Whether you work in an office, from home, are homebound, or just need some easy ideas to help you along the way, it really is much simpler to “get more steps” & to add movement into your everyday routine/life than you think. Learn how to be more physically active in general from Sarah as she dives into the seventh post in her free extreme weight-loss series (after battling binge eating disorder and losing/maintaining well over 100 lbs of weight loss).
Sometimes learning to move your body more is actually excruciatingly painful… (people that have always been thin don’t understand how physically painful morbid obesity is) that was the case for me back in the days that my weight frequently shot above two hundred and sixty pounds… it was like that weight was the tipping point for my feet.
When I was that big, any time that I had been sitting for more than a few minutes, and tried to get up and walk, there was a searing pain that would shoot from my feet up to my calves, and not to sound too dramatic here, but it literally felt like my skin was about to rip off of my feet…
I’m sure I had other health issues going on (caused by obesity)… but man I am thankful that now that my fitness has been one of my top priorities for the last couple of years, I don’t struggle with walking in the least…in fact, my fitness level has improved to the point that it’s not hard for me to use an elliptical machine for an hour straight without getting tired, or to even be able to handle an 8-10 mile mountain bike trail ride with minimal breaks.
I have a whole new life ahead of me and I feel like a kid again when it comes to the activities that I find myself drawn to. I’m only telling you this to get you excited to move your body!
I promise you that I really do understand how overwhelming it is to even start your fitness journey when you can barely move, let alone when you think that you can’t do it (or are abusively being told that you can’t).
If you’re not wanting to read my whole fitness series, I strongly recommend that you at the very least read my post about “How to understand fitness in general” before you get much further into this post… it will make so much more sense and you will get so much more out of it.
If nothing else, I hope that your take-away from this post is that in order to be healthy and fit, and to lose the weight, we have to get in the habit of moving our bodies enough to burn the amount of calories that we are consuming each day… there are literally thousands of ways to get your body moving and burning off more energy, I’m just trying to give you some pearls of wisdom, the stuff that I had to learn the hard way over my first 34 years on earth living a fairly sedentary lifestyle.
Being active is a choice that we have to make every single day. It’s about wanting better for ourselves, loving ourselves enough to make fitness a priority, making little goals…and putting those little goals into action.
You won’t be perfect at it, I certainly wasn’t… I fell on my face at least 100 times even in the thick of my fitness journey, but I made a promise to myself that I was going to pick myself back up as many times as it takes, treat each day like a new opportunity to hit some little goals….and before long, I woke up one day and I was fit, and I was healthy, and I want that so much for YOU too!
Now all that you have to do is want that for yourself too. You gotta want it so much that you can taste it!
How to stay fit when you sit all day?
How to not only get fit, but stay fit when you have been leading a sedentary lifestyle?…It’s tough, I know,…but it is also completely doable if you just get in the habit of setting yourself some little daily goals.
I’m not joking, when I first started out with creating daily step goals (because all movement counts!!!!) I would set myself a little timer for seven minutes, and I would very begrudgingly, force myself to walk for seven minutes…or clean something for that long.
Before long I discovered that I needed to try my hardest to make that seven minutes a bit more enjoyable, so I started listening to music as I would walk around my house, or my neighborhood, or clean something for seven minutes.
Set yourself small attainable goals too! You got this!
In the beginning, my step goals were around 5,000 steps a day… and then I would soon discover that after a week or two of having that goal I had conditioned my body to be ready for more… so soon 5,000 became 6k, 6k became 7k, and with a bunch of consistency and picking myself up over and over if I ever failed, I began averaging about ten miles per day in movement.
I know, ten miles is nuts! It’s absolutely extreme!…but I still enjoy eating as much as I did when I was a big girl (can you blame me, food is delicious!…lol), so I have to walk around 20,000+ steps per day just to maintain my weight loss now that I have been at a healthy body fat percentage for a very long time.
*Remember that you are in charge of your personal math equation (mentioned in the “how to understand fitness in general” post)…and I prefer walking enough that I still get to eat like a horse *cough, cough 3500-ish calories per day…cough* and maintain my slim figure… so if you don’t want to move as much, ya just gotta train yourself to eat less too.
Best tips to get more steps per day (in general):
- Park far away from the store when running errands (only do this during daylight hours unless you’re in a super safe area).
- Take those kids/grandkids to the park and either play with them, or walk the track around the playround while they play.
- Walk with your kids to and from school.
- Get in the habit of walking to nearby places when weather is permitting.
- When writing your daily schedule make sure to allow enough time to “blow off some steam”… I do my best thinking when I allow myself the time to get out of the house and just walk.
Every single activity that you do can burn off excess energy, stored fat, so if you’re having trouble deciding if an activity is even worth the effort, you could always check out one of those exercise calculators and see just how many calories each activity will burn, even if it’s daily chores.
Ways to be more active at work:
- Start your workday off right by parking a bit further away (just make sure to allow yourself the extra couple of minutes to walk to your office).
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Volunteer to do any of the needed errands (coffee, lunch, office supplies, getting the birthday cake for a co-worker)
- If there is down time, go on a little walk or move your body as much as you can.
- Use a standing desk, or maybe a fitness ball instead of a chair.
- Get yourself a little desk pedal bike so that you can mindlessly pedal while you’re sitting at your desk.
- If a position pops up that requires more physical movement…maybe that could be a good change of pace, even if it doesn’t pay more.
- Make sure to utilize all your breaks and actually get up and out of the office… even a fifteen minute break can get you more than a half a mile, or 1500 more steps in.
Those are just some of the things that I can think about for an office setting, but you can also start looking at what you do at work and how you can easily start making small changes to move your body more… heck, even doing some stretching at your desk will make you feel better.
How can I be more active at home?
- Keep up on those chores both indoor and out(every single chore burns calories…why do you think those 1950’s housewives had tiny waists…their houses and yards were immaculately kept).
- Use your kids gaming system and play their fun, active, games (with them or alone…lol).
- Turn on the radio/or your favorite spotify playlist and dance in the kitchen while you’re making a meal.
- Walk around while the microwave is cooking your food.
- Stop asking people to go get you things (unless y’all are behind schedule)… you need the exercise and it’s not hard to go grab the things we need.
- If you have a significant other…remember that practicing that baby making burns an insane amount of calories…so, even if you have no libido whatsoever, you could consider it part of your workout for the day…and that could help motivate you to get moving…maybe just don’t tell your partner that that’s your motivator…lol.
How to burn more calories walking?
I find that not only do I burn more calories in general, but my mood improves when I make sure to get a bunch of my daily steps right in a row… such as a 20, 30, 40, 60 minute walk… getting that heart rate up consistently and for a good amount of time is how we burn a ton of calories and dip into our fat stores…not only that, but that’s when we start cranking out those happy endorphins too!
I typically start my morning off with a step goal of anywhere from 3,500 to 10,000 steps in a row and that alone sets me up for a better calorie burn, as well as it makes it a snap to get the rest of my step goal in for the rest of the day.
I like to walk on a treadmill, or even around my house, but if you find that you don’t have much room to move around, you could always maybe do a Leslie Sansone Walk from home workout… she’s got some great video resources to get you up and get you moving and she’s such a sweet lady I have been doing her in-home walking workouts off and on since I was in my 20’s.
If you are willing, or able, to get your walking in on a treadmill, make sure to up the incline as well as your speed to bump your heart rate to fat burning, or cardio mode.
So, do your best to get as many steps as you can right in a row and you will notice the greatest benefit in your results when you have been doing that consistently for a while.
That is all that I have to share with y’all today about fitness. I hope you liked what you read and that it was helpful to gain more movement every single day in the easiest ways that I know possible.
If you particularly enjoyed this post, make sure to check out my entire free extreme weight-loss fitness series, as well as if you could please share this post via social media (or email) to your friends/family/co-workers I would super appreciate it.
Thanks so much for the support everyone!~Sarah
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Here are the direct links, in order of what I deem most important, of my free fitness series (these are continually updated as I learn and grow):
Direct links to free fitness series:
Step 1: How to overcome binge eating disorder:
Step 2: How to understand fitness in general:
Step 3: Everything you need to know about fitness journaling:
Step 4 : What you actually need to know about strength training:
Step 5: Why drinking enough water needs to become part of your daily fitness routine:
Step 6: Intermittent Fasting For Long Term Weight Loss:
Step 7: How to be more physically active your everyday life:
Step 8: How much protein do I need for weight loss?:
Step 9: What you need to know about the link between sleep and fitness:
Step 10: The Skinny On Eating Carbs And Weight Management
Step 11: The Importance Of A High Protein Breakfast
For those of you that would like more options for a “Pinnable Image” to share on Pinterest, here you go. Thanks again for the support!
* This post was originally published to this blog on February 4th 2022, and will periodically be updated to improve user experience, remain relevant, and to just plain share better information as I learn it.
**Keep in mind that I am no Dr., or dietician, I am just sharing my personal thoughts & experience, any fitness changes should definitely be run by your medical professional before you do it, to keep yourself safe and healthy with your own personal situation.