Lately I have been toying around with walking instead of running and mixing this in with some of the various callisthenic pullup bars and dip bars they have in the park. I read not that long ago that walking burns about the same amount of calories as running and then did some research to validate it, turns out that this is true and has been studied extensively.
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this might be meant for kids. I'm not sure, but I use them as well
So since I'm not really feeling up for a run on a lot of days I will go for a walk instead and listen to a podcast. I learn a little something and get a bunch of calories burned as well. I'm aiming for a caloric deficit while also keeping my protein levels up. It's complicated as hell and I'll get into that at another time.
A funny result happened on a recent run because some people I know were posting something about their goal being 10,000 steps per day by any means necessary. I do not have a step counter other than my phone and well, I am not really confident that it is accurate.
Only 602 steps in more than 4 km? That seems incredibly unlikely to me. It obviously is not accurate so I did a little bit of math and found out in order for this to be true each one of my steps would be over 7 meters (around 21 feet) which obviously is absurd and impossible. The 10,000 step goal is just over 7km and that is very doable for most people. If you have a few hours you may as well.
Especially during the spring like it is now this is the perfect time of year to get this done and the city does a decent job of providing spaces for us to do this without getting run over by cars. I'm fortunate because I have an atypical job that doesn't have a 9-5 work parameter so I can get out there in the afternoon when there aren't 10,000 people out there as well. I have been down there in both the morning and after 5pm and it is just a madhouse... no thanks.
On that note I can understand why people who don't like crowds would shy away from exercise because at least where I live, it is nigh on impossible to get away from huge groups of people very often.
Burning 500 calories isn't exactly making a huge difference and I am aware of this. The key to weight loss isn't actually in the exercise that you do at all, it is in the fuel that you feed your body. If you find yourself getting overweight it is almost certainly because of what you eat and drink, not the amount of exercise that you do. There is an old saying of how "it isn't possible to out-exercise a bad diet" and I know this to be true.
The walks and runs that I do is just to remind my body that we still work out, even if it isn't that much of a workout. I must be doing something right because around 5 years ago I decided that I was going to change my life and managed to lose 50 lbs and keep most of it off. I didn't do anything drastic but just made small manageable steps that lead to lasting change. I am not a terribly dedicated person, hence the name "normie-fitness." I strongly believe that if I can do this, so can most other people.