We’re not sure how many of you Nuffnangers exercise on a regular basis (we Nuffies sure don’t do it regularly enough :P) but we’re sure you must walk to get around. We don’t have hovercrafts or moving travelators like in the Jetsons. Most of us have to do it Flintstones style. YABADABADOO!
Here’s a fun fact about walking: 40 years ago, the Japanese people came up with a brilliant idea that walking 10,000 steps a day will help you keep fit and healthy without the need for additional exercise. What this means is that between the first few sleepy steps to the bathroom in the morning, to the tired slump as we crawl into bed at night, we should have walked 10,000 steps.
If you’re good in Math, you might have calculated that 10,000 steps is roughly about 8 kilometres. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Walking is in itself quite difficult and to walk 8km a day, WHEW! Just reading that makes a person feel tired! :P
But how about if we turn 10,000 steps into time? Using Math (again), we calculated that if you walk one kilometre in about 12 minutes at a decent pace, we could easily walk a bit slower and still do a kilometre in 15 minutes. So, by using this calculation, you could walk the whole 10,000 steps within 2 hours! That makes it sound so much easier, right? :D
But wait, there’s even better news! Since we have to walk to move around, most of us walk around 4,000-6,000 steps a day without even thinking about it. Even the laziest of us who sit at desk all day (like us Nuffies) do around 2,000. One thing’s for sure; you won’t know how many extra steps you should be taking, unless you know how many you’re already walking.
If you think you’re a few steps short of 10,000, try the following list to help you fulfill your quota of steps:
• Park at the far end of the car park
• Don’t go round the shopping centre or supermarket in a logical order, you’ll be amazed how far you can walk going back and forth
• Take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator
• Give the dog an extra 5 minutes on his walk
• Stop emailing colleagues in the same office, instead go over and talk to them (how we wish we could do this at our Nuffnang office…)
• Go for a walk during your lunch break, walk to get your lunch or to find somewhere to eat your lunch
• Get up and do something, run up and down the stairs, for example during TV ads
• Walk to the corner shop instead of driving or popping in on your way home
• Get friends and family out of the house for a long, long walk
Okay. Now that you’ve reached the end of this post, please stand up and go take a long walk at your local park, or even a shopping mall. Like Confucius once said, 10,000 steps begins with a single step. Okay, we may have paraphrased a little. So, work those legs and walk, walk, walk! For more information about walking 10,000 steps a day, do visit http://gayahidupsihat.my.
Happy walking, Nuffnangers! :D