One Step At A Time
Recently, my husband gave me a Nike+Fuel Band. This techy bracelet tracks your daily activity and awards you with NikeFuel. It even has a fancy app that you can download to your iPhone (so I love it even more!). What I like about the FuelBand is that it allows you to set individual daily goals based on your current activity level, or how active you would like to be. Throughout the day you can see your progress and adjust as needed. Every movement counts, from changing a diaper to taking out the trash or running up a flight of stairs to answer the call of a crying baby.
Certainly, not everyone likes tracking their activity, especially when doing so points to how sedentary you may have become. This was the case for my husband, who due to a daily commute & a desk job, became all too aware of how little he moved his body during the work day. This realization sparked him to make some changes to his schedule to add more movement into his day, like joining a running club at the office and working out on his lunch hour. It's true that the small changes you make every day can have a major impact on your overall health.
You may find that using a device or an app may be the catalyst that sparks your own commitment to being more active everyday. Certainly our bodies are designed to move; you only need to observe the easy, playful way that children move everyday to confirm that. My own kids bounce, jump, leap, run, walk, roll and climb every day (mostly on my furniture, which drives me nuts, so in response I typically pack them up and send them out where they can tear it up outside and save my hardwood floors for rainy days instead).
In fact, just the other day the boys and I headed to the park to burn off some of their pent up energy. After spending most of my day relaxing and watching movies I couldn't help but notice that my daily step tally was ridiculously low. So instead of just watching my kids play at the park, hovering over them with worry as they climb towards their ultimate demise, I walked the perimeter completing laps while keeping a watchful eye. As a result, the boys got to play at the park longer and instead of being idle, I was working towards my goal of 10,000 steps a day (which, in case you did not know, is the marker used to establish a base line of good health. People that log an average of 10,000 steps a day are healthier than those who don't).
Tonight we are heading out again for a family walk for some more outdoor play. I am still about 2,000 steps shy of my daily goal (even though I did a workout at the track and played tennis with Ben this afternoon). It's just another reminder that I spend too much time sitting in front of a computer or behind the wheel of a car. Perhaps you also find that you're spending too much time sitting. If you need a little motivation and help meeting your goals there are lots of great gadgets and apps out there. One just may be what you need to get you up and moving; one step at a time.