occasionally and hand-deliver messages to coworkers. You can tally 600 extra steps walking to a neighbor's house or a colleague's office down the hall.
- Shop at the store instead of online. Shopping for 30 minutes may add 3,000 steps. Take a ten-minute lap around the mall and you'll up your steps by 1,200.
