Welcome to Nacho Fitness Coach. Two friends discuss all things fitness to bring knowledge and some opinion to you wherever you may be in your health journey. My friend Kaylee, the beginner, almost ran a 5k once. Recently had her first protein shake and is the proud owner of one set of five pound dumbbells. And my friend Sarah, the expert, runs when she lifts, has racewalk dozens of races including a full marathon and has 12 open protein tubs in the pantry. So let's get started.
Sarah, how many steps, how many steps do you have today? See now this has been like the thing lately. Well it probably started this summer. I started asking you in the summer. When you probably started your couch 5k. Do you think it was about then or before then? Yeah because I was like yeah I had like 2,000 steps today. I was trying to share that. How many was that? You had like you know 2,000 and 2,000 steps. Which for somebody in like... Where are you about yourself?
I mean I was just gonna say that's a common number for... I'm gonna stay at home mom and stay at home home school mom. Like right yeah if I'm not actively like working out, I'm not getting steps. Alright so the question stands. How many... so today is a Sunday? I don't know what you did today. It's evening end of the day. What'd you do? I can't find it's like only doing the... I got bored and ran a marathon. Neither the extra steps. I switched over to like calories.
This isn't just on your home like on your watch. It should be. This is actually like a very light day for me. So what's a light day for Sarah? 8,513. What'd you do today? What did you do? Where'd you get those? Did you go to a store? Did you... Well Elle and I went to the gym a little bit today. So we did some gym work. So we were you know filling towels and doing some errands around the gym. And then we went to the animal shelter to play with cats for just a little bit.
And then I've been here. So you know not a typical like busy body. Cause you usually when I ask you your step count you're up at like 12. Yeah I was just saying. 12 to 14,000 steps. Yeah for sure. And there was a few I think times over the summer it would get up to like 16 when you would ask. Okay. So where... what is your... What is my step count today? What are you at today? Today. 4,035. See that's not so bad. My daily goal I hit 5K every day. I hit 5,000 steps every day.
I didn't get on the treadmill this morning. Which is more than what you used to hit every day. So this is like low for me now. Yeah. Cause before... Yeah. I would say I'm averaging 8,000 a day. So you've moved the meter. 8,000, 9,000. Yeah. You're getting up there like a little bit that general activity. Right. So has that been harder since the weather is a little bit colder? Have you noticed that there's a difference or not so much since you've got your treadmill in your...
No. Yeah. Cause I have my treadmill home which I realize is a thing that like not everybody has but even like there are days where like I'll realize like, oh my step counts a little bit low. So I'll just like jump on the treadmill for not even like get on my out clothes or anything. Just... Just move. Go walk on the treadmill. A little bit of moving. But yeah. I mean it's interesting because that this wasn't a thing. I mean what even 10 years ago? Moving your steps.
You know, I feel like I had my first Fitbit. Like it was like a clip that would like you wore on the top of your jeans. Of course you did. In 2005. I was maybe eight, 2008. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever that first. I remember I was traveling for my corporate job at the time and it was one thing that would set off the metal detectors and like the air force security. So it was always the one thing that like I had to remember to take off.
So I was like reaching onto my and then it was I feel like I lost one at one point because it popped off and then you're worried about like... So you've been counting your steps for a long time. I have been. Yeah. And I blame that on my employer at the time because they started doing like all these health and wellness like challenges. You know, do you feel... Do you feel okay if you're not counting your steps? I'm wired to be probably just more of a general busy body type person anyways.
So where I'm okay now not counting my steps because I pretty much moving. Yeah. Even if you're not keeping track, you know how active you're being. Yeah. I stay home with the kids even if we're home for the day like, you know, we're in the basement then we're on the main floor and lots of stairs just like inside the house. Just running around chasing them like there's quite a bit of activity just having like little people.
And I had my corporate job and I would be at a computer for eight hours a day. Right. I mean, it was not uncommon for me to like leave the work day and have like 2,500 under 3,000 steps easily because you know, it's like by the time you just get ready, get in the car, you walk into the parking lot. I mean, that's probably even with leaving for lunch. Right. And so there was a lot of time where it was under 3,000.
And I remember like that was the first realization I think for me was I actually, they started talking about it back then. I mean, maybe maybe it was being talked about before. Right. I don't know, but you know, like mid to, you know, early 2000s or whenever it is. And so work kind of started having this push about general activity, right? It's the wearable technology started and that like started and went through a bunch of those and then they started being on your wrist.
You know, I had like a Garmin or something. Right. I didn't have to charge it at night, had this battery that was like crazy. So I was like, okay, starting just to pay attention. The days at the office, I'd have to come and walk like three miles to hit a goal of like 10,000 steps. Yeah. Because there was just no way. Right. Having an office job. That's a whole different. I mean, that's, for me, I think, and for you, that's a world we don't know. I don't think we can speak.
I don't remember those days very much. That was a long time ago. I did. I just thought about this. What's your other subject? Did you see just recently, there was a girl who walked? Let me pull it up here. Okay. We got some serious walking going on. There was a girl who walked a marathon. Done that during her eight hour workday. Oh, on the treadmill, on her stay, her work treadmill. So I did have a treadmill at once at my house like a, like a desk treadmill.
And my dad had built me a desk around it. You managed to complete a full 26.2 miles during her eight hour work day with just a couple blisters along the way. No big deal. 24 year old. I mean, she's still trucking it pretty good. I mean, really to have to be able to work and get 26.2 miles in an eight hours. I mean, she's still moving at like a decent pace. It wasn't like just like a leisurely kind of like. She said, I wanted to do something crazy. I was just in the mood for it.
No. See, so look, it does happen. People run marathons all the time. So I'm like walking it can't be that bad. Oh, this is your kinder. She's her kinder. You guys could be friends. Yes. See, this what happens when you're 24. You get ideas like this and you think you're just like invincible. I didn't, I didn't. When I was 24, that was the last thing on my mind. God, what was I doing? I don't even know what I was doing. I was 24. Not this. Not this. I'm a girl at this point. I don't remember.
I feel like that's yesterday, but it wasn't yesterday. But yet, anyways, it should be. Anyway, so this girl works from home it looks like and she walked a full. Which a lot of people do now. Full marathon at her desk while working. So it can be done. It can be done. You don't have to have lower steps. No. Just because you work a computer job. She can be sitting on your computer. I mean, the other thing, I was like posture. We'll talk about this watching.
You know, everyone, all of our chest muscles are really tight. We're all leaning over the phones and the computers and that's having all kinds of situations going on too. With, you know. So the big thing I've been seeing and the thing I've always seen is that like you need, everybody needs about. 10,000 steps. 10,000 steps. Which now, now I'm realizing or learning on the internet. Of all the places. That we actually, science suggests we do not need to take 10,000 steps.
Yeah. And I, at one point, I remember. That's five miles. Yeah, it is. I remember at one point, I like came across some of the history of that. Like at one point it was validated, but then it wasn't. See, that's the other thing about like things that get printed from like research reports. It's like how many of them come back and like, oh, just kidding. That wasn't accurate or we weren't right or whatever. It's like, how do you even know? So 10,000 steps. Was this, is this like Holy Grail?
You know where it came from? Some say like 8,000. Did it stay on there? Yeah. I read it at one point, but I like purchased it. Shortly before the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, there was a lot of attention on fitness in Japan and many local companies tried to profit off the hype. Oh, so wait. So wait a second. So things sometimes just come up for profit. What? Wait a second. Wait. Time out. This is new information for me. What? Okay. So sometimes we're just told things to profit a business.
I mean, let's read on. Okay. Let's read on and find out. Okay. Cause surely that can't be the case. Yam, I don't know if I'm saying this right. Yamasa invented a marketing employee. The seller pedometer called the Manpo Key, which literally translates to 10,000 steps meter. Some even believe the company chose this name simply because the Japanese character for 10,000 looks similar to a walking man.
There was no actual reasoning behind the number other than it was a round memorable number that looks nice. Huh. And a cool character. Whether or not people really need to walk 10,000 steps per day to maintain a healthy lifestyle has been the subject of many studies. It's been proven to be a good target. However, until recently studies have only been done on the effects of 5,000 steps and 10,000 steps never in between. This is from the New York Post. Which is also highly scientific.
Just so scientific. But I mean the history of that. I don't feel like they're getting to anything other than. No, just here's the history of the 10,000 and just raising questions about whether or not. Another recent study suggested the pace at which one walks might be more important than step count. Experts in Denmark and Australia concluded that 10,000 steps per day might not be necessary if you walk quickly. Oh, well, yeah. My goal. It depends on your goal though, right?
My goal daily, it's a low goal. I hit it generally as 5,000 steps. And I do that. You get it? I'm usually somewhere up around eight. Which is higher than what you ever used to be. Oh yeah, when I first got my first step tracker, which was like two months ago. Two years ago. Oh. I was shocked at how little steps I was getting. Yep. I think that is, the key to it all is, what are you doing already? And how can you maybe move the meter a little bit?
And if, you know, kind of push yourself a little bit too, right? So you're like, okay, I can pretty consistently get the 5,000. But if it's day that I really want to try to push it, like try to get to the eight or whatever. And just find them, because the one thing people don't talk a lot about is that there is this non-exercise activity, thermogeneticists. It's called NEET, N-E-A-T, non-exercise activity. And what happens with that.
And so what gets underestimated is people think, oh, if I go to the gym every day. If I'm not actively working out. If I'm not at the gym, if I'm not exercising. And it's like, no, actually, the other, I don't know, 20 or 16 hours a day, they're awake on average. Like what you're doing those extra 16 hours a day, versus just that one hour in the gym, you can also have an impact on your health and wellness.
And it's not as like, it's not as sexy to talk about, versus your gym, you know, because you're like, I'm extra active, well, when you're extra sedentary. Hurry up the stairs, hurry up the stairs. Yeah. Woohoo! I mean, but it does better than zero. But it does, it does make a difference. It totally makes a difference. I mean, I do believe that people are, I refer to kids as puppies sometimes. You sometimes gotta wear them out. Okay. They always tell me, they know where you're going.
You know, they always talk about puppies, take them to the park when they're asleep. Kids, same thing, like if they get worn out during the day, they sleep better. I think, I don't know how much of that really changes as adults, like I feel that. Probably not a whole lot. You know, like if that's the way animals are, and our kids are, like, you need to be wearing yourself out throughout the day, so that you can go to sleep and sleep.
So we already talked about sleep, but I think a lot of people, if you're not sleeping very well, I think you should look at what you're doing during the day, because if you're really super sedentary, are you wearing yourself out to like need to get a lot of deep recovery sleep? Probably not. So like, this is a great place to start. If you're not sleeping very well, what, how much?
And I think a lot of it is little things, like park further away from the door, you know, when you go to the store, take those extra steps like the other day, I had like four trash bags to take out to the trash, and like we live out in the country, so we have just a giant dumpster. And I was like, I could just take out all four of these at one time, or I could just take out one at a time. Which felt ridiculous to do, but I was like, I got you moving. Got, you know, get the extra steps in.
Yeah, taking the steps instead of an elevator. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's an easy one, but the parking in the parking lot is real. Can I tell you a funny story? Oh, yeah, of course. I'm gonna throw my friend Brea under the bus here, along with myself, because it's full of us. So last year we went to Obsess Fests in Columbus, Ohio, and we got an Airbnb that turned out, when we got there, it was on the third floor.
And when we got there, we all had our suitcases, and we're, this guy, Like giant suitcases for like a weekend trip. Right, right, right. There's no overpacking that happens. So we get to this Airbnb, it was like an apartment, and we get in there, and there was this guy who was like, oh, that unit's up on the third floor. We're like, oh, okay. Well, he's coming up behind us. Was the unit number 3A or something? Yeah, there was something weird about it. There's 3a1. Yeah, that's not the point.
He was like, it's up on the third floor. And we were like, okay, where's the elevator? He's like, there's no elevator. So we're hauling, and we're like out of breath, like embarrassingly out of breath. And this guy's just coming up behind, he's coming off his run or something. So we get up to our room, and we're like, that was terrible. And we're gonna have to do that the rest of the time. The whole like trip. And the walk to the convention was down. It was a good 15 minute walk.
So we got a needless to say, we got our steps in. Plenty of steps in, yeah. So this year, we're going to Dallas for obsessives. And we were like, what? Should we stay in a hotel? Should we get another Airbnb? We decided to get another Airbnb. Lots of choices in Dallas. So we're sitting there, and we're, I don't know, we were on the Airbnb app, and we're looking at places, and she says, oh, there's this place, she's like, oh, but it's on the 20th floor.
And I was like, no. She was like, yeah, no. Like we're not doing that. We're not staying. Too many flights of stairs. Too many stairs. We can't do the 20th floor. We both agreed immediately. We can't stay on the 20th floor, right? Move on, let's move on. Kind of dropped it, whatever the next day. I'm back on Airbnb, and I was like, there's elephant, there's elephant there. This isn't like a three story walk up anymore.
Like we've moved into like a whole new, like, oh, this is a suburban high rise. It did not occur to, not a brain cell between the two of us. We're like, oh no, we can't stay. We're just not doing 20 flights of stairs. We can't do it. It's too fresh in our minds. Can you imagine our step count those days? That would, I mean, that would be a lot to do. Don't worry, you can tell me a lot of stairs. I don't know. That is a funny story, guys.
Anything beyond the third floor was out, and no. You're like, no, there's not even a question. There's not, it's not possible, it's obvious. Why did we both, I mean, I don't know. Sorry, Brie, sorry for telling the story. I love you. My mind actually just straight went to, just because we're coming off of like, you know, holidays weren't very long ago and all this stuff, right? It's like, Elf is my favorite Christmas movie.
And my mind right there, we in picture 20th floor, like I just went to that scene when he's in the elevator and he thanks the lights for the Empire State Building or like the Christmas tree. He's like, oh, you don't, you clearly don't know the movie. Have you ever seen Elf? I've never seen Elf. Are you kidding me? What, how are we friends? I think I watched it. I think I did watch it one time. Oh my goodness. I think I did. I don't get the, the. You really?
Mm-mm. See, I do like Will Ferrell as an actor. I love, I love Will Ferrell. I don't know how it got to this point. I mean, I just am obsessed with New York City as a place. So if there's anything that like is in New York City, like I'm on it, it doesn't matter if it falls into a specific genre, like that city just has a special place of a heart. So, but he does, he gets into the elevator for like the Empire State Building, which probably has 90 floors.
I don't know when it was just this moment where he like thinks lights them all up, you know, and there's just this native. I think I kind of remember that. This native New Yorker that's standing in there and he's just like looking at him like, cause he knows what that just meant, you know? And then he's getting off halfway up and he's like, bye, I gotta go now. And the gentleman's still riding. You're close. There's 102 floors in the Empire State Building. Ah, see, well, there we go.
Yes. I was like, you know, it was a guesstimate, but you know, sometimes my guesstimates are somewhat accurate. So I would not say there was no, I don't know why I could ever make it to the top. You know, there is our step master. Me and Bree would be on the street level in New York City. Our step mill at the gym does have like a setting where it will tell you how many floors and stairs and you can set it to where you can do like the Empire State Building, it'll show you.
Does your watch tell you how many floors you do? I think so. Here, show it, look and see. Mine does, it's not. I don't, I wasn't doing a lot of laundry at home today. That's where I usually get a ton of steps is going up in, oh yeah, flights climb 10. Today? That was terrible. Yeah, what's my weekly summary? How do I, so what's your weekly summary on steps? On steps? Yes, now I was sick. I slept for like two straight days, so I don't know, we'll see how this goes. So I had 57 flights this week.
I don't know how to find this. Can't find like your weekly summary? Maybe. We should see. We should come here like over a longer distance. Okay, what are we looking for? Like a week, does it give you like a week summary? Yeah, I've got my average miles was 3.4 miles. My average steps was 7,441. For your week? I think so. Let's go. I got 12,000 steps two days ago, almost 13,000. There you go. What were we doing that day? I don't, I think else the day I decided to take the trash out one by one.
Well, that'll do it people. Just to have it. It shows you simple strategies to increase your overall step count. And over the last week I have walked half a floor. I'm sorry, what? Half a floor. In the last seven days. Half a flight of stairs. Don't you go to your basement for school? Yeah, I don't think my, I don't think my work. I don't think that's working. That one's not working. So what did you say your total, does it give you a total for the week? My total for the week was 5,200,000.
Wait, 52,000. You beat me on the week. 52,000. You beat me on the week. What'd you get? I also had two days that I didn't hardly get out of bed, but so 45,000, 30. But still, you'll take it. Write this to Alan, write this down. Alan, to record. Yeah, Kaylee gets the gold star for steps this week. All right, two week continued, I guess. We'll have to check back in on this to see how this continues to go. Yeah, in our fun little friendly competition about how many steps you got.
You always beat me. Yeah, well, I mean, I didn't this week. You were literally bedridden. I didn't, no, I was out. All right, so how do you feel about steps? What are we talking, 10,000, getting 10,000 steps today? How would you feel about getting to the 10,000 every day? Do you think you could do it? Could I do it, yeah. Do I want to? No. It would take more of a conscious effort for me to do it. It'd be price 30 more minutes on the treadmill every day. That'd be such a bad thing.
Well, you're already doing 30 minutes. I feel like I'm kind of telling you to do a full hour. I don't have that kind of time. Yeah, no, that's probably pushing it over the edge. You could do it for short periods of time, but you're not probably. I think, get your steps in. Get your, you know, get your count up there, but don't, it's not something you need to obsess over and. No, but I think finding ways to increase is helpful. Right, to increase your step count, absolutely.
Yep. Especially if you're struggling with sleep, you know? So we like it. We like it. I think it works. Don't really know how I feel about the 10,000. Yeah. Just you do you. You do you. And you get, you push yourself a little bit. All right, bye. Until next time. Thanks for listening to the episode. Be sure to let us know how you feel about the topic. Do you love it or hate it? Also, subscribe, give us a five star rating, and of course, tell your friends. Until next time.
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