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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
