We do not have to look like our favorite athletes or models to have a healthy body. Healthy bodies come in many shapes and sizes. About one-fourth of US adults are sedentary and another third are not active enough to reach a healthy level of fitness.
For admitted sedentary people — and there are plenty of them — just a little daily activity can reduce risk of most of the diseases related to obesity. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Cooper Institute, and the National Institutes of Health have shown that small changes in lifestyle that increase moderate-intensity activities lower risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
Increasing activity may be as simple as taking more steps during the day; taking longer walks on the way to office meetings, walking around airports instead of sitting while waiting for a plane; walking around the soccer field during a child’s practices and games; and walking more with friends and family during or after work.
The Cooper Institute of Aerobics Research advises that approximately 10,000 is the number of steps needed each day to meet the established guidelines for physical activity set by The American College of Sports Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This number of steps each day may be helpful in lowering body fat, improving blood pressure, and increasing cardiorespiratory (aerobic) fitness.
Intentional walking
The standard of 10,000 steps was originally started in Japan almost 40 years ago. Walking 10,000 steps is the equivalent of going about 5 miles. The 10,000 steps goal puts the focus on the accumulation of activity across the whole day as you go about our routines. In a normal day– just living and working – most people take about 3000 steps. Unfortunately, some people don’t even take 1000!
Walking one block equals about 200 steps, and, one mile, about 2,000. Most of us will have to do some intentional walking throughout the day to end up with 10,0000. Remember, the activity can be accumulated in ten-minute increments, and ten minutes of walking would be about 1200 steps!
If you are sedentary (taking less than 3,000 steps a day), increase daily steps gradually -by 500 a week. Using a pedometer, calculate how many steps you take in a day. For the first week, aim at walking 500 more steps a day. The next week, aim at 1,000 more a day. Keep increasing by 500 until you are walking your 10,000 steps daily. Steps matter! Check out these related resources:
- www.justmove.org
- www.shapeup.org
- www.thewalkingsite.com
- Great Shape: The First Fitness Guide for Large Women by Pat Lyons and Debby Burgard
As a helpful resource, I have lots of articles on healthy ingredients and recipes that you can implement into your daily life.
If you’d like to dig deeper into my journey of discovering God’s plan for health and wellness, check out my book, Made For Paradise: God’s Original Plan for Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Rest.
