Time for a new ticker

Not heart surgery, but a new 30 day challenge. I wasn't even close to my 6,000 steps a day (although I think I forgot to update some days), averaging 4600 a day. Now I'm resetting to 7,000. If the weather would settle down, this would get easier. I unclogged a storm drain today which is good for the brakes, but doesn't do much for my pedometer.




It's pretty wet here today, so here's the new ticker.

Warm, wet and wild

That ought to confuse the spam bots, but it's just a description of our weather today. The golf course is oozing fog as the warm air hits the cold ground, and there's standing water everywhere. I think we have what Illinois had yesterday; then the temps will drop tonight. I only have one more day on my step-challenge, but won't make it, but I will still up it for the next 30 days to 7,000.




A friend in Colorado called Sunday and said he was putting something in the mail that he hoped arrived here by Thursday. Yesterday we got an e-mail stating that their access road had been closed by an avalanche. In the last 3 days they'd received about 3 ft. of snow and he'd been on the roof shoveling, 7'-6" of snow (deepest spot). He says in his county they design for 65lb snow load, and his roof came out to 72 lbs per sq. ft. They have had 33 ft. of snow this winter. Good skiing. But the mail will have to wait.

Balmy breezes

Much of the midwest has a respite from the cold for a few days while storms blow out west. It's 65 degrees in Columbus today, and I think Cincinnati was expecting 70. I've actually had two walks today, so my little pedometer is clicking right along. Yesterday, my first day of aiming for 6000 steps I came close--5600, and I'll go well over today.

A few steps shy

Yesterday was the final day for my 5,000 steps a day on my pedometer. This would be duck soup for my friend Lynne, who is already up to 2 miles a day, outside in the snow, just 6 weeks after major abdominal surgery. She's amazing; I'm a wimp. Anyway, it's not really that tough, and with only an additional 1,000 steps a day, I would have made it to 150,000 (fell short by 32,807). The pedometer fell off so many times I finally started clipping it to my bra. That seems to work better.




So now I'm going to set it for 6,000 steps a day or 180,000 by Feb. 5.

4400

Using a pedometer to improve your health

The other day I walked 5 miles. I know that because I was wearing a step pedometer (similar to the photo), and only one mile was "exercise" done outside. The rest was my activities at home, and going out twice to shop. Recently I read, "Using pedometers to increase physical activity and improve health" (a review article) in the Nov 21, 2007 issue of JAMA, pp 2296-2304 (many public libraries have a subscription). The researchers had reviewed 26 published studies that reported on pedometers among outpatients, 8 randomized controlled trials, and 18 observational. The conclusion was that use of a pedometer is associated with significant increases in physical activity and significant decreases in body mass index and blood pressure. This was across all ages, races, gender, and state of health.

Some guidelines specifically recommend 10,000 steps a day, although I don't know that this goal would change the outcome. So, if you're like me and exercise isn't your thing, clip on that pedometer. I'm not sure why it works, but people, me included, seem to increase their activity level when using a pedometer. When I'm wearing it, I'm more likely to walk upstairs to the bathroom rather than use the one 2 ft. from my desk; I might take the laundry from the basement to the bedroom in three trips instead of one; I'll walk into a room on a different floor to ask my husband something, rather than holler; I'll pace while reheating my coffee rather than stand and stare at the microwave. It's not brain surgery. Here's some other ideas from the Walking Site.

Take a walk with your spouse, child, or friend
Walk the dog
Use the stairs instead of the elevator
Park farther from the store
Better yet, walk to the store
Get up to change the channel
Window shop
Plan a walking meeting
Walk over to visit a neighbor
Get outside to walk around

So during this high calorie Christmas season when it is cold and drippy outside, I'm setting a goal of 5,000 steps a day through January 5, 2008. If I can do more, I will, but if I set it too high, I'll get discouraged. One good walking place is the Giant Eagle store. I can never find anything I want in that store and spend a lot of time walking around.