10 Ways To Get 10,000 Steps When It’s Too Cold To Walk Outside

10 Ways To Get 10,000 Steps When It’s Too Cold To Walk Outside

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Run/walk in place.

I’m starting with this one because it’s been my go to move lately.

When I used to see that I was short steps, I would get up and run in place. I tried and do it during the day when I’m home alone so there’s no banging on the floor when Pete is downstairs and I’m in the office.

For Christmas this year, though, my brothers and their wives bought me a walking pad. What a game changer.

Every day, in the late morning, I walk on the walking pad. I get a bunch of steps out of the way that way, which is great.

Phone a friend.

Like everyone else, I mostly text my friends. But, I have a few friends who always call and never text.

I can’t sit and work when I’m on the phone, so I get up and start to walk around the house. That’s an easy way to get a lot of steps without even thinking about it.

Just make sure you aren’t holding your phone up to your ear with the hand on the side that your activity tracker is on. It won’t track very well that way and you might miss out on counted steps.

Pace when you brush your teeth.

As soon as I started wearing a fitness tracker, I started to pace when I was brushing my teeth.

It sounds weird, but I was like, “I’m just standing here.” It felt like such a waste of time. So I started to pace our bathroom.

I’m lucky that we have a really, really long bathroom, so it’s really easy to squeeze in steps that way.

Go shopping.

Who doesn’t love an excuse to go shopping? Trying to get 10,000 steps when it’s cold out is hard. But if you can make it from your home to your car, drive to the mall. You can window shop while walking around the whole mall.

I remember working retail and watching people come do laps in the early mornings. It was a great way to get some exercise in a place that is heated.

Take the stairs.

Do you live or work in a building with an elevator and stairs? Take the stairs. Even if it’s just one floor up.

I used to do this all the time at my last office job. Those steps added up.

If you work at home like me, force yourself to go up and downstairs as often as possible. Instead of grabbing everything I need to bring downstairs all at once, I take one thing at a time so I can get in a few trips up and down the stairs.

Watch TV.

Okay, stay with me here.

Watching TV usually means you park your booty on the couch and veg out. That’s fun and all, but not really helpful if you’re trying to get your steps.

So sure, sit and watch TV.

But, on each commercial break, get up and walk around until the show comes back on. This doesn’t exactly work if you’re binge watching Netflix, but it’s good with regular television.

Use the bathroom furthest from you.

I work in the room next to our bedroom. The office is next to the guest bathroom. And then our bedroom has the master bathroom. So any bathroom is pretty close.

We do have a third bathroom downstairs, on the opposite side of the house. It is, obviously, a lot further than the other too … which means more steps. Those steps add up (especially if you’re also trying to drink eight glasses of water a day).

If you’re working in an office, you may have the option of a ton of bathrooms. Pick the one furthest from your desk (just hopefully you don’t work where I used to because I got in trouble once for doing that).

Put your clothes away one piece at a time.

When you do laundry, you probably fold it, make piles of items that go in the same drawer/room, and then put them away. Instead of putting your clothes away in bulk, put them away one piece at a time.

That’s not effective for life, but very effective for steps.

What I do, honestly, is put them away in bunches — not one piece at a time.

So I’ll fold into piles (long sleeved shirts, pants, pajamas, etc.), and then put the piles away one by one. It’s a lot more steps than if I put them away all at once, but also more effective than putting them away shirt by shirt.

Vacuum.

I never minded vacuuming. Although, once we got a robot vacuum, I didn’t miss vacuuming one bit.

What I do miss, though, are the steps I got from vacuuming.

We have carpet on both floors of the house, plus carpet on the stairs, so that’s a lot of vacuuming and a lot of extra steps.

Get stuff for yourself/spouse/kids. 

How often do you need something — a drink you forgot in another room, to turn on the fan after you’re laying down — and you ask someone else to help you (aka do it for you)?

Instead, do it yourself.

Stand up and walk to the other room to grab a paper towel. If your spouse needs a drink, offer to get up and get it for him — all while getting closer to your 10,000 steps.

More Ways To Get Steps:

The winter isn’t the only time when it might be hard to squeeze in all of your steps.

So, we have a couple other posts to help you: How To Get 10,000 Steps On A Road Trip and 10 Ways To Get 10k Steps When It’s Hot Out.

And, if you’re like me and work at home, so getting any movement is hard, our How To Work Out When You Work At Home has some really creative ideas that you may not have thought of, like biking “to work.”