Coming of age as I did in the Marine Corps, my idea of exercise has always been synonymous with misery. “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”
Among my failed attempts to lose weight since I moved to Washington, DC in the Spring of 2018, I decided to bike to work at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA from Hyattsville, MD. It took one to two hours each way. And when I finally got home to my toddler, I was exhausted and often in pain. The heat was overwhelming in the summer. I did lose some weight, but in the end it came back and I resorted to baggy sweaters and dark colored pants to try to cover the excess me that I didn’t want the world to see.
There’s a Noom quiz about whether running or walking is a more effective weight loss option and the trick answer is, it doesn’t matter. No one could have convinced me of this until I saw it for myself. Not only does torture not help, the Marine Corps’ mandatory 3 miles per day is NOT ENOUGH!!!
I haven’t broken a sweat working out for pretty much all of 2019. Now my “workouts” are strolls. When the weather is lovely, I walk outside my office or home. When the weather is too hot or cold, I walk inside the huge government buildings I work in or on the weekends go to a mall.
Using my wearable, I track the steps. I’ve discovered that I’m actually more successful if I do more short walks than if I commit to a 30- or 40-minute walk. A 10- to 15-minute walk once per hour is actually better since I’m too busy to spend a lot of time on a long walk. Additionally, working constantly on the computer as I do, a break every hour is a nice distraction from a screen-weary mind and screen-bleary eyes.
I actually achieved one mile running in circles in my daughter’s ballet class because the teacher was late and the girls were bored, so when a few of them started running in circles, I joined in to encourage them.
I shoot for 12,000 steps every day. Today I’m at 16,500. But the number of steps isn’t dictated by my weight loss goals, it’s actually dictated by how many steps normally correspond with the highest quality heart rate dip and best deep sleep. After monitoring my activity for a while, I realized that anything less than 12,000 steps and my sleep quality suffers. So, as counter intuitive as all this is, the steps are for sleep quality and not for operating in a caloric deficit.
I’ve been working on adding strength training, but I’ve been adding it the same way I do my endurance, without breaking a sweat or feeling any pain or torture. I have 2 10-pound weights by my desk and 2 at home. They are well within my ability to lift and my hope is to do 5 sets of bicep curls, shoulder presses and tricep presses per day, one set at a time, separated by an hour or more. I also love STEALTH Plankster Core Trainer, but I also use it lightly. Every hour or so, just one minute of planking with the video game. It’s fun, easy and involves no sweat or torture, but I see great gains from light, but constant training as opposed to 30 minutes of hard, intense training that leaves me exhausted.
Another bonus: no crazy logistics of carrying all my fitness clothes and shower gear and adding a shower after I arrive at work on the bike or after 30 minutes in the gym. I love the no-exercise exercise. It has completely upended everything I ever thought about fitness.
I do sometimes jog, but it’s only because I’m short on time and need to get more steps in. It honestly makes no difference how fast or slow I do my 12,000 steps. The deep secret is just move. Slowly, constantly throughout the day and your body and sleep will thank you. You’re quality of life will radically improve and so will your blood work.
It’s literally as easy as a walk in the park.
35-Year Public Affairs & IT Professional 