Constant Health Challenge Day 2: Stop Sitting, Start Stepping
Sitting is More Harmful Than You Think
Step two of our 10-day challenge is all about stepping. Get up, step away from that desk, get out and about!Sedentary work may be doing more harm to your body than you think. Compared to our ancestors, modern humans are spending more and more time sitting than moving. Recent studies show that sedentary ways drive muscle degeneration, organ damage, and poor circulation, all of which can take years off our lives.
One study from the University of South Carolina found that men who reported sitting for more than 23 hours per week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who sat for only 11 hours per week.
Move Your Feet to Fuel Brain Function
Today, our challenge is for you to take a walk while you meet with a coworker or a friend or when it’s your turn to take care of a child. Don’t have anything scheduled for today? Go for a mindful stroll on your own, noticing fall colors, temperatures, wind, the sun, other people moving about. Worried about fitting in lunch with your walk? Whip up a Constant Health smoothie in the morning and store it for a lunchtime drink on the go!
Walking gets the blood circulating throughout your body, including your brain. Going for a walk really can help “clear your head” by increasing the circulation of oxygen and glucose to your brain. In fact, because walking is not as vigorous as say, running, your leg muscles do not burn up as much fuel, thus allowing the brain to consume extra food for thought. Our marketing communications gal swears that her best ideas come to her during long runs.
10,000 Steps Diet: “Counting Steps” Instead of Calories
Meanwhile, some of our fair members swear by the “Step Diet” to shed the pounds that sedentary work packs on. There are plenty of gadgets to track the number of steps you take each day (just do a search on “activity trackers”).
The 10,000 steps program for getting fit and losing weight is explained in the book, The Step Diet, whichadvocates boosting motion throughout your day, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, parking your car at the far end of the parking lot, and suggesting a walk instead of coffee when meeting up with friends.
Better yet, if you already own a treadmill, you can build a simple, removable treadmill desk for under $20 and walk while you work! A good rule of thumb is that every mile we walk counts as 2,000 steps, and that by increasing our daily movement by 2,000 steps, we can stop gaining weight each year.
One Man’s True Story of Stepping: From Minor Stroke to Losing 80 Pounds
Here’s an excerpt from the story of Tom Watson, author of Man Shoes and stroke survivor.
“The fitness plan was something I could sustain — it was simple, in fact. All it required me to do was take 10,000 steps or more a day. Which sounds like a lot, but in reality is really only about an hour and a half of walking a day. I bought myself a pedometer and set out to achieve my 10,000 steps or more every day. What I found was that as long as I achieved those steps and stuck to a better eating plan, the weight dropped off.”
Read more here!
Track & Share Your Progress with an App!
Our CEO, Cindy, has started experimenting with using an iPhone app called Argus to track her steps and boost her movement now that she has an office at home (and has put on 10 pounds). The app also keeps track of distance traveled, calories burned, and even the amount of tea, coffee, and water you drink each day.
Keep Some Notes for Your Step Diet
So the challenge at hand is to make progress toward 10,000 steps a day. Keep a journal and let us know how you do!
The task is simple: get up and move. Thanks for taking today’s Step Toward Constant Health. Keep up the good work!
Remember, each time you check in with us on social media or write to us equals another contest entry for you! You can either upload a contest-relevant photo to Facebook using the tags Our Health Co-op and#constanthealthchallenge, upload a photo to Instagram using the tags @cellnutritionals and #constanthealthchallenge, or write to our Challenge coach Hillary (our marketing manager) at hillary@cellnutritionals.com and tell her about your progress and experience completing the different steps.