Do you want sympathy or do you want help? Is there virtue in joining with like-minded people also counting pedometer steps who support you in the direction you want to go?
Are you looking for…
A community such as the one provided by Pedals and Pedometer Steps is a real and separate option. For someone who has a life, wants more out of it and feels let down by previous attempts to gain control over their weight then embrace who you are, rather than be overwhelmed by the latest fad, miracle diet or boot camp.
The theme of this community based weight loss program relates more to attitude and doing than to following specific diets and exercise programs. Let a desire for an even more fulfilling life be your major motivation. Let this be your way of planning for retirement.
For all those people who want the results (balanced weight and renewed energy levels) and are prepared to think about it differently, then this blog is for you.
Before taking a step…
Pedometer Steps represents a way of controlling your activity levels, and decisions, by acknowledging that some of your attitude is not helping you get where you want to go.
It’s been a journey…no…more a process leading to an understanding, that a lot of my lifestyle decisions led to poor decisions in other areas I was really wanting to change.
A good decision in one area wasn’t leading to a good decision in other areas.
Alternatively, a meaningful decision in one area of my life had an effect on other seemingly unrelated areas. Change in one area affected other areas and complicated the decision.
“I finally got it…
weight loss methods have a pervasive influence on all your lifestyle choices. These range the full spectrum from good to bad.”
Ask yourself this:
The immediate question to be answered- do you have a vision of you and your life at your desired new weight which includes exercise and moderate eating? If not, you’re already looking at failure. If you see the methods you are using as short term intervals of healthy living, as I did, with a vague intention of keeping it up since you like the new you, then the loop of weight loss then gain is underway.
Find a way to generate interest and excitement about being a newer version of yourself. Talk and act like a new you. I’m finally getting what the self-help gurus say: be the change.
The reason why I’ve never got that in the past is that giving up an established belief about yourself , “I always …”, requires continual conscious thought. Who can focus only on this? To my mind a bigger change is necessary.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks as I reveal my new attitude and how it and pedometer steps has helped me make a great new life! Or let me know your thoughts on the comments form.
Counting pedometer steps means making sure the typical life changes we all experience don’t interfere with our intention to make this our best weight loss routine. Every life has ups and downs and pedometer steps can be part of that life no matter what!
A successful strategy for integrating life’s changes such as moving house or job, extra responsibility at work or home, is to prepare for the change in advance. I liken this option to a child attending pre-school, to learn the skills he will need at big school but which aren’t taught at school. It is better to allow a gradual understanding of what works best to come through experience of similar conditions. Adaptation is one of the better human skills. Overwhelm doesn’t help if it results in giving up or struggling but putting a toe into the water to get a feel for what is coming helps a lot.
Using a pedometer is easy. Walking is easy. Making the time to do it is generally most people’s challenge. So plan it into your day as much as possible. When moving make sure that walking paths and beautiful environments are in your new area. It is really good to have shops and cafes within walking distance of work or home. When traveling these are also options to consider-stay within a reasonable walking distance of your venue if attending a conference, or include walking opportunities if it is a holiday; dance if at a wedding.
These are changes that can be made over time but will pay off as weight loss and well being become an accepted part of your daily life. Eventually once a routine of pedometer steps is fully integrated the pedometer itself becomes less important. Activity has become a habit.
Walking for weight loss and other activity burns calories. Be sensible about eating and your body will look after the rest.
Today I want to go over the importance of pedometer steps in my life. It could be important for you too.
This is what happens for me by using the 10,000+ pedometer steps a day exercise strategy:
1. First thing in the morning upon waking I see the pedometer on the bedside table and as soon as I am dressed I put it on. This ensures I am aware that during today I want to achieve at least 10,000 steps.
2. I quickly review my options for adding walking into the day’s program.
3.I know that if I keep an eye on my pedometer steps tally at regular intervals I can make decisions easily which are better than I might otherwise make.
4. I do have options during most days which I sometimes don’t see. I always do such and such at lunch or a friend likes to do X and I do it with her. Today though that friend might have an errand to run, say pick up the dry cleaning and I say I’ll meet her there, and I will walk.
5. Dead time becomes your friend- waiting drives most of us crazy but many times I can substitute waiting with walking time. Say I’m at the doctors and he’s running late-I tell the nurse that I’ll be outside walking (within earshot) and to give me a holler when it’s time.
Pedometer walking has some advantages over adding distinct walking periods say 30 minutes once a day. Doing 10,000 steps is probably about 5 miles walking on average. Your 30 minute walk is say 2.5 miles. What are you doing for the rest of the day? For many of us adding the 30 minutes initially is a great boost for weight loss and fitness but if you compensate by less activity at other times or, as is normal, your body adjusts to the exercise, then before long you’re not doing enough for weight loss or fitness.
Once your body adjusts to 10,000+ steps daily (on average) this activity level burns enough calories to balance normal eating and therefore maintain weight. Prior to this modified eating levels i.e. removing obvious high calorie foods or drinks and limiting calories consumed in a day, means less calories consumed (eaten) than expended (exercise) and weight is lost.
Treadmill running or walking rarely includes pedometer steps counting and so the iPhone app for use with a treadmill is a boon for those who like to do pedometer running and walking on a treadmill. Of course your existing pedometer will also do for this but as we all seem to love the iPhone gadgetry it seems opportune to talk about the specific treadmill application. The video above gives a great explanation of all the features.
It is a reminder that many recent technical updates of familiar electronic games (iPod) and essentials (watches and iPhone) now include a pedometer so there is no excuse for avoiding counting pedometer steps daily.
To further demonstrate the walking meditation technique which Pedals and Pedometer Steps uses, I have taken photos at different points in a walk to illustrate some of my thinking at these times.
Intentionally setting out to quiet and uplift my mind I take an existing route so finding my way is not a distraction. I wear my pedometer as counting pedometer steps is a major part of my goal.
Setting out
I look around for cars and then focus on the general scenery.
Looking Around
Thinks: This looks like a nice path. Nice and quiet.
Tree Trunk
Thinks: Interesting tree trunk.
Walking Meditation
Now my thinking is unconscious as I admire the beauty of the scene, how pleasing it is here and lovely to walk around as the temperature is perfect, the birds are chirping, the water looks inviting and peaceful.
Have you considered combining two of the world’s most popular forms of stress relief- walking and meditation?
As you’re reading Pedals and Pedometer Steps your main interest in walking may be for fitness and weight loss. Also as you’ve developed your regular walking you may well have noticed yourself feeling better generally.
If you are having difficulty fitting everything into your life and you meditate you can have the best of both world’s with a walking meditation. The video below demonstrates the sort of attention one needs to pay to details.
A major part of my pedometer steps progress has come from combining the activities necessary to get the steps’ target and also to act as a release valve for stress and frustration.
Walking in itself is a wonderful way to divert the mind of frustration and release a feeling of well being. Each step enables us to concentrate on where we are physically, noticing details of our surroundings in positive ways.
The major difference between a Pedometer Steps’ Meditation and the Zen version above is that you will have your pedometer strapped on and be walking with intention to exercise your body at the same time as you rest your mind.
Averaging pedometer steps is a great way to balance the effects of different activity levels between your days. For instance if you work in a sedentary role these days may lead to a low pedometer steps total whereas your non-working activity level may lead to high step counts.
One walker I know, found extreme differences in the steps recorded between days at work depending upon the tasks for those days. Days with a lot of sitting led to 3,000 steps where other days performing a standard task which required physical movement could lead to 17,000 steps.
This happens often and is the reason that recording and averaging over several days is the best method for most people to effectively use pedometer walking.
Aiming generally for the daily 10,000+ steps most walking for weight loss programs recommend, will move your activity for that day to the active level. It usually also leads to weight loss.
Starting out you will need to wear a pedometer while pursuing your daily tasks normally. Having established a baseline for your activity this way, it becomes easy to set a pedometer steps target to progressivley move you closer to the 10,000 pedometer steps ideal.
Sometimes though becoming aware of exactly how little some days’ pedometer steps total, is discouraging even to the point of giving up.
Giving up is not the answer.
This is how using an average of daily pedometer steps based on a suitable time period ( weekly or 5 days, for instance) allows you to do what you can on inactive days and put as much extra walking into those days which lend themselves to activity.
Finding your starting point is important and allows you to increase your target steps on a doable basis.
As an example:
If your initial average daily pedometer steps is 3,000 then increasing it by 500 steps for the next period requires only 5 minutes extra walking a day. Generally if possible start by doing 20 minutes of additional walking each day which will add around 2,000 steps at the recommended walking rate of 3,000 steps in 30 minutes. Once you have successfully added 20 minutes walking once a day, add another 20 minute daily walk if possible.
The result here is going from a base level of 3,000 pedometer steps to 5,000 steps to 7,000 steps.
Averaging:
Assume that you as a new walker who has a full time job and household/family commitments have managed to add one walk 3 times during the week, and sometimes an hour’s walk on the weekend. A normal weekend day is generally busy and you do around 6,000 steps.
The results for pedometer steps is:
3 days of 5,000 steps (includes a 20 minute walk); 2 work days unaltered of 3,000 steps; 1 weekend day including a one hour walk of 12,000 steps; 1 weekend day of 6,000 steps. Total: 39,000 steps.
Average Daily Steps: 5,571
Setting Target:
As a general rule add 10% to your previous steps daily average. In this case, this would be 6,128 and you might like to round it up and make it 6,200. By adding 629 additional daily steps- this is approximately 6.5 minutes of extra pedometer walking- and the new target is easily met.
Possible Scedule:
Every day this next week you will need to add a 5 minute walk (3 days- 2 at work and 1 on the weekend), walk for 25 minutes (3 work days) and for 65 minutes (1 weekend day).
Or some variation of the above.
Averaging pedometer steps is a great way to deal with varying results over different days.
This awesome pedometer steps walker used Youtube to show just how determined she needs to be to get her pedometer steps target despite the weather. Maybe you too would find motivation in recording your cold weather methods for getting those pedometer steps going despite the howling wind and the snow.
The development of pedometer walking and its concurrent emphasis on daily exercise, is a major breakthrough to success for weight loss walkers.
It has been an evolutionary process for those of us who are pedometer walking for weight loss regularly. The myth is of an active life when living a modern “fast paced” lifestyle which is generally of longer duration and fuller than previous generations’ lifestyles.
Pedometer steps counting enables some perspective on this ‘activity’. How many pedometer steps do you average daily over one week of normal activity? Do you fall into the average 5,000 to 6,000 pedometer steps daily or are you genuinely active during the day and night and do a minimum of 8,000 steps a day?
After a lifetime of finding ways to decrease my activity levels I have reversed this mental direction and now I find ways to increase my physical activity. Pedometer steps is a great way to do this and many people I know have found the simple act of strapping a pedometer on and finding their ‘real’ activity, enough to motivate them to more pedometer steps.
Start Walking, Get Running, and Lose Weightis filled with common sense strategies for managing the food you eat and simple but very effective exercise plans that ease you into shape.
A Proven Walking or Running Plan For All Ages and Experience Levels...
