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Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart    

We gave Grandma a pedometer when she was 60
and she started walking 10,000 steps a day.
She's 77 now and we don't know where she is.
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  1. Stats. and Steps
  2. Notes
  3. Pedometer 101
  4. Pedometer Report by Karen Handford
  5. Walking the Talker by Ron Nye

Stats. and Steps

At Speakwell we still love pedometers. We really believe in the 10,000 steps a day for health maintenance. I find that I now look at food, and particularly fast food, in terms of the number of steps it would take to burn it off. At approximately 20 steps per calorie here are a few examples:

Number of Steps
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A Triscuit400
A Wasa crisp bread720
10 French fries2000
12 oz. Coke3020
1.75 oz. Chocolate bar5340
Pizza slice6900
SUPER Big Gulp12,000
Supersized Big Mac Meal35,080

Step Equivalents
Slow, steady swim is about100 steps/minute
Cycling at 5mph (8k)/hour50 "
10mph (16k)/hour100 "
15mph (26k)/hour150 "

Let us know if you need some step equivalents for other activities.

We are very interested in the walking demands of different professions, so please tell us your average daily step totals foe a working day.

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Notes

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Pedometer 101 (for Omron HJ-105 model)

Thank you for purchasing an Omron HJ-105 pedometer through Speakwell. We hope these instructions will make setting up and using your pedometer simple and enjoyable.

  1. Remove pedometer from the packaging.
  2. Grasp the plastic tab that protrudes from the pedometer casing and pull straight away from the unit. This engages the battery.
  3. Peel off the protective plastic cover from the display screen.

The pedometer is now activated and ready to set-up with your individual measurements.
The adjustment button (lower left) should be in the center position. Please refer to the pedometer picture on the packaged instructions.

There are 3 buttons on the pedometer marked Set, Memory and Reset.

Set - changes the settings from steps, kilometers walked, calories burned and the clock function. This button also engages the memory function.

Memory - Adjusts the setting for each mode as well as accessing the saved information for the previous 7 days.

Reset - Push and hold for 3 seconds to clear any function for re-setting.

Setting the Clock

*NB this pedometer model has a 24-hour clock feature. It is very important that you set it to the correct time (ie 2 pm will be set at 14:00) as the pedometer re-sets itself every day at 11:59 pm (23:59).

Press and hold the Set button until Set Up shows on the screen and the hour display starts to blink. To change the time, press the Memory button until the correct hour is shown. Press Set again until the minutes start to blink. Press the Memory button until the correct minutes are shown. If you press the Memory button and keep it down, the minutes will increase by 10-minute increments. Press and release the Memory button for one-minute increments.

Setting Your Stride Length

To set your stride length, press and hold the Set button until Set Up shows and click until '0 cm' shows on the screen. Press and hold the Memory button until '30' is flashing. You can set your stride length from 30cm to 120cm. Most people will fall into the 50cm to 80cm range. Holding the Memory button down increases the cm 10 at a time. Pressing and releasing the Memory button will increase the stride length one cm at a time. One stride length is measured from the heel of one foot to the heel of the other at a normal walking pace. To get your natural stride length, walk 10 steps from a fixed point and measure in centimeters from where you finish. Divide this measurement by 10 to get cm per stride. Repeat this until you find a consistent stride measurement.

1 foot = 0.3 meters(1 meter = 3.3 feet)
1 mile = 1.6 km(1 km = 0.6 miles)
1 inch = 2.54 cm(1 cm = 0.39 inches)

Setting Your Weight Measurement

Press and hold the Set button until Set Up shows and click it until '0 kg' shows on the screen. Press the Memory button to input your weight in kilograms. Each press = 1kg or hold the set button to increase by10kg increments.

1 kg = 2.2 lbs.(1 lb. = 0.45 kg)

Press the Set button to return to the step count screen (steps will show under the number). Press reset for 3 seconds to set to 0. Now clip the pedometer to your belt, waistband (or even underwear!) It should be above either your right or left hip and fit snugly to your body. Make sure it is horizontal to the ground and not tilted. Keep the case closed during use - only open to check the step count.

Walk for 100 steps. Check your pedometer. If the reading is 105 steps or more, move the adjustment button (lower left ADJ) to the right one click. If the reading is 95 steps or less, move it to the left. This way you can fine-tune for accuracy.

Memory Feature

The Omron HJ-105 has a 7 day memory feature for steps, aerobic steps, minutes of aerobic step activity, calories and distance. To access this information, Press and hold the Set button until the information you want is shown in the display (ie steps). Press and release the memory button to scroll back through the last 7 days on information. The number of the day, 1 through 7 will show beneath the number of steps. For aerobic steps, the number of minutes of aerobic activity for that day will show in the clock feature position. In the calorie mode, the numbers of grams of fat burned will show in the clock feature position.

Aerobic Steps Feature

If you walk more than 60 steps per minute or for more than 10 minutes continuously, these steps and time are logged into the aerobic step function. These steps will also be added to your step total in the regular steps function.

Enjoy!

Pedometer 101 (for Omron HJ-002 model)

Thank you for purchasing an Omron HJ-002 pedometer through Speakwell. We hope these instructions will make setting up and using your pedometer simple and enjoyable.

  1. Remove pedometer from the packaging.
  2. Grasp the plastic tab that protrudes from the pedometer casing and pull straight away from the unit. This engages the battery.
  3. Peel off the protective plastic cover from the display screen.

The pedometer is now activated and ready to use. Clip onto your waistband over your right or left hip (at side of body) and start walking!

There is 1 button on the pedometer marked Reset.

Push and hold for 3 seconds to clear step count back to zero.

Adjusting for Accuracy

There is a 'fine tune' adjustment button to the lower left of the display. It shows a plus (+) and minus (-) and ADJ. The adjustment button should be in the center position.

Walk for 100 steps. Check your pedometer. If the reading is 105 steps or more, move the adjustment button to the right one click; if the reading is 95 steps or less, move it to the left. This way you can fine-tune for accuracy.

Calculating Calories

To calculate the approximate calories used, divide your number of steps by 20.

Enjoy!

To purchase our new, lower-priced pedometer go to WellMart

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Pedometer Report by Karen Handford womanRun.gif

When I borrowed Martin's pedometer to have a look at the difference in number of steps I take in my stay-at-home mom days versus my work days, I expected that my home days would "earn" me more steps than my work days. What I did not expect was that the difference would be so great, nor how this short experiment would change my thinking about efficiency in my day-to-day activities.

It was no surprise to learn that I walk (and run) around a lot with my 3- and 5-year old children on my stay-at-home days. Most days I walked over 10,000 steps. I reached a low of 9195 on a rainy, horrible day, and a high of 14,128 on a busy day that included a birthday party (when low in steps, always attend a small child's birthday party). My average over 5 days of data collection was 11, 751 steps per day, and this number was easily attained without much effort or thought. This made me very happy. For years I've been telling people I get my exercise by running around with my kids, and I'm right! There were drawbacks. Sometimes I felt a little cheated by my pedometer. It didn't give me extra credit for the steps I took piggybacking one kid while pulling another in a wagon. It didn't give me enough credit for taking the stairs two at a time in an attempt to turn off the bath water before it overflowed. And I don't think it counted even 1 step when I shuffled along a rooftop while saving a frisbee. Nonetheless, I can get acknowledgement for these feats elsewhere.

My work days were another story. My first day was dismally low - 5262 steps - and this included the time I spent out in the yard gardening and playing soccer after getting home from work. And my job isn't even a desk job. So the next day my colleagues, who were intrigued by the pedometer experiment, and I took a short walk during lunch, and my tally got up to 6617 steps. The following day we ate lunch really quickly and did a huge walk - a 4500 step walk - and my total was up to 10,010! Not only did we get in a lot of steps, we talked a lot, laughed a lot, and got completely lost. But that is beside the point. The afternoon was exceptionally productive, and I came home feeling much more clear-headed than usual.

I've learned that when wearing a pedometer at work, I am more likely to remember that taking care of myself is good for me and for my clients. That walking during my lunch break is even more important than cramming in extra phone calls and reports, activities that save time in the short term, can lead to burn-out later on in the afternoon. And at home, I no longer try to carry in all 10 bags of groceries in one load. I make the extra trip downstairs with my kids to find the missing triceratops rather than directing them from the kitchen. I'm more likely to jog back to the neighbour's house to retrieve a forgotten swim suit rather than wait until we happen to see them next.

I never did beat my son's 14, 437 steps (and that was not on a birthday party day), but then he does have shorter legs than I do.

I think I will ask for a pedometer for my birthday.

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Walking the Talker by Ron Nye head.gifhead2.gif

Just a brief note on my recent pedometer experience. Whilst browsing an afternoon away on eBay, just windows-shopping, I decided to see what range of pedometers might be available. Of course, it was Martin's articles on the 10,000 step process that had me thinking of these devices in the first place.

For better or worse, I have yet to decide, I discovered the 'talking' versions and ordered one. Or ordered 'her' since my new-found ambling companion is possessed of a mother-reminiscent set of electronic vocal chords, and she just can't do enough for you, as I found out.

I popped it on my belt and took my first twelve steps only to discover that, with my long arms, the nub of my elbow can easily strike a button on my companion who tells me immediately how little I've walked, including what a pathetic percentage of a mile that would be!

Now if you are thinking that at least she's sharply on the job, consider that she gives me points for squirming in my chair...I can sit down after 7 or 8 steps to my chair, squirm around and get back up to be informed that I have now achieved a few dozen more added to my march to the big 10,000. Now, ain't that just like a mother trying to help her kid out? And as if this wasn't enough, she offers to play some rikkety tunes for me to walk to...guess she's afraid that if I strap on my walkman earbuds I might miss the sound of oncoming traffic.

She has no pause button, so it is hard to keep her off the case if I want to take a few illicit steps into some fastfood joint. Besides, her raucous voice would give me away to the fatties as 'one of those' and I'd probably have my burger taken away. The maker of this model seems to be a company called Avon, which has me wondering about a companion facial spray to refresh my cheeks if they heat up too much from rushing to get in that last 2,000 steps.

Now, I have to tell you about our first morning together...no, it wasn't an early 7am hike to start the day right. It was me bolting upright at 5 in the frosty morn to someone hacking out, "It's 5 am; cocka-roodle-roo, cocka-roodle-roo" over and over, loudly from my night-table! Guess who?! And what next...telling Martin that I've been packing it in at 8-9,000 lately and she's concerned? Saying 'wimp' quickly before I realize where it's coming from?

For those of you who may actually miss your mummy when out on a walk: this is the pedometer for you. You may be seeking a model that measures your splendid progress and expresses amazement; I'm now looking for one that is not just amazed but completely speechless!

 

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