Working from home and getting to 10k steps

[AuroraKat]

I have a very difficult time getting to 10k steps. Actually, right now my goal is set to 5k steps and that's challenging enough. 

I work from home in an apartment. I get up and move every hour, but there's just so much walking I can get done pacing around the living room. Some of the suggestions offered, like parking further away, getting off the bus/subway a few stops earlier, etc., are great for commuters, but not so much for those of us who work at home. I plan to start walking up and down the stairs in the building throughout the day once I get the go ahead from my physical therapist (I have a knee injury), which should help. 

For now, I try to get out of the house and walk around the block when I can. My neighborhood is very hilly, which makes it a more challenging walk. Otherwise, I exercise 6 days a week enaging in apartment-friendly non-step-based workouts - kettlebells, strength training and martial arts.

Does anyone else work from home? How do yo u get to 10k steps on workdays? 

[A_Lurker]

@AuroraKat - I don't work from home, but I have done so in the past.  I live in a house, but you could probably do what I do to a smaller amount.  Assuming this isn't a tiny studio apartment...

Walk from the front door, down any hallways, into and out of the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, outside the apartment into the hallway of your building.  The plus side is that if it's during the days most of your neighbours won't think you're nuts.

Do this every hour (make yourself move from your desk) if you can.  Once you figure out how many steps a circuit is you can break it up during the day.

[GershonSurge · Accepted solution]

Everyone gets to 10,000 steps differently. I'll offer some suggestions you can modify for your situation.

The first suggestion is if you feel pain in your knee, accept that you can't do 10,000 steps until it heals completely.

The next thing is to see how many steps you naturally get during the course of the day. Let's say it's 3,000. that means you only need to gradually work up to get 7,000 more steps a day. At a leisurely 100 steps/minute, that's only 70 minutes of real walking. How you get that depends on your situation. It might take the form of a 20 minute walk after two hours of steady work or 10 minute walk each time the minute hand hits :50 or some other number. You will find your efficiency increases.

Another option is to buy a treadmill. This may not work if you live above another apartment or if the wall are not reasonably soundproof. Usually, treadmills are available on Craig's list or in a thrift ship for under $100. Getting steps on a treadmill will likely be quicker than walking around the apartment.

I've been working at home for sixteen years. In my experience, four hours of actual work in six hours of the day produces the best results. Using this formula, I published 24 books on Amazon in one year and often rank in the top 1% of eBook authors. 

Best of luck to you,

Gershon

[betpchem]

@AuroraKat, I echo @GershonSurge. You have to make an effort to go out and get those steps somehow. Walk around your house inside or outside. Go to the local mall and walk there. I jog in front of the TV. I also suggest the Wii Fit. It's kind of old and out of fashion now, but I find it very motivating and you can do it at home. I get about 5000 steps in a half hour of jogging in place. Also, you might think about a treadmill desk. That way you can exercise while you work.

[Dominique]

True, you don’t get the same opportunities to get more steps as someone who commutes (but let’s face it, parking far away from the entrance will only get you so many steps). OTOH, you have much more time available (as someone working from home) than someone who has to commute. Let’s take someone who works 8 hours a day, but needs to spend 45 minutes (not unrealistic, if you live near a big city) commuting each way. Let’s take you, who also works 8 hours, but dooes not have to commute: you have 1.5 hours more time than the commuter every weekday. If you can use that time walking, you will definitely get your 10k steps. I know, because I also work from home and I dedicate time everyday for the purpose of walking (and sometimes running too). 

[bcalvanese]

I live in an apartment, and  on days that I work from home I take laps around the apartment complex throughout the day. Each lap is about a third of a mile. During my lunch Hour I do a 3 mile power walk.

[CJinAZ]

On the days I work from home, I get up early and take the dogs for an hour walk before I start work.  I have a keyboard set up for my treadmill, with a computer attached to the TV in the exercise room.  I have to set the treadmill at a slower pace, but I can walk and work at the same time.  When it's not too hot outside, I take a quick walk at lunch time, and I walk the dogs again in the evening for an hour.  Where there's a will, there's a way!  🙂  Best of luck with the knee injury. 

[winterdawn]

I work from home as well. On days I can not get out to walk I march or step inplace while i watch  tv show. In hour tv show i have gotten as many as 5000 steps. Depending on your pace. Good Luck!

[AuroraKat]

Thank you for your suggestions and input, everyone!

@A_Lurker That is pretty much what I do right now. I have a "route" that I take around my apartment. It has the least amount of obsticles. I am afraid I may wear out the carpet in a nice neat path eventually! 

@GershonSurge You are probably right about accepting that I can't get to 10k steps just yet. I am not able to do many things that would help me get there - jog/run, walk up stairs and even march in place. Right now I get about 5k steps a day on workdays. My physical therapy exercises take up an hour each day (not to mention my regular workouts). Unfortunately, they are not step-based, so don't count towards that goal.

I would love to get a treadmill, but that's not an option while we are in an apartment. The lovely retired couple that lives below us will not understand. As it is, I feel super guilty walking so much throughout the day. 

@betpchem I actually have Wii Fit and love it! I used the jogging game quite a bit until my knee injury. It's definitely motivating. And, yes, a treadmill desk would be lovely, but not while living in an apartment, unfortunately. 

@Dominique I do have more time available at home, but it's not free time. Because I don't commute, all housework and family meals are my responsibility. So, while my husband spends time before and after work commuting, I spend that same time doing housework and cooking. I've done the same job at an office and now at home. Interestingly, I had many more opportunities to move and be active when I worked out of the house during working hours ("walk and talk" meetings, meeting clients for lunch, onsite gym, etc.). Working from home has many benefits, but, at least in my case, extra free time for step-based activity is not one of them. I am sure this is different for everyone and depends heavily on the job and family-related arrangements. 

@bcalvanese Yep, I do laps around the block as well! They definitely help get closer to the goal 🙂

@CJinAZ It's official, I'm definitely getting a treadmill once we are out of the apartment!

@winterdawn Marching in place while watching a show is a great idea. I'll use that once my physical therapist approves! 

[GershonSurge]

@AuroraKat,

Thanks for selecting my post as a solution, but we can't stop at the point of being unable to get the steps without developing an alternative. This must be done because in general, the body is an impartial judge of what we do to it. Unfortunately, this judge takes a long time to make a decision, and it only comes slowly. Each year, we put on a few pounds. Each year, we become a little less able to do every day tasks. Each year, we feel a little more fatigued. Each year, unhealthy conditions progress. After 20 or 30 years, many people are overweight, sick and tired. Many accept this as the price of growing old. It's not. It is the price of not fighting the constant battle for health in a way that the fight doesn't dominate our life as there are also other battles to be fought and won.

A couple years ago, I read something in a book written in the early 1900's. Unfortunately, I don't recall which book. The author was relating a conversation he had while he and another man were watching schoolboys play sports at Eton. Duke Wellington supposedly said, "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." One of the men said, "The best exercise is housework." It was a one-liner that stuck with me. I'll expand it to activity that resembles housework. (It's more likely that the battle was lost at Napoleon's dinner table because he was said to be suffering from a severe case of constipation during the battle of Waterloo.)

Some of us have changed the step battle into a calorie battle. Doing this will greatly increase your opportunities for exercise and health. Instead of striving to walk 10,000 steps each day, I suggest striving to burn 1,000 calories more than your basal metabolic rate (calculator here) each day. You won't get there in one day, but make a plan to attain this goal in a month. Look at your profile, and there should be a chart showing your average for the last 30 days. If you haven't been using a Fitbit this long, then estimate the average. Set a goal to burn 30 more calories each day for a month. 

Just for two hours, if you are willing, I'd like you to try something. Instead of working straight through, take a 10 minute break after 20 minutes of steady work. A manual egg timer works best. Use this break to accomplish some little housework task. Set a timer for each period.

Make a little tracking sheet for yourself. W, H, W, H, W, H, W, H. Put a slash through each letter as you alternate work and housework. The tracking sheet is important as there is something called the Hawthorne Effect that says anything that is tracked will improve. 

See if the number of calories you burn on the day you try this increases over the average for previous days. You will likely get more work done once you adjust to the idea you will be taking a break after 20 minutes of work.

[A_Lurker]

Like @GershonSurge I tend to look at calories burned each day instead of steps.  My goal, as I continue to lose weight, is to keep it at the same level (3500+).  It forces me to push for either higher steps and.or higher intensity exercise.  When I was heavier this goal was easy, and I had no problems reaching it without even hitting 10,000 steps.  Now, that step level only works if I'm really active reaching it.  Most days now I have to go at least a couple of thousand steps further.

[AuroraKat]

@GershonSurge

I picked your advice as the "solution" because it made sense for my particular case - working from home with an injured knee. I am in a situation which makes step-based activites difficult. Aside from being at home most of the time, my knee doesn't allow me to - use steps, run, jog, march in place, lunge, squat or walk at speeds faster than ~3mph (I'm sure there's more, but that's off the top of my head). 

I am sure your follow-up will be useful to many, and I agree with the sentiment. In my particular case, even though I am new to Fitbit, I'm not new to fitness. I bought Fitbit because I wanted to track my workouts (at least some of them) and in anticipation of starting to run again (I was a runner before I injured my knee). I have no problem keeping active in general, as I mentioned in my original post, it's the step-based activities which are lacking at this point in my life. 

Here's my weekly workout schedule:

Strength Training - 4 times a week (upper body, lower body, core x2)

Kettlebells - 2 times a week (ballistic and grinds)

MMA - 2 formal sessions a week (impact and general), many shorter practice sessions throughout the week

Pilates - one class a week, I alternate between mat and reformer classes

Physical Therapy - 1 hour every day - mostly targetted strength training for smaller muscles, isometrics

Burning calories is not an issue for me. Getting 10k steps is. None of the above provide many steps. In fact, I don't even wear Fitbit for Kettlebells and impact MMA because it will shatter. 

As for housework, considering that I am the one responsible for housekeeping chores and cooking family meals, I certainly don't need to go out of my way to find things to do. Would be nice if I had less of it, actually, so I can do activites that I actually enjoy 😄

[Dominique]

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@AuroraKat wrote:

Burning calories is not an issue for me. Getting 10k steps is. 

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If steps are really the issue, I’m afraid the only way to solve it is to dedicate at least one hour to a step-based activity like walking or running. That time can be taken either from your other activities (it’s just a question of prioritising) or from other things (can be challenging since you appear to have a busy life).

Without knowing more about your physical therapy, that’s what I would tap in from first: since you are already strength training 4 times a week, do your smaller muscles  really need your attention one hour every day on top of that? Or couldn’t you fit work on them in your strength training sessions?

If you prefer to take the time outside of your existing exercising schedule, I’ll reveal a "secret" of mine: I stopped watching TV a couple of years ago. Not that I spent that much time in front of it before that, but it’s done wonders to have enough time for walking/running. Nothing wrong in watching TV per se, but I felt it wasn’t the best way to enhance my health, fitness and well-being.

[scubatim84]

Tough for your situation but I work from home myself and the way I get 10k steps in (sometimes not always) is when I decide to take a break from work during the day I just go for a walk. I don't have a 10k step/day goal right now either though, I revised mine down to 8k, simply because that's more realistic for me right now and I think as long as we work up to 10k steps/day it won't matter in the end.

[A_Lurker]

@AuroraKat - looking at your other activities I'm not sure that 10,000 steps is a goal that you need at the moment.  I think the 10,000 step goal is used to try and make sedetary people, well, less sedentary.  However, I do recognize that some people feel a need to hit goals each day.  So, as long as you're doing the other items and your knee isn't fully healed I would set it lower to something that pushes you a little bit.  As you heal you can increase it.

[AuroraKat]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I'll definitely put some of them into action once my knee gets better. And, I so look forward to a treadmill desk once we get a house!

@A_Lurker Before I got Fitbit I didn't really worry about steps. I knew I wasn't getting 10k on workdays, but I was OK with that because I was active in other ways. But, it's something about constantly being reminded of my stepcount, or lack thereof, that makes me want to get to 10k as often as possible. Right now, I have my goal set at 5k and it seems just about right for now. I am going to try and reduce the number of video conferences throughout the day. When I talk on the phone, I walk around the house, but I can't really do that when I am on video (or at least I shouldn't!). That may bump my steps to 6k, if I can swing it. 

[Meekyn]

Four hours of actual work in a six hour day is great if you work for yourself, but the standard work day is eight hours to start with, not six. If you work at home * for someone else * you are expected to put in the full eight hours you're on the clock. A lot of people who work from home are telecommuters, meaning they don't set their own schedule or tasks: they are expected to log on at the same time every day and be available to coworkers and supervisors during their scheduled hours. There are ways to get the steps in, but "borrowing" two hours during the work day isn't really an option for most work-from-home folks. For most of us, it means purposely using our breaks to get some steps in, and getting most of our steps in before the work day starts or after it's done.

[Meekyn]

You're right about more opportunities in the office! Every year my company does a wellness challenge, and the folks who work out of the main office have fun little comments like, 'My team does step challenges during the day to get steps in' or 'We always select the conference room farthest from us and take the stairs!' and I'm at home thinking, 'Yeah, I.... walk 20 steps to the mailbox at lunch...."  😉

[cath4319]

There is not much I can add other than you have to do anything you can think of to get those steps in and this is one I have not seen yet. I put on a Rock & Roll CD, ( I'm of the era),  and dance away can get 3,000 steps in about 25 minutes if I move enough.

[app103]

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@AuroraKat wrote:

I work from home in an apartment. I get up and move every hour, but there's just so much walking I can get done pacing around the living room. Some of the suggestions offered, like parking further away, getting off the bus/subway a few stops earlier, etc., are great for commuters, but not so much for those of us who work at home.

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First of all, everyone that works, commutes, including people that work from home.

For a normal person that might mean leaving the house, getting in their car and driving to work, then getting out and walking into the building where they work, or it might involve walking to a bus stop and taking a bus, or something similar.

For me, my morning commute involves walking from my bedroom to my desk. It is a very short commute and I never have to leave my house, but to me it is still a commute.

Here's why that is important...

Because you work from home, your commute doesn't give you a reason to leave your house. The longer you work from home, the less likely you will be to find reasons to leave home, reasons to be around other people. This is bad for your health and bad for you socially, and gives you a poor work/life balance.

It's one of the most common pitfalls of working from home. And it's the primary reason why you are having difficulty with getting your steps in each day.

You need to make reasons to get out of the house.

Start looking at the average person that doesn't work from home and seeing what their work/life routine really is...

They get up and get dressed.  (If you are not getting dressed every morning, start doing that. Stop working in your pajamas. Because if you are not getting dressed each day, you are giving yourself a reason not to leave the house.)

They leave their house and go somewhere, with a purpose, aka work. (You need a morning purpose to leave the house, too. Perhaps walk to a store and buy a newspaper each day.)

In the middle of the day, they leave work to have lunch. (You need to leave work and have lunch, too. Weather permitting, maybe leave your house and go to a park, take a lunch with you and eat it there)

When they leave work for the day, they commute home, perhaps picking something up from the store to make for dinner. (Stop stocking your home to the max with everything. Leave your house at the end of your work day and go buy some fresh food; fruits, veggies, meats, etc. Do not buy more than you need for that day. Don't keep your freezer full of meats)

On weekends, they spend time out, with their friends. (you need to make a point of getting out and socializing with people at least once per week, even if it means joining a hobby club of some sort or even better, a fitness class of some type)

Do this for awhile and see if it makes it easier to get those steps in. Bonus will be that you will get more fresh air, see different surroundings, and even be around other people, which is really important for your mental health, especially if you are going to be working from home, long term.

Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for a case of clinical depression, or you are going to end up feeling so isolated that you will start talking to yourself, out loud, all the time, even when you are out in public, around other people.

If you are still having trouble getting your steps in, think about getting a small dog. Dogs give people a reason to leave the house and walk around. They have to be walked every day, multiple times per day, otherwise they will make a mess on the floor. Plus, pets are one of the greatest things about working from home. People that work on location rarely ever have the privilege of being visited throughout their day, and given love, by a cuddly ball of fur. And talking to a dog will help keep you sane, preventing you from talking to yourself too much. 🙂