7 Great Tips To Increase Your Walking

As I took some random step while walking last month, I achieved another of my resolutions, or goals if you prefer, for this year.

It was no easy one to achieve and something that only a very few people would do. I am not writing that I am some type of prolific walker, just that most people, or at least most Americans, do not take six freakin’ million steps in a year.

Most people who I work with, and nearly every relative and friend, know about my obsession with steps. I had been an avid walker throughout the 2010s, but it really kicked into high gear last November when I turned the Big Five-Oh and my younger siblings chipped in to buy me a Fitbit.

I’ll skip the long story, but I dropped about ten pounds during the intense amount of stress that I worked through in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, and I have resolved to keep those pounds off.

I actually spent late May through November hovering around 185 pounds, achieving another one of my resolutions for the year. But too much cream in my coffee and fewer 25,000-step days have led to my return to around 190 pounds.

Whatever the case may be, I likely walk more than just about anyone you know, and many people are impressed when I tell them that I average nearly eight miles per day, all while holding down an intense full-time job in economic development and spending a heck of a lot of time striving to be the best family man in town.

More than one person has asked me how I find the time, energy, and motivation to walk come rain, snow, or shine, and the answer basically lies in the question. I dig deep and remind myself of the goal every single day, I make the time in a variety of ways whenever I find some “spare time,” and I often lack the energy to start, but walking a lot seems to give me more energy. It definitely clears my head.

I am not suggesting that you, too, resolve to take six million steps next year. I am thinking of reducing that to four or perhaps five million. After all, there are other things that I could and should do besides spending hours walking every day.

Without further ado, here are seven ways that helped me attain what I hope is at least a little bit impressive to you, since I have skipped doing dozens of other things, mostly revolving around making more money, in my quest to achieve six million steps this year.

#1. I Walk For My Entire Lunch Hour

Skipping straight to the middle of my typical workday, I take my entire allotted hour for lunch and hit the city streets with my walking shoes within the first minute. This is one of those things that gets me called nuts by colleagues frequently because I do this whether there is a blizzard and the temperature is below zero or if the temperature exceeds one hundred with ninety percent humidity.

I have two responses to those who question my sanity, which I do not find all that unreasonable.

My response for a few years was to explain that if I wait for great weather, for example between forty and eighty degrees without any rain, that would exclude about half of the year in the Chicago area. So I remind them that I am striving for five million steps, which requires walking daily for me.

Lately, I just smile and agree. “Yeah, I’m a little nuts.”

But minutes later, I’m blocks away from city hall, contemplating non-work items, and reminding myself that I am keeping in shape while most of them are consuming fast food or microwaved lunches.

Which reminds me, in a money-saving thing, I pack my lunch most days except for Fridays and eat at my desk before my walk, so it is not like I am forgoing eating.

My lunch hour walks range between two and a half to three miles. I do not always walk for the entire hour.

#2. I Walk My Baby A Lot

The term “Man’s Best Friend” could not be more true when it comes to how I feel about my sweet little Morkie.

Unlike me, she is not so great at taking long walks when it is extremely hot or snowing. She’s more of a fair-weather walker.

Despite her desire to sniff every single thing and her tendency to only want to walk to a neighbor’s house who has more than the allotted number of dogs allowed and a bin full of treats, I take her for walks as much as I can, often several miles per day.

With the weather cooler this fall, I have gone on some fairly long walks with her and my wife to check out the Halloween decorations on a fairly busy street about a mile and a half from our house.

#3. I Always Take the Stairs

If I am going to a meeting on a high floor in a mid- or high-rise, I will take an elevator.

Otherwise, I always take the stairs at our City Hall and always take the stairs when I stay at a hotel, visit a medical provider, or a developer or business owner with an office on the tenth floor or below.

I realize that not everybody is cool with taking multiple flights of stairs, but if you work, live, or shop somewhere where there are a few floors to traverse, I suggest that you use the stairs if at all possible.

Fitbit tracks the number of flights that you traverse every day, so it is a bit of added motivation for me to increase that number.

#4. I Park Far Out

I am a frequent shopper, most often going grocery shopping (which I usually walk to) and to home improvement stores. I have resumed going to restaurants with my family.

Rather than finding the closest possible parking space, as I did for my first thirty or so years of driving, I now seek out a space far away from the glut of vehicles.

It not only makes it much easier for me to pull in and out of the parking space, but it increases the number of steps by a hundred or more each way.

#5. I Replace My Commute

I basically only have three, or perhaps four, friends.

Two work in jobs that require a lot of interaction, one works in a job that requires periodic interaction, and one works in Information Technology, which requires none.

My friend who works in IT for Blue Cross has yet to return to his office since mid-March of 2020. He also happens to be a guy who walks a lot.

Personally, I returned to the office in June 2020, but work from home most Wednesdays.

Although I sometimes sleep so poorly that I lie in bed until minutes before my work time, I try to go for a short walk during the twenty to thirty minutes when I would normally be driving to work.

By the time five o’clock rolls around, I typically sign out a few minutes before I would normally be leaving my office and go for about a mile-and-a-half to two-mile walk instead.

This is one of my favorite ways to get “extra” steps — to be going for walks while I would otherwise be driving through suburban traffic.

#6. Sometimes I Walk in Place

It rained all day this past Sunday.

Even though I did go out for two short walks, one with my Morkie and one without her, I found myself well short of 10,000 steps early in the evening.

I typically strive to hit the 10,000 mark before I get home from work in the five o’clock hour.

It was rainy and cold and I felt extremely lethargic. I would have much rather sat on the couch and vegged out in front of the tube, but I walked in place for about an hour instead of doing that.

It looks a little silly, but my wife encouraged it and our daughter knows what I am doing. So even though I humble-brag about walking in a blizzard or extreme heat and humidity conditions, I opted for walking in place for about an hour, going from about 7,000 steps to a more respectable 11,000 or so.

My wife sat on the couch in front of me while we watched Saturday Night Live skits individually on YouTube.

#7. Opportunities Are Everywhere!

My brother seems to sniff out money-making opportunities no matter where he goes or what he does.

Goes weight lifting? Some guy at the gym offers him the opportunity to invest in a tech startup. Buys a new car? Some other guy offers him more than he paid it for.

While I am not so good at taking advantage of the money-making opportunities that come my way, I am the best at sussing out ways to get in more steps.

My wife even frequently gets in on this by asking if I am interested in getting some extra steps in. This usually means that she wants me to take out the garbage or carry some item from point A to point B.

Keen to get the extra steps, I typically gladly agree to do the little chore most of the time.

I also used to drive the one mile to a local small grocery store that we frequent, but have not done so for the past two years. Now I only buy as much as I can carry in my hands and backpack and walk there four out of five times and bike there the other one out of five.

I do some longer walks, like to the post office and library, but since both are two-plus miles from home, sometimes I do a hybrid of biking and walking there.

So if you knew me personally, you would most definitely hear about my prolific walking from time to time. I would show you my Fitbit (since I cannot see the numbers without my reading glasses) and tell you about whatever walks I had done that day.

You might call me nuts for having walked my dog a mile before work, another three-mile walk during lunch, another dog walk for a mile-plus after work, and then another two- to three-mile walk on my own later on. Plus up and down the stairs fifty times at work and at home.

And you know what?

You just may be right!