Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Walk It Off: Work Out Wednesday

I'm working on a recipe post, but I wanted to get this post up and running. Pardon the pun.

I'm coming right out and acknowledging that the stress of the last 9 or so months has not been good for my health & fitness goals. I used to be in a place where exercise helped me deal with stress, but the combination of late pregnancy and post-surgery gave me an easy excuse to not work out for long enough that I fell out of habit. And let's face it, emotional eating became a norm as well.

I'm taking steps to get back into a recognizable shape, quite literally. I've had some success in the past using a pedometer to motivate myself to get up and move more, so I've strapped my little Omron back on. The added challenges of a job that requires me to sit and 2 kids that command almost all of my nonworking hours mean that I will have to work twice as hard to find time for fitness.

With the pedometer, I have recorded results that taking the stairs and walking the long way can actually add up. Studies have shown that a minimum of 10,000 steps per day can maintain health, while 12,000-15,000 can result in weight loss. My goal is to average 12,000 steps per day, and I'll post my results here for accountability.

Last week I only measured for 4 days, and averaged 8896 steps. Not great, but it's a baseline for improvement. Can you tell I work for a statistics company now?


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