Sometimes one chooses change. Other times, change is forced upon you. Either way, the readjustment period can be a painful process. The gym at which I worked for the past six years closed at the end of February, forcing me to split my time between the other two locations: one in the middle of downtown DC, the other on Capitol Hill. The closure has forced me to change not only work locations, but my work schedule, workout, and transportation (as there are no good parking options in downtown DC). And while I’m still adjusting , I’m trying to make the most out of the change.
Luckily for me, this change has coincided with the beginning of spring in DC. Rather than deal with an overcrowded, expensive metro system to get to work, I have decided to take advantage of two options: good, old-fashioned walking, and the new Capital Bikeshare program. The route from my home to our downtown location takes me just over 45 minutes, and crosses over both the National Mall and the White House. I decided to try out the pedometer function on my ipod nano to see just what I was accomplishing during my walking commute. Originally popularized in Japan, the concept of walking 10,000 steps as day as the baseline for health and fitness has been adopted by many organizations, such as the CDC (although 12,000 – 15,000 steps is generally recognized as necessary for sustained weight loss). Over the past few days, my walking commute has averaged 6,100 steps – more than half-way to the baseline goal, but only half of the weight loss standard. What’s truly shocking, however, is that according to my pedometer, I haven’t even burned 300 calories during this time – the equivalent of a yogurt and a banana. Bottom line: we need to move more, faster, longer.
Capital Bikeshare is a program that was introduced in DC and Northern Virginia last year. Bike stations are set up throughout the city. Riders can purchase 24 hour, 5 day, month long, or year memberships for the program. Riders can take a bike from one station and return it to another. To encourage short hops (errand running, commuting to and from work, etc.), the first 30 minutes of each ride is free, with charges accruing after that. A phone app is available for download with maps of the stations, updated information regarding the availability of bikes, and route maps. I have yet to try it out, as membership keys for the month and year members are sent by mail. But my client, Katie, uses the bikeshare on a daily basis, and swears by it.
The loss of my “home” gym was a bitter pill to swallow. And while I’m still not completely settled at my new gyms, and sad that I had to say good-bye to many long-term clients, my new commute options have me optimistic that perhaps this was a change for the good.
For information about both the 10,000 steps per day concept as well as Capital Bikeshare, check out:
http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/
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