How do you find time to get in 10k steps a day? (Plus a general question about time management.)

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bham

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I notice both here and in other subs folks mention that they log 10K+ steps a day on top of regular workouts.

How do you squeeze all those steps in time-wise? I live in a walkable metro area, and even on a busy bustling day (i.e. if I force myself to get to a co-working space instead of working from home and then throw in a few errands) I’ll only hit a max of 5,000-7,000 steps.

Schedule-wise, I’m struggling enough as is to get to the gym 3x a week. I am committed to putting in the effort to lose weight (And, as someone who never used to work out, I’m discovering how good it feels!). But I also have a social life, hobbies, volunteering, daily life maintenance (cooking, laundromat, doctors’ appointments etc.).

Time management has always been a challenge for me, so any advice is greatly appreciated!

TLDR - How do you find the time to walk/effectively exercise for weight loss without basically giving up on all the other parts of your life?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for all these amazing tips! I love the idea of breaking steps up into smaller, doable portions.
 
@bham Think smaller.

Back when I used to do 15k+ a day, it was a lot of little things. I got 2 15 min breaks and an hour lunch, so I'd walk both of my breaks and half my lunch. I would add 20 minutes of walking on the treadmill to every workout, I walked my dog a lot. Any chance I got, I was taking a couple of steps. Get up once an hour and make a short lap around my desk, or a quick trip to the kitchen for water, or I would pace a bit while making dinner and definitely while talking on the phone. I have adhd and I'm a fidgety person, so this actually comes pretty naturally to me, but you may have to set yourself extra reminders in some way.

It's all about minimizing the length of time you spend sitting in one go. Even if you're fit and go to the gym for 2+ hours every day, your risk of things like cardiovascular disease goes up if you're sedentary the rest of the day.

Also, don't be afraid to work up to it. Make a goal to hit 100 more steps each day or something like that, and find a way to squeeze a couple more in. Going from 5000 to 5100 seems like a much more manageable task than going from 6000 to 10000.
 
@bham I don’t work from home most of the days. Walking to and from the station and walking around at work gets me up to 8000-12000 steps.

When I WFH I walk to the gym (=5000) and go for another walk after work to do some errands. And I go for a run 2 times a week.

I don’t have a car and use my bike rarely. I just walk to almost everything: the drugstore, my appointment with the physiotherapist, my coffeedate, my language course etc.
 
@bham If I work from home, I too miss the "walking to work"-steps, which are only 3000 in my case. Walking 10000 steps will take my all in all an hour and a half. I generally don't have the time theoughout the week to walk that long.

I love to run, so with running, it only takes me an hour. If I work from, I close the laptop around 16:45 (because if no disruptions I'm done earlier) and run an hour. Once I'm back, quick shower and then cooking. Or I cook early, make sure I eat between 18h and 19h, and run around 20h-21h when it's dark. Just gotta find a safe path. I know a lot of people that run before work, but that's not really my thing.
 
@bham Not all the time, but some days even on workdays, one of my "hobbies" is to go on a walk before sunset to destress, listen to music or a podcast, maybe play Pokemon Go. That with increased steps at the office, which I consider more "passive" walking and less intentional, helps get to 10k.

For integrating more steps in your daily activities or at the office, pace around when you wait for things, walk an extra lap around the kitchen counter, take the long route on the way back from bathroom break. For social events, it's always easiest if you can convince your friends to walk with you while you talk after dinner or an event. I like to pick a cool part of town with shops to walk around with people. For activity ideas, hiking or bouldering are popular with friends and groups.

The short answer is I don't try to get 10k steps a day every day though, because I already have a workout and too packed of a schedule... trying to fit more would overwhelm me.
 
@bham I really feel this, I’m struggling to get steps in. I have a 9-5 desk job and a long commute. I’m not in a metro area so my long commute is me driving, I can’t walk or take public transportation. I used to walk outside more in the summer, but now that it’s winter where I live it’s already dark out (and freezing, literally!) when I get home from work. When I get home I only have about 3 hours before I have to go to bed and I also have to eat dinner, shower, and do whatever chores/meal prep in that time… so I end up with not much free time for myself. My new year’s resolution is to incorporate some short workouts after work, like 30 mins or less, so I can also have a little free time to myself to read or do other hobbies before bed. I think you should just do as much as you can without completely giving up your other hobbies & social life. Something that really helps me with time management is having a planner and also having a routine every day. At least having some parts of the day have a routine (like a getting ready for work routine or a bed time routine) helps with time management because as you get used to the routine, you can move through it more quickly & efficiently each day.
 
@3rdday Right? Walking can be a challenge if it doesn’t happen naturally. I hope the 30 minute workouts give you some free time!
 
@bham I live in a city and walk everywhere. If you go for a short walk or two during the day it really adds up.

As far as time management, make working out an appointment and treat it like one. Do it instead of making excuses. If you do a lot of things after work that you find interfere with exercising or are more of a priority than working out then work out in the morning or during lunch.
 
@dawn16 I also live in a city and I’m amazed at how many steps I clock in daily. Walking to/from work, running errands, even running to catch public transit. Compare that to staying at my dads in a small town over the holidays where you have to drive everywhere- I barely registered 3000 per day!
 
@tlwilnos I definitely have to walk for errands too. My problem when I work from home is getting sooooo sucked into my work that I don’t leave my chair!
 
@bham Forcing yourself to get up from working to go get water or just walk to the break room can add up a lot. I also walk around the building at work for 20 mins during lunch or for a random break and that adds a lot of steps surprisingly
 
@bham I wake up at 0530 because I realised I was too pooped to do anything after work. Being awake longer = more likely to get steps in

I drink a tonne of water whether wfh or in office- this means I have to get up all the time to pee. Actually helps with my steps!
 
@truthnottradition7 I have a walking pad and it’s fantastic! I walk on it during the work day at about .5 or 1mph, and then bring it out from under my desk to the living room in front of the tv in the evenings to get more steps while I watch tv at 3mph. Been getting 12-15k steps, it’s great!
 
@bham It’s very much been about the little ways to add in more steps for me! I’m a teacher. On weekdays/at school I park as far away as humanly possible. When I’m checking my email in first thing in the morning I do it on my phone and pace around my classroom. I print things at the farthest away printer. During my two shorter breaks that are kind of “dead time” (I.e., 10 minutes, so rarely enough time to do much in the way of planning or paperwork) I walk laps around the classroom. I also usually walk on my lunch break.

I do the things like parking really far away at stores when I can, and sometimes I’ll make an extra lap around the perimeter of the grocery store before I leave. It gets me more steps and helps me make sure I haven’t forgotten anything !

At home, I do things like walk around the house when on a phone call, while I wait for coffee to brew, etc. I have two dogs and a toddler that help keep me moving too. Because it’s harder to get more steps in at home, I sometimes do what I call mini power walks- I’ll set a timer on my phone for 5 or 10 minutes and power walk HARD in place. I can usually get around 600 steps per 5 minutes. Doing that here and there through the day when I have a little time helps get me there.

I also changed to a weekly step goal (70k a week) rather than daily. That way I don’t get too hung up on individual daily numbers if I have a busy day and just can’t make 10k happen then.
 
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