Stepping Ancestors

I commented a couple of weeks ago about the Global Corporate Challenge that my office is participating in. (Read below for more detail.) A number of the team members have been discussing the "awareness" they now have about how many steps they are taking each day. They are chatting over the water cooler or on email about how far they are parking from the airport terminal or the office or supermarket to increase their daily step count. I believe this "shift" in awareness is essential to achieving the goal of 10,000 steps a day (and more!) We've become accustomed to driving everywhere. We get frustrated if we don't get the parking spot right in front of the video store, we jockey for position in front of the school so that our kids walk less than 25 steps to the front door. Heck, we even try to get the closest spot in front of the gym where we go to work out! Take this challenge for the next 21 days: Wherever you go - park as far from the entrance as you can, give your kids the opportunity for a brisk walk by dropping them at the corner of the block, walk to the mailbox, do a lap around your office building before going in. Below is a copy of the "Health Tip of the Week" from Shane Bilsborough at Global Corporate Challenge. Shane has some surprising revelations and statistics about just how many steps we've lost over the centuries:

"For many of us, the seated nature of our jobs has the potential to slowly decrease our daily energy expenditure. In fact, this rapid decline in activity has ensured the average office person now takes about 3,500 walking steps a day. We know that estimates of hunter-gatherer walking steps were around 30,000, while some like the current day hunter-gatherers, the Masai, are in the vicinity of 50,000 - 60,000. Records of activity levels during the 15th century show 15km (9mi) or 23,500 daily walking steps and they remained very high until the 1950's. The level of chronic disease facing today's Western society was virtually absent until the 1900's then tracking upward in direct relation to declining physical activity. So, while the vast majority of us will never be able to sustain 30,000 walking steps per day, we can maintain 10,000 and the occasional 15-20,000 to dramatically offset many chronic diseases, make us feel better, and help live healthy, happy lives."
Shane Bilsborough MSc (Human Nutrition) Global Corporate Challenge 2009 Newsletter