One Million Steps

Twenty years ago, my father died of secondary liver cancer. I was intrigued to see that his type 2 diabetes was also listed as a contributing factor on his death certificate. Some years later, I worked as a Health Coach in a public health team and helped many people go from pre-diabetic back to the normal range or to put their type 2 diabetes into remission. In addition, as a stop smoking practitioner, I learnt that smoking is one of the risk factors for type 2 diabetes. My father had been a smoker most of his life until a heart attack convinced him to stop, shortly before being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes education has changed massively in the 30+ years since my father's diagnosis but the incidence of it has also continued to grow.

I have decided this year to join the Diabetes UK One Million Step challenge to raise money and awareness of diabetes and particularly type 2 diabetes. For someone who has a largely sitting job, the 10,870 steps needed each day from July to September will be a challenge to me. Though I am a walker, I'm not currently a walker every day and I am going to use this time to build in new walking habits to my routine. What I am realising is that the longer walks I do, do not always make up for the lack of walking I do on the other days.

Though not walking per se (and does not contribute to step count), this challenge has made be finally (I've been thinking about it for a long time) get a sit/stand desk so that I can vary my time between sitting and standing. It is now known that prolonged sedentary behaviour is a risk factor for ill health even if you also do the recommended levels of physical activity during a week. If you have a sedentary job like mine, using a standing desk can help, but also activities like short movement breaks, pacing while on the phone and possibly using a wearable device that prompt regular movement. I wear a tracking watch but it is also too easy to ignore it when it tells you to stand, when it is no long a novelty! I am using it to monitor my step progress during the day though.

The Diabetes UK One Million Step Challenge is a way for me to reset my activity levels and build some new habits during the 3 month challenge period. If you want to see how I am doing or would like to sponsor me, you can go to my page by clicking here.