{"id":17275,"date":"2016-10-30T00:10:35","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T04:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=17275"},"modified":"2016-10-29T14:28:11","modified_gmt":"2016-10-29T18:28:11","slug":"how-to-increase-steps-with-fitbit-by-incorporating-cats-into-your-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/how-to-increase-steps-with-fitbit-by-incorporating-cats-into-your-routine\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Increase Steps With Fitbit by Incorporating Cats Into Your Routine!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"jazmine\"<\/a>

Fitbit – check. Cat – check. Ready, set, go – find out how you can increase your steps by exercising with your cat!<\/p><\/div>\n

Much as I would prefer to work from home, I have to admit the company I work for isn’t so bad. My co-workers are awesome (many of them are cat lovers), and management is always trying to come up with new ways to encourage group activities. We’ve had several company sponsored lunches since I started back in March, and they even shut work down early one Friday so everyone could go bowling together, including food and drink. But their most recent attempt is my favorite by far. Because most of us have desk jobs, for those that wanted to participate, they bought us Fitbits<\/a> to encourage exercise and set up quarterly step challenges with prizes to boot!<\/p>\n

I’ll admit when I decided to join, I didn’t have much faith in myself and didn’t think I’d have a chance in heck of winning anything, let alone be remotely competitive. I used to be a fit person, but over the past several years, and especially now that I’m working on my third book, I may as well be a cat who naps 20 hours a day, I’ve become that sedentary. I barely move from my desk at work (the exceptions are for either a bathroom or coffee break) and when I get home, I’m practically glued to the computer until I go to bed, working on my book. It’s no surprise when I look in the mirror now, that I see a sagging, flabby me looking back!<\/p>\n

\"deb-excercise\"<\/a>

This is me nearly any free second of the day – completely glued to my computer with Jazmine next to me!<\/p><\/div>\n

But I like to be a good sport, so I decided to give it a whirl. The recommended daily goal set by Fitbit is 10,000 steps. I had no clue the number of steps I took on an average day, so when I saw at the end of day one, that I only had 5133 steps, it was shocking. I knew I was sedentary, but to see it in actual numbers was startling and a real kick in the literal butt. It became personal – not so much that I wanted to win the quarterly contest, but a wake-up call to me at 56 years old, that I needed to make some changes. But how the heck was I going to increase my steps in between my job and writing? Well, believe it or not, my cats have actually helped me out and here’s some of the top 5 ways they’ve done it:<\/p>\n

1. Head count mania.<\/strong><\/span> I always do a cat count before I go to work. Since I have seven cats, it’s amazing how many extra steps I can tack on looking for each cat individually, especially those times one of them seems to have mysteriously vanished and I walk back and forth, looking in the same places, over and over, for him or her.<\/p>\n

\"dsc_0305\"<\/a>

Zoey is the master of disguise – she’s tiny as it is and refuses to come out when I call her name, as she always assumes I’m up to no good!<\/p><\/div>\n

2. Feeding time frenzy.<\/strong><\/span> My cats get three small meals a day – you’d be surprised just how many steps you can accrue preparing meals for seven cats, between picking them up and putting them down each time one of them jumps on the counter, putting their dishes on the floor, picking up their dishes from the floor, and bringing them to the sink to wash.<\/p>\n

\"feeding4\"<\/a>

If I pick Peanut up from the counter once, I do it at least ten more times…She never gives up trying to eat before I put the food dishes onto the floor!<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Going all out grooming.<\/strong> <\/span>I comb my cats every single night – fleas are prevalent in South Florida (even indoor cats can get fleas) and I’m obsessed with making sure these pesky parasites aren’t taking up residence on my cats. I also do it to make sure they don’t develop hair mats, and I can assure you corralling in seven cats is an ordeal. Even though they actually enjoy being groomed, they still insist on making it difficult for me to catch them, so it turns into lots of steps!<\/p>\n

\"furminator2\"<\/a>

I swear my cats loved to be groomed – but you’d never know it the way the run from me first when they see me with a comb or brush!<\/p><\/div>\n

4. Litter Olympics.<\/strong><\/span> I scoop, they go. I scoop again, they go again. My going from room to room, scooping litter, can be an all-day, all-night event. But the good news, lots and lots of steps!<\/p>\n

\"litter-in-use\"<\/a>

This caption applies nearly 24\/7\/365 with my cats!<\/p><\/div>\n

5. Playing like the pros.<\/span><\/strong> I try to play with my cats as much as I can. Their favorite toy is “Bird” – a feather toy hanging from a string on a stick. Bird is kept under lock and key in our guest bedroom. When I bring it out for playtime, it involves me walking all over the house so they each get some turns trying to catch it. One word sums it up for me: exhausting.<\/p>\n

\"dabird\"<\/a>

I love the interactive play aspect of wand\/feather toys with my gang, but it sure is a lot of exercise for me, too!<\/p><\/div>\n

That’s just my indoor cat step program. I also make a concerted effort to walk around the neighborhood to say hello to some of my favorite outdoor feline friends. It gives me incentive to walk outside and I even bring kitty treats with me to feed them. And then there are the non-cat things – I’ll park as far away as I can from the building where I work, or a store, if I’m going shopping. If I need to ask someone something at work, I’ll go to them personally, rather than picking up the phone. And rather than conserve time by bringing out the trash at the same time I check the mail, I make certain this now becomes two tasks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

I see this sweet kitty any time I take a walk – I call her Callie Berry and she loves it when I pet her and give her treats!<\/p><\/div>\n

With that mindset, it’s amazing how much more active you really can be. I love what Fitbit has done to me both mentally and physically. Since my disastrous beginning, there has not been a single day I haven’t at least met my goal, and many times I go several thousand steps over. And that butt of mine, while it will never be what it was years ago, it is much firmer. And even better, I’m now able to sleep through most of the night now. Prior to Fitbit, it had been years since I had a full night’s sleep, as I was always tossing and turning. But most amazingly, I’m actually in second place in our company challenge. I’m the oldest person who’s competing, so I can assure you, it’s quite the accomplishment, to the astonishment of them!!<\/p>\n

How about you all? Any of you have Fitbits? What are some of your favorite ways to gain steps?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much as I would prefer to work from home, I have to admit the company I work for isn’t so bad. My co-workers are awesome (many of them are cat lovers), and management is always trying to come up with new ways to encourage group activities. We’ve had several company sponsored lunches since I started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365,3,1216,1099],"tags":[622,249,1231],"class_list":["post-17275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-humor","category-inspiration-healing","category-sunday-selfie","category-the-zee-zoey-cats-and-family","tag-cat-exercise","tag-feline-human-bond","tag-fitbit-steps"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/jazmine.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17286,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17275\/revisions\/17286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}