– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

- In the fitness world,

there's no shortage of trendy workouts.

F45, CrossFit, Pilates, and HIIT training

all have cult followings,

but the best kept secret

when it comes to living a healthy

and active lifestyle might have been

under our noses the entire time.

They're calling it walking.

Apparently, you just get your (censored) off the couch

and move your legs in a forward-like motion,

propelling yourself into this space

in front of your lifeless body.

Most of us are taking fewer steps

than our ancestors did,

and for a myriad of reasons.

We drive to the office,

work in front of a computer screen,

and spend our downtime melted into our couch,

and that's turning into a big problem.

Recent research has found that physical inactivity

can increase the risk of chronic disease,

like diabetes and cancer, and it's now

the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality.

So, I lift weights regularly

and I consider myself an active person,

but if there's one area I definitely ignore, it's cardio.

I rarely hit the treadmill, I don't run,

and my average steps per day

for the past three years has been less than 4,000.

I wanna finally add more movement into my daily routine,

and so I'm gonna walk 10,000 steps a day

for 30 days starting now.

(upbeat music)

So, we've all heard the recommendation

to get 10,000 steps a day in,

but where did this advice actually come from?

It turns out the number has more to do

with marketing than science.

In the 1960s, the Japanese company

responsible for the first commercial pedometer released

a new step counter with the slogan,

"Let's walk 10,000 steps a day."

The slogan was catchy and easy to remember, so it stuck.

Recent studies have shown

that just 4,000 steps a day leads to better health outcomes,

but 7,500 steps is ideal for most people.

Call me an overachiever,

but I'm still gonna stick with the 10,000 step goal.

I'm gonna be tracking all my health data closely

over the next 30 days

to see if I notice any significant changes.

I'll be weighing in daily, reporting my blood pressure,

and tracking all other data points to see how I go.

One thing that was clear

as I made my way through the first week

is that it's not always easy to find the time.

It is surprisingly difficult to get 10,000 steps into a day.

I keep finding myself checking my tracker

at 8PM at night

and realizing that I'm 2000 or 3000 steps short,

and so what I've had to do

is go out after dark and just walk around my neighborhood,

which isn't creepy at all.

Something is definitely gonna have to change.

I'm definitely gonna have to switch up my routine,

figure out a way to get my steps in early

because I definitely can't keep this up.

One of the things I've done

to help me track my steps is to get a smartwatch.

I got an Apple Watch

and it uses a combination of GPS tracking

and arm motion when estimating distance and steps.

If you happen to use a wheelchair, it can also track pushes.

It's not 100% accurate 100% of the time.

I noticed a few times that my watch recorded steps

while I was asleep,

(sheets rustling)

but it gets close enough.

Of course, you can track steps with your phone,

but I don't like to bring mine with me wherever I go,

so I'd find that I miss out on a lot of steps every day,

and as I'm learning so far, every step counts.

So, right now, it's 10:44 and I have 9,800 steps,

which means I need to walk around until I hit 10,000 steps.

It's my life.

(upbeat music)

9,935 steps. Almost there.

I got 10,010 steps.

- 10,010? You're an overachiever.

- Hey there.

Just wanted to let you know

that my habits course is open for enrollment.

I know. It's exciting.

We'll get back to the video in just a second,

but I wanna let you know

all about it 'cause it's only gonna be open for one week.

Simple Habits is your step-by-step plan

to choosing, forming, and sticking to habits for life.

I'm teaching you everything that I've learned

through a lifetime of trial and error through the dozens

of habit experiments that I've done on this YouTube channel

and the proven research behind human behavior change.

After you've finished the course, you'll be clear

on the life that you want to create for yourself,

the habits that will get you there, and you'll be equipped

with the strategies and tools to get these habits to stick.

Come join over 5,000 other students

by going to slowgrowth.com/simplehabits, or even easier,

click the little link in the description below this video.

Enrollment closes on March 10th

and then after that, it won't be open until later this year,

so I hope to see you there.

I think the one thing that I'm realizing is

that my life up until now, at least

over the past couple of years, has been quite sedentary.

So, I'm not getting up

and moving a whole lot.

When I start my work,

I sit down for eight hours or 10 hours and I rarely get up.

I'll get up to go to the bathroom to make another cup

of coffee, maybe to go to the gym,

but my steps and my movement overall

has actually been quite low.

I really want to make a commitment to get

in my steps as early as possible

so it's not this thing that I'm like always thinking

about, like, oh my god,

am I gonna have to, like, walk at, like, 11PM

at night again just to make sure I hit 10,000 steps?

Like, I don't think that's the way to do this experiment.

Like, I wanna do it in a sustainable way,

in a way that I might be able to carry on after the 30 days.

The first thing that really started to work

for me was focusing on incidental exercise.

Incidental exercise is any movement done in small amounts

that adds up over the course of the day.

We all have choices that we make each day that impact

the amount of movement we get,

like taking the stairs instead of the elevator,

walking the long way to the gym, or using a smaller cup

of water so you have to refill it more often.

(water trickling)

This kind of exercise requires less effort than carving

out a dedicated hour to go to the gym and can be built

off everyday activities and routines.

So, I began making different choices every day

and I started to notice a difference.

A few hundred steps here, a couple thousand steps there.

So, this alone isn't getting me across the finish line,

but it's still nice to see some progress.

Perhaps my biggest breakthrough was

after having a chat with my friend Josh.

- The other day, I had a work meeting.

I was like, "Do you wanna go for a walk?"

And the guy was open to it,

and then we got close to the Post Office.

I'm like, "Do you mind

if I actually pick up my parcel as well?"

And so- (Josh and Matt laughing)

- You know what?

I've actually gotta move apartments,

and so if you could come by, that would be great.

As obvious as it sounds, I never really thought

about taking work meetings and calls while walking.

The way we typically think about meetings is that they're

around a conference table or

in front of a video screen, but they don't have to be.

- Phone calls are so important to stay connected,

especially when you have friends

that are all over the place.

Like, I'm in Melbourne. You're in Sydney.

I've got friends everywhere.

I might as well do it whilst I'm walking to get up my steps.

- So, first thing in the morning,

if I had some calls to make

I'd grab my AirPods, put on my sneakers, and get moving.

Yeah, so, I was thinking actually

about our next course launch,

and for someone that has a totally unhealthy relationship

with productivity and perfectionism,

this was a really satisfying way for me to reach my goal.

So, I just had a quick morning call, but this time,

instead of sitting at my desk,

I decided to go for a walk.

Call ended up being 45 minutes,

so I got a lot of steps.

So far today, I've got 4,800 steps

in when I typically only get 900 at this point.

There were a couple times in the middle of a conversation

with Natalie that I asked if we could actually take a walk

around the neighborhood instead of sitting

down on the couch or in my office,

so we'd put on our sneakers

and walk around the neighborhood finishing our chat.

Hey, Nat, let me see the belly.

Wow! Look at that belly!

- You like it?

- I love it.

One thing that I have started to do recently that has helped

out immensely is to really slow down

and try to actually enjoy each and every walk that I take.

It hasn't always been easy.

Early on, I'd gotten

into the habit of rushing through my steps.

I find myself in that awkward place

somewhere between walking and jogging,

like I'm holding it in while rushing to the bathroom,

but once I started to slow down,

I could take in the joy of my walks.

I started casually listening to history podcasts.

I listened to walking meditations.

I walked silently around my neighborhood

and I explored new hikes and trails around Sydney,

and this has honestly become my favorite thing

about this city.

There are dozens of beautiful hikes,

from the bush to the beaches.

There are stunning views and moments of complete immersion

in nature that you don't even realize you're in the city,

and just as I started to find the joy in walking,

I also started to notice some results.

I've exercised more, I've climbed more flights,

done more steps, and had more walking and running distance.

The calories burned has gone up from 470 calories a day

to 650 plus per day.

I've got these scabs that have started to form.

They're pretty small, but scabs nonetheless.

You can see it.

Oh, yeah, look at that.

Yeah, I think that this might just give you a little bit

of an indicator as to the amount of steps

that I typically get on a given day

because my feet have clearly never been

through something like this before.

If my feet end up on any of these dirty smut websites,

I'm never gonna forgive you guys.

So, I've just had one of the easiest days yet,

blowing past 10,000 steps with little effort at all.

I haven't gone on a single walk all day,

and the reason I've been able to get so many steps is

because I've just been doing household chores all day.

When I have these days when I'm just naturally moving about,

I'm doing chores, I'm picking up things around the house,

I'm running out for groceries, going to the gym,

then my steps start to add up

and it starts to feel a whole lot more effortless.

If I'm being completely honest,

just because there were days that felt effortless

and days where I enjoyed my walks doesn't mean it

wasn't still a little bit annoying.

I am really short on my steps,

so I decided to walk to dinner tonight.

Nat is gonna be driving and meeting me there.

I just can't have another late night where I'm walking

at like nine, 10:00 at night.

Even though I see the value in walking more every day,

it feels unrealistic to hit even 5,000 steps

a day, let alone 10,000.

There are days when work is busier than normal

and days that I just can't be bothered to leave the house,

and at least during this experiment,

these have been the days

where I found myself aimlessly wandering

around my neighborhood or living room deep into the night.

So, I did it. It's over.

It's done.

I walked 10,000 steps every day for 30 days and, drum roll,

(hands tapping table)

I feel a lot better. I do.

I feel a lot better now

that I have gotten this extra cardio in,

even if that cardio was as simple as walking more.

Now, let's take a look at the data.

Obviously, my number of steps taken went up.

I averaged 12,140 steps per day, and I walked a total

of 364,000 steps over the course of the month.

My weight remained pretty steady

throughout, starting and ending the month at 160 pounds.

If all things had remained equal,

you would've expected my weight to go

down with the additional calories burned,

but my sister was visiting

for three weeks during this experiment.

I know it's a terrible excuse, but I ate

out and drank a lot more than I typically would have,

and finally, the additional steps didn't change

any other data points,

like my blood pressure or resting heart rate,

which were at healthy levels to begin with.

So, here are my intentions going forward.

I don't intend to hit 10,000 steps every single day.

I just don't think that's a realistic goal

for me personally, but I do intend to walk more

and I do want to try to increase my daily average

to 7,500 steps per day.

Some days will be less than that, some days will be more,

and I plan to reach this goal

by repeating some of the things that worked best for me

over the past 30 days, that's walking whenever possible,

even when it's more convenient to drive, that's walking

while taking calls, especially in the morning,

and also trying to slow down

and enjoy my walks as much as possible instead

of rushing through them like I'm about to shit my pants.

I hope you like this video.

I do lots of 30-day experiments on this channel,

so if you want to get more,

click Subscribe and turn on notifications for future videos,

and you can also subscribe to my newsletter to get updates

about future 30-day challenges

so you can join me on the next one.

Find the links to everything

in the description below this video.

Thanks for watching.

They're calling it walking.

Apparently you just get your ass off the couch

and move your legs in a forward-like motion,

propelling yourself into the space

in front of your lifeless body.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
walk /wɔːk/ A1	verb - to move by lifting and setting down each foot in turn, never having both feet off the ground at once noun - an act of walking
step /stɛp/ A1	noun - an action or movement that you take in order to achieve something verb - to move by taking a step
health /hɛlθ/ A2	noun - the condition of a person's body or mind
exercise /ˈɛksərsaɪz/ A2	noun - physical activity that you do to keep your body healthy verb - to do physical exercises to stay healthy
routine /ruːˈtiːn/ B1	noun - a set of actions that you do regularly
habit /ˈhæbɪt/ A2	noun - a behavior that you repeat often and regularly
cardio /ˈkɑːrdioʊ/ B2	noun - short for cardiovascular exercise, physical activity that increases the heart rate
sedentary /ˈsɛdənˌtɛri/ B2	adjective - doing little physical activity and spending a lot of time sitting
couch /kaʊtʃ/ A1	noun - a comfortable piece of furniture for sitting or lying on
treadmill /ˈtrɛdˌmɪl/ B1	noun - a machine with a moving surface used for walking or running indoors
overachiever /ˌoʊvərəˈtʃiːvər/ C1	noun - a person who tries to do more and better than is expected
incidental /ˌɪnsɪˈdɛntl/ C1	adjective - happening as a minor accompaniment to something else
breakthrough /ˈbreɪkˌθruː/ B2	noun - a sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development
podcast /ˈpɑːdˌkæst/ B2	noun - a digital audio program that can be downloaded or streamed online
calorie /ˈkæləri/ B1	noun - a unit of energy obtained from food
neighborhood /ˈneɪbərˌhʊd/ A2	noun - the area around where you live
sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbl/ B2	adjective - able to be maintained at a certain level without disrupting the environment
effortless /ˈɛfərtləs/ B2	adjective - requiring no physical or mental exertion