Hi to all of the Pedals & Pedometer Steps readers who are signing up for The New! Walker, the first issue is ready to go. I want it to be good so apologies for the delays but the button will be pushed soon.
I am returning to an ongoing topic of interest-what to do if you are injury prone or just want to get the best out of counting pedometer steps.
Normal bodily wear and tear is no reason for alarm. If you are someone who has been a couch potato for some time e.g. regularly looking for ways to avoid walking or hurting something by turning over in bed, then pretend that discomfort is your friend, and is really pointing to the need for preliminary checks before taking your vehicle on a long drive over many days.
Yep, zero to 100 mph is not likely for your “vehicle” which I’m sure you realize is meant to symbolize the equivalent type of ‘tune up’ required for your body.
More seriously, using pedometer steps is so good because it enables you to gradually increase your exertion so your body adjusts to these changed expectations in a comfortable manner. Muscles, tendons and joints can acclimatize to unusual (for them) extensions and contractions, given the correct encouragement.
Sudden movements, sudden load increases, sudden climate change-all ’shock’ the system. This can have a ‘wake up’ effect, and certainly the effort required by the body to cope means many calories burned, but it is ultimately not for the best.
Your body’s muscles have rested for a long time (if this is the case) and need preparation, and that preparing enables you to build up the muscle strength. Once released, with the strength to do it, the result is phenomenal.
Use a pedometer and count pedometer steps for the best results.
On the other hand it may be that over time you have allowed small encroachments into your well being without attending to them. They have just not seemed to be worth doing anything about. ‘It comes with age’ is a favorite excuse. Maybe there are technological or medical answers but you haven’t looked or persevered with the options. Do what you can, seek answers, and know that feeling good about your body helps a lot. High expectations for short term results is a pressure cooker environment to which most of us do not respond well.
If twenty years of putting on weight, something wrong with your feet, wonky ankles, etc., have stopped you exercising then be prepared for the long haul of working through these issues. While you do that, finding alternate ways of feeling good about the changes you’re making will help. In other words, find a way of enjoying the new way whether or not your weight changes. There is less tension involved and less need to give it all up if you don’t lose weight in the short term.
What do I mean?
Learn to love aspects of the new diet, or food, or paths you are walking. Find advantages in what you are doing even if initially it seems like failure. The old adage that success is on the other end of failure is always true. Oprah wasn’t Oprah from day one. You only have to look at old tapes to see that.
Technorati Tags: exercise, pedometer, pedometer steps, pedometer walking, walk, walking
Pedometer steps counting is truly a feature of the modern age. Walking itself as a leisure activity or necessary means of transport has been with us forever.
As with technology of other sorts the pedometer is a means of increasing our satisfaction with the ongoing process of walking for health (weight loss in particular) or fitness (training). Logging pedometer steps whether online or in a journal is part of the self interest movement of the last 20 years. We are more engaged with a process when it not only relates to, but includes, us. On the one hand it acknowledges that “we” make a difference, at least to our own results. On the other hand it streamlines the process to fit like a glove.
The weight loss dream has far too many components for easy assessment. We all know the nightmare of the scales and its lackluster performance as a guide. For some twenty years have gone by without the right combination of the stars and good fortune. Well the time is now. Never have we lived in such a choice- full, abundant society where many more suffer the diseases of excess than lack. Over whelm when it comes to finding the ‘right’ weight loss program is more likely to be the difficulty. Copying someone else’s successful process can have limited success for weight loss in the short term but for longer lifestyle choices then the changes must be one’s you choose.
The New Walker will be my new walking for weight loss e-letter. It is a combination of news and anecdote, thoughts, questions and answers and philosophy of life. Pedometer steps are my favorite way to get someone hooked on the new wonder ‘drug’ of exercise and activity as an anti-depressant, stress relief, mental and creative stimulant and mood enhancer. This is not to mention the other feel good benefits to the body and disposition.
One of my ‘new’ discoveries has been the benefits of walking after eating a meal. In the books of the 1800s and early 1900s, it was often mentioned that the family but particularly the head of the household would go for an evening walk after the meal. It aids digestion and generally makes me feel good by adding pedometer steps. If for some reason (!) you have eaten too much it also is one way of lessening any guilt and even reducing the effects of any excess calories.
The new walker does have most of the characteristics of the old except that the deliberate introduction of activity into a lifestyle previously devoid of much exercise from necessity, is different, because to exercise or not is now a choice.
Pedometer Steps and Walking to Lose Weight are my favorite blogs to write as the benefits of walking have helped me feel good every day. Am I claiming a happy ever after scenario? I am claiming the processes and tools to being happy every day in a healthy and loving work, home and family environment. The process requires implementing, adapting and using those tools with as much enthusiasm as possible. The New Walker is one way to get some input into your new lifestyle in a comfortable manner.
Please sign up for the FREE e-letter, The New Walker, in the column on the right if you’re open to making changes over time which will enhance your life, give you confidence and the desire to live your life lovingly,
Pedals & Pedometer Steps
Technorati Tags: counting pedometer steps, exercise, pedometer, pedometer steps, walk, walking for weight loss, walking to lose weight, weight loss
Intensifying your workout with pedometer steps is easy.
The benefit of doing high intensity exercises is that it increases the calorie burn and this is the attraction of the more extreme exercise sessions that dominate weight loss exercise since TV’s The Biggest Loser has become so popular. Calories burned must be greater than calories consumed for the weight loss to begin. The higher the calories burned the more weight lost.
In light of my last post where I point out that for weight loss to be effective over the long term i.e. the results last, the every day for a lifetime approach is more likely successful than a cramming effort reminiscent of school exams.
Having said that I do not mean that pedometer steps is limited to low intensity calorie burn spread out daily. There is a lot of positive effect in the strategic use of high intensity exercise.
For most people continued active living results in effective ongoing weight management after weight loss, therefore this needs to be established as a normal routine in your life. For this to happen it requires a consistent process done often enough to become a pleasure and desirable activity.
When enthusiasm for the desired results (quick weight loss) over rides ignorance about the level of activity then failure can often result. If you are not normally active then taking on exercise without finding your limits first can cause overload and giving up.
Measured use, and enjoyment of high intensity exercise, is a great way to stay in shape and increase the variety and options in addition to pedometer steps counting.
If you do want to try some fancy high energy program then:
1. prepare for it-find out what physical stressors are likely, and build up stamina, particular muscles to be used, and prepare by training in these areas.
2. alternatively take the class or do the event at a slow pace, gradually increasing until your fitness reaches the desired level i.e. over several sessions.
3. add high intensity to your pedometer steps by- walking hills; carrying weights (groceries in either hands are good); walking faster in sections by taking smaller steps more quickly (do not lengthen your stride); walk longer; add stairs; carry a child!
Many more options exist to make pedometer steps and other exercise a delightful, varied, favorite activity in a healthy lifestyle.
Sincerely yours,
Pedals & Pedometer Steps
Technorati Tags: counting steps, pedometer, pedometer steps, pedometers, steps, walking
For those new readers of this blog, let me introduce Pedals and Pedometer Steps, and me, Oni Raynbo. I enjoy writing about my experiences in walking to lose weight and counting pedometer steps. I also hope that the experience I have gained and the love of this life I have developed, is of help to others who have had similar issues with being active.
It took some time before I gradually understood the benefits of ongoing everyday activity. At this point a decision needed to be made. How could I have an active lifestyle rather than superimpose an activity i.e. exercise, over and above my ‘normal’ daily life. I had never thought of myself as active. On the other hand I wasn’t keen on seeing myself as inactive either, which was the accurate description.
It seemed to me from observing others, that the truly successful weight losers (who lived with the new body they’d discovered through exercise and weight loss i.e. did not return to their previous weight) continued the activity even after they had lost the weight and created a fabulous new life.
Hello…getting the message?
Decide now what changes you are prepared to make to get the body you want for a lifetime.
There is a totally different approach mentally and physically to a short term exercise and diet program compared to a lifestyle change.
Think of it this way. Do you remember studying for school exams? The last minute cram would get many of us through but did any of that stick with us?
I know when I went to my first job after I graduated, and for too long after, I still used the same approach. It bugged me that others did better with promotions etc. when I couldn’t see the difference between us. Eventually the concept of applying my talents daily to my work rather than as a special full-effort event began to take hold. Success was almost instant. It was something I knew how to do under certain circumstances but didn’t apply regularly, until that point.
That attitude change has benefitted me in many ways.
With weight loss I was also a cram for 3 days kind a’gal. Often 3 days was enough to achieve my desired results then.
Some 20 years later it wasn’t the same at all.
What had happened? Somehow weight loss had become less important or perhpaps lost amongst the many competing priorities and I had focused less on it when the focus was needed. This led to accumulated weight past earlier overweight experiences. Activity had decreased markedly without my having any real understanding of this. Starting an exercise program and ‘going for it’ was more likely to lead to overdoing it and extra fitness-related issues. It became a multi task event instead of a single focus. Too hard, too hard, too hard…
Again, over time, I realized that now I was not up for the gang busters approach to weight loss. And slower methods and results meant less impact upon my body and my lifestyle. Slowly the results and other benefits of including activity daily through using a pedometer steps approach accumulated to the point where even I could see it.
Change up your lifestyle with pedometer steps’ blog. It’ll help condense your understanding of how to be the active person who’s always been inside of you waiting for permission to come out.
Come back again for the continuing story at Pedals and Pedometer Steps. If you’ve enjoyed this article let me know in the comment section below.
Technorati Tags: counting pedometer steps, pedometer steps, walking to lose weight
This is a vital strategy decision for anyone who wants to do regular exercise. Pedometer steps counting is less likely to be injurious and this is one of the reasons that walking is a great exercise choice for me.
I’m not a fan of bravely working out by ignoring a pain. With that, however, I do continue to exercise and use a pedometer while walking and being active. In fact pedometer steps can also be of assistance in keeping on the right side of ’enough’ exercise.
If walking, or pressure on the ground, is affecting a leg injury then having a cut off point can be helpful. Say your normal day is 10,000 steps then a decision to cut back on walking and other leg movement can be monitored with the pedometer. I might feel that 5,000 steps will be a maximum until I get a feel for how it’s healing. Once it’s on the mend I can slowly increase the number of ’steps’ judging how the leg is feeling and knowing exactly the strain I have put on it that day.
You might not get this right the first time, I didn’t. However over time as pedometer walking became a standard part of my lifestyle : I became less likely to be injured; my philosophy about injury changed. An inactive person tends to have only two ways of dealing with it- 1) “I’ll fight it. Can’t let it stop me.” or 2) coming to a halt. These are not the only tactics available and , in fact, are not likely to be the best for most injuries.
It all depended upon my starting point. When I first started exercising again by walking I was recovering from illness and my general condition was not resilient. Although frustrating injuries meant a stop-start approach to walking. As my resilience rose, an injury became less likely, and less restrictive. I became a better judge of how much this “incident” could affect my ability to move through a normal day, which for me, includes counting pedometer steps. I also substitute other exercises which I can do without affecting the injured part.
An understanding of the normal daily activity level for yourself or a convalescent, by counting their pedometer steps, enables you to monitor closely how much exercise to allow them to do. The person themselves is unlikely to be a good judge. This is not about aggressive target increases but avoiding over or under exertion.
Injuries from normal activity which certainly includes walking can be categorized as routine incidents from a normal life.
Learning to continue with pedometer walking and counting pedometer steps while dealing with the injury is a natural part of a resilient personality. Being aware of balancing my divergent needs to both exercise and heal has extended my options to live an active life which I didn’t have in the past.
Please comment about your own experiences in dealing with injuries.
Love to hear from you,
Pedals and Pedometer Steps
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