Blog Archives
Tony’s Tip No.8 — Do Life! not “exercise”!
Incorporate “movement” into your life…
Some of my “tips” are ones that I actually come up with myself.
Some of the “tips” I share here are ones that come to me from various “Health & Ftness motivational” lists that I’ve signed up with at Walgreens, WebMD, my health insurance company, a website called “RealAge” and a few others.
The tips come to me as tweets or emails.
I got this one a couple days ago. . .
Do at least one active lifestyle activity this week. Try working in the yard, washing the car. Walking to do an errand or cleaning.
. . .and my reaction was:
“DUH!”
Hey, I realize that Read the rest of this entry
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Tony’s Tip No.6 — Count your steps
Simply “walking” is a good starting point!
Humans are built to walk. As in on two legs, bipedal in an upright position.
It is, in fact, according to some National Geographic and Discovery Channel and NPR documentaries that I’ve watched recently the one of very things that makes us human and makes us a distinct species and different from our nearest cousins the Chimpanzee and the Bonobo.
So, when I got a text from one of the several “send me fitness tips” places about “walking and setting step goals” — I burst out laughing! Literally! LAUGHED – OUT – LOUD
AFTER I calmed down and wiped the tears from my eyes, I thought two things:
- These people need get out from behind their computer screens and look at the real world and…
- This would be a great “Tony’s Tip” post!
Here is the quote that set me off:
A good step goal is 10,000 steps per day. For weight loss work up to 12,00-15,000 steps per day.
GWAUF! BWHAhahahahahahaha LOL!
Yeh, right. Folks, after reading that, NOT so helpful tip, I did a poor-man’s research study as in “Google search.”
Right at the top of the search results, I found this tidbit from a column I trust, in the New York Times”:
“A person is typically considered sedentary if they take less than 5,000 steps per day.” The study also showed that American men, with an average daily step count of 5,340, are moving more than women, who averaged only 4,912 steps a day.”
And, no, I will NOT tell you what my step count is right now. We’ll simply say that it is below 5,000 steps. SIGH
SO… the idea of setting a goal of “10,000 steps, Sweet Baby Jesus Help Me, (Tonya, that was just for you – GRIN) OR worse, Read the rest of this entry
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Tony’s Tip No.5 — Change your age on your Birthday…
…If you use a Body Fat Monitor
My birthday was on July 25th (anyone want to send me a birthday present? – GRIN)
Anyway, just a few minutes ago, I realized that I had not updated my age in the two “body fat monitors” I use:
Both of these devices require you to input your age in order to accurately calculate your body fat. So, “remind” yourself to change those numbers when you celebrate your birthday.
And your birthday is a good day to remember to change out the batteries in your smoke alarms in your home too! Woot!
See ya on the dance floor!
Further Reading:
- Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (wikipedia.org)
- Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis in Body Composition Measurement (National Institutes of Health)
- Measuring Body Composition (National Institutes of Health)
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Tony’s Tip No.4 — Be a “sole” mate!
Go Walking with a Friend / Partner
I subscribe to a couple of online sites that send me short “tips” on health and fitness via email and/or text messages.
This one came in via text message from “Health Tips” on the Walgreens website:
Be a “sole” mate. A study found that people are 76% more likely to stay on a walking program if someone else is counting on them.
I can vouch for this one. Not for a “walking” program but for dancing. I am embarrassed to confess when I was doing line, Teams, and couples all at the same time that the line dance practices were the ones that I was most likely to ahem skip out on.
Because it was just me. But if I had to pick up the phone and cancel on someone then I was waaaaaaaaaaaay less likely to do that. The social commitment of having made an appointment to meet with someone or a group of someones kept me going to the practices.
See ya on the dance floor!
Further Reading:
- Blog Archive – Posts about walking studies (walkertracker.com)
- The Best Walking Partner: Man vs. Dog (New York Times)
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Tony’s Tip No.3 — Check your Success!
Rejoice in the little things…
I subscribe to a couple of online sites that send me short “tips” on health and fitness via email and/or text messages.
And I absolutely LOVE IT! when one comes in that pretty much says what I’ve already written about here in this blog. 🙂
I got this text message just a few minutes ago:
Check your success. Are you walking faster or farther? Can you walk up stairs easier? Can you walk and talk?
Good advice. And good ways to measure your progress. I would add however, that you should “celebrate the successes” Brag about them! Shout them from the rooftops.
No matter how small, each of those tiny victories means you are moving forward. Keep track of them because when you feel like progress has stalled, you can look over your victories and use them for motivation.
See ya on the dance floor!
Further Reading:
- Revel and Rejoice in the Little Things…at 4am Ssssnnnzzzz (txcowboydancer.com)
- Rejoice in the Little Things for “I’ve been a GOOD boy!” (txcowboydancer.com)
- Rejoice and Revel for it has been a good week! (txcowboydancer.com)
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 