To give credit to those WalkingSpree members who push the limit and help motivate their fellow employees/participants. There are now 67 WalkingSpree members who have reached 10 million steps. You can also keep up on the leaderboard on the WalkingSpree Facebook page.

The top 10 all time walkers are:

Most Steps in One Day

The top 50 Walkers for July 2010 are:

When you have worn out your shoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber of your body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats and clothes you have worn out.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Depending on your location, it may be too cold or icy at times to walk outside. You may be depending on your treadmill to get your steps in. It’s important to have proper technique and safety to get the best out of your treadmill walk.

1. Begin standing with one foot on each side of the treadmill. Step on the treadmill and start at a slow rate of speed and slowly increase the speed. Be sure to know where the red emergency switch is located on most machines.

2. Do not hold onto the side rails or front console. You often see people holding on and leaning back while walking. This is incorrect posture and could be dangerous.

3. Stand up straight, head up, eyes forward, arms swinging in stride with your feet. Stride with your front heel striking close to your body while your back foot remains on the ground longer to give a powerful push-off. This back foot push off is what gives you speed and power, and will help you burn more calories.

With permission from diabeteshealth.com

Big Screen Treadmill Interval Walking Workout

Interval workouts alternate very fast and slower-paced walking for a great cardiovascular workout and a high calorie burn.

Start your treadmill workout during a favourite tv show or movie. Decide your walking fast pace points in the show and slow pace points in the show. For example, if you’re watching The Biggest Loser, walk at a very fast pace during each part of a challenge on a show, then slow way down during the commericals. If you’re a sports fan, go fast during breakaways on hockey and slow down when the whistle blows. Soap opera fan? Up and down with every kiss, fight or gun shot.

Total time: 47 minutes.

I’m an avid cyclist. In the winter, I’m in spin class and as soon as the weather is nice, I’m outside racking up the mileage on my road and mountain bike. And of course I wear my pedometer on the bike. Over the years I’ve learned some tricks about using it with my pedometer that I wanted to share with all of you.

1. Prepping your pedometer: If you’re like me and your bike ride involves a pretty grueling ride and likely a lot of sweating, you’ll need to protect your pedometer. The humidity can build up in your LCD display, so I cover my pedometer with a zip lock bag and then use an elastic band to seal it off. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. At the end of a 60 km ride, excited to check out my steps, only to be viewing a blank LCD display with humidity bubbles behind it. (note: it will dry out after a day or so and continue to work just fine, but let’s avoid it in the first place).

2. Wearing your pedometer: You have a couple of options here. In order to pick up the most number of steps, it’s important to place it where you’ll have some motion. Some people place it in their sock (be sure to use the lanyard to attach to your sock), but I have the most success with it tucked inside my cycling shorts (another reason for humidity buildup and the need for protecting it). I wear it low tucked inside my shorts so it’s almost at the crease of the waist/hip point. Be sure to keep it vertical and not horizontal.

3. Aerobic steps: Aerobic steps are continuous steps taken at a minimum of 10 minutes with a 60 step/second pace. On a bike, you’re not likely to attain aerobic steps for your whole ride. This is because of periods of coasting and cadence changes. So it depends on the route you’re tackling, so don’t be surprised if your 2 hr ride doesn’t have 2 hrs of aerobic steps even though you know you’ve aerobically worked for 2 hrs. However, your steps should be fairly close to being accurate give or take a few depending on hip movement during hill climbs, coasting etc.

So if you’re looking for another way to get in your steps, I highly recommend jumping on your bike and hitting the open road or trails!

Sometimes seeing a visual really helps make something clear. Sugarstacks.com shows fantastic visuals of the amount of sugar in an item with sugar cubes. You may want to think twice before grabbing that yummy looking cinnamon roll on the way into work.

Photo credit: Sugarstacks.com

Photo credit: Sugarstacks.com

Remember to use the WalkingSpree Food Tracker to see how many steps you need to walk to burn off what you’ve consumed.

The nation’s first Physical Activity Plan was unveiled in Washington, D.C. yesterday in an effort to curb obesity and couch potato syndrome and make physical activity a regular part of American’s lives. The plan lays out action plans for government, schools, business and industry, health care, and transportation. With two-thirds of adult Americans and a third of children overweight or obese, the need for more activity is dire, health experts said in launching the plan.

The plan was launched by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. It spans law, policy, schools and medicine with recommendations to construct guidelines to create an environment that would encourage and make available physical activity for all Americans, rural, urban or suburban.

Most research shows that adults and children alike need at least one hour of moderate physical activity a day to stay healthy and keep from gaining weight. Regular exercise reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke and other chronic illnesses.

According to the CDC, “American society has become ‘obesogenic,’ characterized by environments that promote increased food intake, nonhealthful foods, and physical inactivity.” Statistics prove this to be true, with adult obesity in America tipping the scales at 33.8 percent (32.2 percent among adult men and 35.5 percent among adult women). That’s one-third of all American battling the bulge.

Contact WalkingSpree for information on how you can step up wellness and slim down costs for your employees in an engaging online wellness solution.