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How To Walk 10000 Steps Every Day Without Totally Hating It

How To Walk 10000 Steps Every Day Without Totally Hating It
Carly Jacobs
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oes anyone else think step counting is weird? I’m a huge step counter – I’ve been religiously step tracking since the western world caught on to it a few years ago but it’s really quite a bizarre thing to do. Like counting how many times a day you blink. It’s rather strange behaviour really. And the fact that we do it en masse is even weirder. I’m digressing here but sometimes I think it’s important to admit that the human race are a giant pack of weirdos. Now we’ve cleared that up…

10000 steps

Despite this being a strange thing to do, I’ve been walking 10,000 steps every day for the past five years and I cannot tell you how much my life has improved. I sleep better, I don’t gain weight as easily, I’m happier and my body loves me for all the movement I’m getting. If I get to the end of the day and I’m feeling a bit stressed and out of control, 9 times out of 10 it’s because I haven’t done my steps yet. I exercise for my brain, not my body and my brain gets mighty stroppy if I don’t take her out for a spin every day. She doesn’t let me sleep and she makes me feel bad about myself. Not worth it.

I know a lot of people find the whole stepping thing really stressful and if you find it all a bit overwhelming, that’s totally cool. Just do these things but don’t track your steps. Just because you don’t have a little device saying you walked 10,000 steps, doesn’t mean you didn’t do it.

10000 steps

If you ARE tracking and finding it difficult to reach that milestone here are a few things I do to get those steps up.

Aim for a dedicated 30 minute walk every day

Depending on where you live, it might be very easy or very hard for you to get your steps up during the day. When I’m in Melbourne living in my inner city suburb, I don’t even have to try to get my steps up. By the time I walk to the shops, the post office and the gym, I’m totally sorted for the day. When I stay with my parents in Canberra though it’s a totally different story. I have to set aside a full hour to go for a walk around the lake because Canberra isn’t a walkable city. You can’t help where you live but you need to be aware. After your first week of wearing a step tracker, you’ll know how much walking you need to add to your day. No matter what your living situation, you should always aim to get a 30 minute walk in every day as a minimum. It doesn’t have to be strenuous or on a million degree incline, it just has to happen every day.

10000 steps

Say yes to everything

Say yes to taking the rubbish out, walking the dog, going to the post office, moving the car, ducking to the shops, getting the vacuum cleaner out of the garage. Any activity that requires extra steps – put your hand up for them. After a while it just becomes a habit and you’ll be sneaking in extra steps without even thinking about it.

Be deliberately inefficient

Sometimes if I get to the end of the day and I need to up my steps, I’ll take the recycling out one item at a time. Yes, that seems totally idiotic but I pop my headphones on with a podcast playing and run up and down the stairs to slam my last few thousand steps.

Extra tip – avoid pointless walking. I stay at Mr Smaggle’s family farm and I’m surrounded by beautiful fields but I just can’t walk them with no purpose. I have to be going to the shops, or walking to another farm to get eggs, or getting a coffee or going to the beach. Walking aimless circles around the property drives me batty so I avoid doing that.

So with the stepping thing…

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Are you are stepper? Do you have a step tracker? Or do you remain unconvinced about the whole stepping thing?

 

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10 Comments

  1. Alyson 7 years ago

    I’m struggling to hit my 10,000 daily and I live on a property just outside Canberra – you are so right! If I’m working in town, I try to source free parking which is usually a good walk away, but working from home is my trap because I can’t afford to walk the property and get distracted by the fence I should fix or the tree I should move…

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      That’s so it! I love the farm and I’ll happily walk around it if I’m actually doing something, like going to get something from the shed but just regular walking drives me bonkers.

  2. Lisa Fourman 7 years ago

    I track my steps when I go out to exercise at my local park so you aren’t the only one doing it, madam! I like to go at least 8,000 if I can make it that far. I get upset with myself if I do anything less, though I do quite a bit of walking at my job since I’m on my feet for most of my shift. It’s not so hard once you get into the swing of things. I enjoy the time I spend walking outside since it gives me time to think. A lot of my better blogging articles are written based on ideas I get while I’m outside.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      I’m addicted to it but the act of concentrating on stepping enough each week is just bizarre!

      • Lisa Fourman 7 years ago

        I’d have to concentrate HARD to get through enough each day. I used to do like 8000 in an hour or so before I got my new job. Once I leave that job, I’ll be able to get back to my old exercising routines. Maybe I’ll get more steps in then.

  3. KezUnprepared 7 years ago

    I am a step tracker – right now as I sit here, I refuse to move because my fitbit is charging! Hahaha.
    I find that saying yes to everything is great. I find my days at home a bit difficult in terms of getting those steps in, but I just try to keep busy and do all the household tasks I’ve been putting off – it helps!

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      My house is so tiny I have to do lots of out of the house errands just to stay on top of it all!

  4. Drstumpy 7 years ago

    Love the step tracker, cause you know, data. I have old school ‘non-fit-bit’ attached to the waistband of your pants type. I got it in 2006 and boom lost 5kg in about a month just cause I wanted to walk everywhere.

  5. Jacq Lives Here 7 years ago

    I got on the FitBit Flex bandwagon in December 2014 (I remember because it was an early Christmas pressie to myself before our holiday to Hong Kong) and have been OBSESSED ever since. A couple of months ago I upgraded to the new FitBit Flex with the fancy gold bangle, which I then somehow lost in a bloody paddock, and now I am the one feeling lost and naked without it! But they are on sale currently on the FitBit website, so I am keen as mustard to slap one back on the ole’ wrist again!

  6. Zed 7 years ago

    The weekends where my steps are in triple (sometimes double) figures make me sad.

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