This month my exercise is running using the Start Walking Get Running Lose Weight program. I’m advising you as I go what I think of this program for an ongoing way to even out the life stage effects on our bodies and in particular our weight.
This post today will give you my background relative to the author’s of the program.
David Tiefenthaler in Start Walking Get Running Lose Weight describes his own and his wife’s history of running and his decision to make a program that would work for him, essentially someone who once ran, still in his mind was able to run easily with just a little practice only to find that not to be the case and that he required a complete program to take him from the start.
The start for most people is not running even in the past and walking or even counting pedometer steps can be a mental as well as physical, trial. I’ve written extensively on why pedometer steps’ counting is a great walking for weight loss tactic particularly for anyone who is recovering from illness and inactivity.
My history includes a period over several years of almost complete inactivity. I know how low those pedometer steps can go when you do not function normally on a daily basis.
I have become an avid walker over the last few years not only for weight loss but also for health and wellness. With the extensive inaction I wasn’t always overweight yet I was weak and unable to fully function. Using the pedometer steps’ method I was not only able to get an idea of what was necessary for weight loss but also what ‘average’ and ‘active’ categories meant. This gave me a better understanding of the benefits associated with different levels of daily activity associated just with living as well as the associated benefits of exercising for health or weight loss.
For me then Start Walking Get Running Lose Weight is about making an exciting new step on my way to a lifestyle that supports my ideal weight and health. Even considering running is a major change of expectation on my behalf. Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is a good way to tell if your changes are real. This is not a spontaneous decision but one that developed over a period of a few days. I realized I was still on the automatic ‘I do not run’ mindset. It has become a rite of passage for me now to be taking this on.
So far I have concentrated on preparing. I’m already walking, I’m looking at the ‘get running’ part. I just started with Wii jogging on Mondays. I’ve now added some strength and conditioning exercises to prepare my body for the unusual use of my muscles. I’m strictly adhering to the calorie equation and reducing calories while intensifying my exercise as running burns more calories than walking, in particular as an addition to normal daily activity.
Once I have created a base of core muscle strength I can and will increase the intensity of my running exercise.
Great news recently for anyone interested in leading a healthy yet socially normal life! Those of us who are wanting to live healthy yet still enjoy popular culture are being provided with encouragement and support. Now many theaters in New York and California will provide ‘healthy’ options at least for weight control.This snack will also include a pedometer. This tool and activity (counting pedometer steps) has become a popular ‘easy’ option for commercial interests to involve themselves in health for the general population.
“100 Cal Packs come with a portion-controlled amount of popcorn to provide a 100 calorie snack. Guests may choose either Coke Zero(R) or Sprite Zero(R) for their soft drink. A pedometer is included which patrons can use to measure the number of steps they take in a day. The pack also includes a fitness card with advice from the Will Rogers Institute. Regal Entertainment Group is a proud supporter of the Will Rogers Institute which promotes and engages in medical research pertaining to cardio-pulmonary diseases and educating the general public on topics of health and fitness.”
Pedals, Running and Pedometer Steps is happy to see that main stream commerce is prepared to cater for socially responsible change. After all movies can be inspiring for those wishing to self improve such as taking up running-when was the last time you saw a sexy main character out ‘walking’ for fitness?-and the general prevalence of well toned and honed bodies does create the desire for some of the benefits of fitness and health.
Any way that increasing the use of your body can become ‘normal’ is an improvement overall. For many, especially men, using a pedometer and counting pedometer steps is a motivating and target oriented way to increase their willingness to commit to exercise.
Walking and counting pedometer steps is the new wave of lifestyle management for busy overweight people. Tip 1 at the end of this post will start you on your way. Return to this blog for regular tips to help sustain this process.
Too much to do and too much on your mind? Neglecting your diet and exercise needs is by far the easiest strategy and the one you have applied for most of your adult life. Perhaps you keep yourself going by eating favorite foods?
While those counting pedometer steps includes all sorts of people there is a special attraction for the mature and long under-exercised, struggling in some way to live that wonderful life they once dreamed about. It may be that there is a higher force such as a doctor or spouse directing the decision but on the whole this program worked because, your commitment to change over rode the past.
This means being willing to give up those past lifestyle choices that seemed indisputably the ‘best’ or the only possible ways of doing things.
There ’s a clear path for living an active fulfilling life. Pedometer steps counting becomes an established habit in your life, encourages you to take up active options during every day, rewards you with a success mentality when you achieve the targets, and increases your fitness and weight loss.
It is a path because depending upon where you start as in the regular exercise you do and the diet you eat daily, will be the speed of both your walking and your trimming and weight drop.
The series of small successes such as achieving your daily pedometers steps’ target helps with the motivation you need to keep on the program.
Tip 1:
Look for the greatest personal character traits which have supported you in your most successful moments in your life.
For instance, if one of those is the birth of your child, transfer the best aspects to your own re-birth as an active vital person. Pregnancy was required before that baby arrived. Some sail through these 40 weeks and some don’t. Either way it is necessary. Then the work really started but it was a love process.
The positive expectation you felt looking forward to the birth of your child is needed for this activity and pedometer steps process that leads to a fabulous lifestyle.
Pedals & Pedometer Steps is an advocate of the new wave of greater expectations for a better life based on activity and weight loss. We will continue featuring the techniques, tools and systems which enable most of us to find ‘more’ in our lives!
Ever had that feeling of being in control of something, like your pedometer steps, and then ‘life’ gets in the way? Say you normally go to the gym at 6.30 am as its the only time you can fit it in. Something happens, or you just can’t get yourself out of bed, and you miss it. That’s it for that day. which is OK because it is normal to have a few mishaps which affect your schedule, unless you fall into that downward spiral where it can seem bigger than it is.
This is where a commitment to exercise can add to the pressure and keep us focused. Independence is great because the only one who can get you exercising the rest of your life is you but an independent person chooses the companions and systems which most help him or her to succeed.
When you participate in a group event that is put together with compatible goals in mind, there is an energy and synergy which can lift you over hurdles and remind you of the bright side of what you are doing. Far better than needing to persuade a loved one!
Walking every day is fabulous. It is something I really look forward to, and gives me a buzz, when I get the combination right. When I do it just enough to reach my goal pedometer steps, it acts as a catalyst then I am motivated and energized to do other things that day!
Your exercise program should add to your overall activity not be a substitute for it. For women with busy family commitments, the tiredness from starting a new exercise program, often becomes an excuse for not participating. The activity based 10000 steps a day weight loss program excels in this instance providing a format for individual needs to be met.
Pedometer steps counting is an exercise tool which perfectly suits men by taking the focus off weight loss, or health issues, and onto increasing the number of steps walked over time. This challenges and stimulates their competitive nature in a good way.
There is a freedom when joining a group especially designed to help reach a shared goal. Structure enough to achieve, freedom to meet your own schedule-
At Pedals & Pedometer Steps we support a feel good approach to walking for weight loss. Knowing that a holiday and lots of chocolate are on the menu how to get the best on both fronts?
Planning!
Are you up for it? My planning started before today but it’s not too late. Decide how to fit both activity and moderate Easter indulgences into the weekend. The ideal starting point: you’ve been eating less and walking, shopping, cleaning house a lot, in anticipation of events to come. Clothes are looser as a result.
To come out of it better off than today, use the Pedometer Steps way. Some tips for a Happy Easter!
Easter eggs- plan to give away most of them! Keep only dark chocolate eggs and plain bars. Avoid the filled, milk chocolate and elaborate. Make yourself new friends at work or church by ‘donating’ them to morning tea, or give to your grandkids, but preferably people outside your house.
At your home, if you have visitors over Easter, plan to substantially change the emphasis. Make alternate gifts or treasure hunts for the children- perhaps bunny rabbits stuffed toys.
Think differently about the food. In most families there are many ’special’ needs. While it is difficult to anticipate every dietary need, it is possible to make some foods optional. For instance, have fruit for the table after the meal, not cheese and biscuits.
Pretend this Easter is one which you want to be a celebration and at the same time be appropriate for a health check up the next day! I am doing this- the amount of food to be eaten by anyone is up to them, it is self selection or buffet style. My brother had a work health check the day after a visit once and it was amazing the changes that could be made without lessening the enjoyment.
Provide activity options other than television and eating or drinking. It becomes easy to eat less, and be less affected by what you eat when there is the Wii or walking, and cleaning up the kitchen to do.
If any of this is unattractive for your idea of Easter then start preparing now for next Easter. A major part of the ‘battle’ is your thoughts. Decide that you want to change the way you enjoy Easter. Wear your pedometer, count pedometer steps, find ways to add more steps into your day, walk somewhere you wouldn’t normally if you can, etc. Create Easter your way. Change your idea of what is fun.
Hoping for a healthy, happy Easter & good news after,
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,
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 inactiveeither, 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.
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.
I love this time of year for pedometer walking for weight loss. If you are on one of these programs this is a lucky time of year. Just take the focus from food and put it where it needs to be -doing the Christmas activities of your choice by moving your feet!
You can really enjoy the advantages of using a pedometer to count pedometer steps, now. If going for a regular walk is too difficult there is no reason not to walk the malls and do lots of movement around the home and on the social whirl that Christmas can be.
The beauty of counting pedometer steps is that most physical activity counts on that little gadget and it is so easy to add steps into your normal day as long as you have that mind set.
Even though weight loss may be too much to expect during the festive season (although still entirely possible!) weight maintenance is a great goal to set. This requires keeping your pedometer steps as high as you can doing what you would be normally doing, and moderating your eating. In other words find any excuse within the list of activities you would like to do, or have to do, which can add to the total pedometer steps- make a game of it!
Make the time to dance (a lot) at that party, prepare and clean up after a Christmas lunch, help buy all the presents and walk that mall! Hand deliver Christmas cards where possible. Put up Christmas decorations. It’s crazy how easy this is right now. Do a house clean for Christmas. Offer to do some of the family chores. Go Christmas carrolling. Part of this process is to do pedometer walking but also a part is to distract you form eating!
Deck the halls at the local hall or church. Volunteer to help at Christmas functions. Hand make Christmas or New Year cards.
Put a little effort this Christmas/New Year into making it a win/win for fun and pedometer walking.
If you have responsibilities other than looking after your health or weight loss;
If you have been putting on weight over a number of years:
Pedometer Steps is going to be the easiest way to create a fantastic low weight lifestyle!
Weight loss is an individual process and requires individual application of whatever diet and exercise program you choose.
However you lose the weight you need to continue the basic components once the excess weight has gone to maintain most of the weight loss. Increasing your daily activity quotient is the best way to be an active slim person!
Counting pedometer steps enables you to monitor easily just how much your body has moved in any one day.
This is Key!
Since movement for most of us is unnecessary beyond the basic, we have to consciously add it back into our daily lives.
This may be a shock, but it is worth it.
Look better, move better, be more energetic, have fun, take years off your age!
Counting pedometer steps is the vital process which begins a new life!
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...
