motd Monday Jan 9, 2012

[Guest guest]

STEP-BY-STEP

Monday, 09 January 2012

So tell me, how many steps do you think you

take a day? Walking is a simple, cost-free and

oh-so-good for you form of exercise. But these days,

lots of people walk no more than they absolutely have

to.

Taking 10,000 steps a day

is often touted as a good fitness goal.

It's all about starting up their cars, driving to the

mall, (or where ever), and finding a parking spot

close as possible to the front door. Goodness, when I

was a kid, I had to walk everywhere back in the

French Quarter. But oh how things have changed when

it comes to how much we Americans walk.

Taking about 10,000 steps a day is often touted as a

good fitness goal. In fact, I'd say it's an excellent

goal and you should aim for even more than that when

you can. Just so you know, for the average person,

10,000 steps is the equivalent to walking about 4

miles a day. Hey, that's quite a little jaunt.

Walking just plain-old

makes you feel good.

You all know the health benefits of walking. It's

good for everything from helping to keep your blood

pressure in check, making your lungs stronger and

keeping that heart of yours in tip-top shape. Walking

just plain-old makes you feel good, too.

Okay, so how can you tell if you're taking those

10,000 steps a day? Well surely, you're not going to

spend the day counting how many steps you've taken.

My goodness, you'd lose track in a hurry and where

would you record all of those steps anyway? On a

little notepad you keep in your purse or wallet? Of

course not.

But if you're serious about keeping up with the number

of steps you take each day, there's a little device

that'll take all of the guesswork out of it for you.

It's called a pedometer.

You attach it to your waistband or belt and at the end

of the day, you'll see just how many steps you've

taken that day. Great idea, huh?

You can

afford to walk more and...it doesn't cost you a

thing!

Now I know you've spent a lot of money over the

holidays and may be thinking, "I just

don't have the budget to buy anything else right

now." Well, the good news is that pedometers

range in price from as little as $5.00 to as much as

$45.00 for the more exotic models. But, according to Consumer

Reports, the less pricier models get the job

done as well as the more expensive pedometers. And by

the way, for all of you tech wizards out there, you

can even download a pedometer app to your cell or

smart phone for about the price of a vente cup of

coffee at Starbuck's.

So I say let's

start counting! Even if you

can't afford a pedometer right now, you can

afford to

walk more and...it doesn't cost you a thing! So do yourself

a favor and get that body of yours into better

shape...step by step!

Love,