Zhoo Zhoo’s blog
Aged 50 and walking to health
ZhooZhoo works for the NHS as a healthcare scientist, running a specialist diagnostic service. She is an active blogger on the site and is the Administrator of an Activ8rlives group called Flash in the Pan. Blogging is a way in which ZhooZhoo practises mindfulness in being active, eating well and staying healthy.
Week 1:
So here’s a thing, this wonderful system has me hooked! I’ve just completed a week’s baseline monitoring with the Buddy step counter. It turns out that I’m pretty active at work and I’ve been clocking up over 4,000 on my busiest days when I don’t have any of my team in to help. When the team’s in, I spend more time sitting, writing up patient reports.
In five working days I clocked up 8.4 miles just going to work and doing my job! That probably doesn’t seem a lot to the regular walkers in the group but it was my first surprise as it means that I’d need to do slightly double my steps to get to 10,000. When I look at my actual activity, despite what feels like being on the go all day, my activity runs about 30 minutes. So I’m guessing that if I go for an extra walk for about 30-45 minutes, I’m going to get to 10,000 steps. If that sounds right, it doesn’t seem too onerous.
The weekends are another matter…. a Saturday spent getting up a bit later, visiting my parents for lunch and sitting chatting to distant cousins for five hours, then coming home, cooking dinner and crashing in front of the TV clocked up only 500 steps. Not only that, the day was packed with less healthy food and drink choices. It’s no wonder I felt sluggish by the afternoon!
So on Sunday, I was determined not to have another 500 day and dragged hubby out in the rain for a stroll. It gave me some excellent photo opportunities to add to my Instagram gallery and I clocked up almost as many steps as I do at work.
I’ve been considering where I can fit in the extra walking. I’ve started parking the car so I have further to walk and choosing to lunch in the restaurant that takes longer to walk to. It makes a difference of around 1,000 steps, so my next plan is to take a circuit of the place I work during my lunch break and see how that works out.
This post is turning into a bit of a blog, and I have so much more to say about the food diary but I’ll stop here for now and hope you all enjoy my pictures from my walk.
Week 2:
Hi Activ8rlives, my new mantra: “SHOPPING IS GOOD”