How do you get those extra steps in?

[zapleahy]

I live about four miles from my workplace and although I haven't yet walked all four miles to or from work, there are a few games I play during the week to increase my stepcount.

Some days I'll take the hillier, windier, unnecessarily long route to BART (San Francisco's heavy-rail rapid transit system). Almost always, I forgo the escalator for the stairs. Today, that act alone added 5 flights of stairs and over 250 steps to my morning journey.

My other favorite "cheat" is high stepping in place. Sure, I may look a little odd bouncing up and down while typing at my makeshift standing desk, but it feels good to keep the blood flowing and the legs moving! 

What do you do to get your extra steps in?

[Kaybe]

Only recently got my fitbit but after browsing this thread earlier, decided to jog on the spot whilst waiting for the kitchen sink to fill up..

[Tj_Gaona]

I set my fitbit timer to go off every hour and walk around the building and climb the 3 flights of stairs, this does not always get me my 10,000 BUT, I get up and move every hour and feel so much better.

[FlaggleRock]

I do a few things to try and get that step count up.  I definitely walk during my breaks/lunch at work and try to go for a nice walk in the morning.  The other thing I have been doing, if i have the time, when I am home and need to go upstairs I will backtrack every step until i'm at the top, for instance up 1 step, back down to the floor, up 2 steps, back down to the floor, so on so forth until I reach the top step.  It may seem like a silly thing to do but it gets me moving more and certainly ups my step and floor count.  

[EmjayH]

I tend to walk everywhere only relying on the car for trips that are more then an hrs walk out of my way. My job also includes running around constantly so getting over 20k steps daily is a norm for me

[PeachUK]

I love that idea of going up 1 step and coming down, then 2 steps etc.  I'm going to try that when I'm trying to get extra steps in the house.

I have created a little circuit around my house for when it's either too hot to go outside or later on an evening and I need more steps and don't feel like jogging on the spot.  I walk in and out of every room including a walk down to the basement and back up.  The cats think I'm mad!

[MCarr]

Whatever makes you move is great.

[MrsFelisha]

lol....too funny

[Callie1224]

When I need stairs, I repeatedly walk up and down my stairs 10 times, breaking every 3 or so times. When I need steps, I walk in place while watching TV (usually Gilmore Girls, as it is right now!) Only 2500 more steps for me right now. 🙂

[DomPirate]

I cycle away from the supermarket to a large park, leave my bike there, walk through the park and then follow the brook popping out right next to supermarket entrance. 

This route means no road walking at all, don't have to navigate the car park - and doubles walking distance both there and back.

[SunsetRunner]

Alot of people under estimate jogging on the spot, especially when watching tv

Lets say 2.5 steps a second

that 1 hour of tv?

9000 steps right there

and it is not like most people only watch 1 hour

I can watch upto 5 hours of tv a day, meaning just by that I can do upto 45k just from watching tv

I bet those that accuse those that do 50k regularly are cheats are sat down whilst watching tv

[bluebadgergirl]

I set alarms on my fitbit reminding me to leave my desk and walk around the office every hour. It's helped with my step count as well as my focus. 

[MCarr]

It's a wonderful reminder to keep moving.  Good for you.

[burygardener]

I get my steps in by Walking up stairs don't use the lift, plenty of gardening you do a lot of walking when you mow the lawn and walking when you are on the telephone .  Having the fitbit leads to a change of mindset now more likely to walk rather than drive to the shops.

[Sithmaith1]

I visited my sister over the week end, we went geocaching which was fun, however, I crashed on Tues-Thurs and couldn't move so much.  Now making an effort to move again

[SunsetRunner]

Well, extra steps in for sure will be added if you brush your teeth too intense 😉 I didn't realise that at first until one of 250+ goals kicked in during this activity.

But if we talking about real steps, sometimes I use a treadmill but daily I never go below 15000 without doing anything extra but lunch time 5-6km jog-walk. Anyway, I started to ignore steps as a measure of anything and pushed burnt calories to the front of the display of my Charge 2, making it the main goal. I find it to be a better measure of being active than steps.

Nevertheless, my wife likes to make sure she reaches her steps goal and on her days off ( she works in the hospital, so all she does there is steps-related ) she takes walks with me, like to the park nearby or sometimes just around the house. To get floors+steps she uses a staircase leading to our neighbours. Simple little things to do.

Sometimes we both take walking trails designed mostly for tourists ( there are plenty of them in London where we live ) to break a boredom ( one cannot walk forever around the house, that's just boring ). They are long, interesting ( despite living here for many years still there are many things we haven't seen yet ) and for sure add lots of steps 🙂

[Persianlady]

Hello:

I use every opportunity to step more!! for example I park my car really far wherever I go so I have to walk, I also take the longest way to the store if I am in a mall!! I stand at my lap top and move a lot!! I walk when I am on the phone! I play happy music while I am cooking so It makes me dance around my kitchen. Beside my daily work out I almost don't sit down till after dinner, no matter what I am doing!! Love to make a group of people so we can push each other to move more!! Always remember you rest, you rust!!!!!

[randombitsofme]

I walk my pup.....walk on my breaks....and Sweating to the oldies, lol

[MCarr]

Good for you.  Keep it up.  Moving is good anyway we do it.

[randombitsofme]

Haha, Yes! I went and spoke to my site director and told them I have to move....so she said it's fine for me to get up and walk in place! Yup....I'm doing this!

[jamk]

I purposely will go down stairs to another area  and for get to bring something upstairs Sometimes I will go out to the shed where my husband tinkers & to the flower pot shed several times to carry things up I could bring it all up at once,but I make several trips. I park far away from the grocery store. There are many ways to get in more steps it becomes sort of a game !!