7 Tips to Walk 7 Miles Per Day

When I tell people that I walk seven miles per day on average, they are typically at least a little bit impressed.

I issue the disclaimer here that when it comes to those who are serious walkers, seven miles is not very impressive. I have a friend at work with two siblings, both retired, who average over ten per day. Both are wealthy and retired, thus having more time to walk during the day than I do.

But when it comes to the dozens of regular old working stiffs and other non-retirees like I am, they usually consider seven miles to be a good amount of walking.

It’s not as if walking is all that I do. After all, at my typical clip of just over three miles per hour, seven miles amounts to two-and-a-third hours of walking per day. Myriad studies and articles urge one to walk at a faster clip, perhaps even shorter distances than what I walk, in order to burn more calories. So, when I am more motivated or having a day in which I feel better than usual, I too can get my seven miles done in closer to two hours.

The other thing that I tell the many people who know about my obsession to get at least seven miles per day is that walking is basically my only exercise. Due to a series of injuries that I have sustained over the years, the two worst while playing sports, I no longer play basketball, baseball, or tennis like I used to. I neither want to pay for nor go to a gym, as my brother and sister do, so the main cost of my exercise is new walking shoes every few months.

As much as I dislike spending $80 or so every three to four months for new shoes, my wife reminds me that my walking is comparable to completing a 10K every day. If you are a more technical type, seven miles is a bit more than 11K.

A 2017 Esquire story detailing why you should be walking at least seven miles per day details a study that it keeps you healthier and helps prevent heart disease — the most deadly ailment in America per the CDC, responsible for one out of four adult deaths.

Health experts recommend not sitting. They are even more emphatic about walking: Don’t simply not sit, get out there and use your legs. Fitness tracker companies jumped on that, making 10,000 steps a day the industry standard for healthy living. But 10,000 steps is more of a guideline. The rule is that there is no rule — not yet, at least.

According to The New York Times, though, new research gives a more ambitious goal: 15,000 steps a day to avoid the risk of heart disease. For many of us, that number translates to about seven miles.

The thing about that article that I literally hate is the contention that seven miles is “really nothing.” It’s the distance from the northernmost border of Central Park to the southernmost tip of Manhattan. It’s the equivalent of crossing the Golden Gate Bridge four times. It is 28 times around a track, and 102 times up and down a soccer field.

My opinion is that it is definitely not nothing. It is likely farther than the vast majority of people walk on a daily basis.

Nonetheless, it is my daily goal and one that I have achieved more days than not since tracking my steps for the past few years. Last year, I averaged over seven miles per day for the entire year. As of the day that I write this, July 10th, I have averaged about 7.15 miles per day. To make up for a slower walking month in February (about five miles per day), I made up for it by averaging over eight miles per day in June.

Without further ado, the following are the seven ways that I am able to reach this goal come rain, snow, or hundred-degree weather like today. Incorporate a few of these into your life and you, too, will soon approach, match, or even exceed that seven-mile mark:

#1. I Walk For My Entire Lunch Hour

Skipping straight to the middle of my typical workday, I take my entire allotted hour for lunch and hit the city streets with my walking shoes within the first minute.

This is one of those things that gets me called nuts by colleagues frequently because I do this whether there is a blizzard and the temperature is below zero or if the temperature exceeds one hundred with ninety percent humidity.

I have two responses to those who question my sanity, which I do not find all that unreasonable.

My response for several years was to explain that if I wait for optimal walking weather, for example between forty and eighty degrees without any rain, that would exclude roughly half of the year in the Chicago area. So I remind them that I am striving for seven miles per day, which requires walking daily for me.

Lately, I just smile and agree. “Yeah, I’m a little nuts.”

But minutes later, I’m blocks away from city hall, contemplating non-work items, and reminding myself that I am keeping in shape while most of my co-workers consume fast food or microwaved lunches.

Which reminds me, in a money-saving thing, I pack my lunch most days except for Fridays and eat at my desk before my walk, so it is not like I am forgoing eating.

My lunch hour walks range between two and a half to three miles. I do not always walk for the entire hour.

#2. I Walk My Baby A Lot

The term “Man’s Best Friend” could not be more true when it comes to how I feel about my sweet little Morkie.

Unlike me, she is not so great at taking long walks when it is extremely hot or snowing. She’s more of a fair-weather walker.

Despite her desire to sniff every single thing and her tendency to only want to walk to a neighbor’s house who has more than the allotted number of dogs allowed and a bin full of treats, I take her for walks as much as I can, often several miles per day.

#3. I Always Take the Stairs

If I am going to a meeting on a high floor in a mid- or high-rise, I will take an elevator. Especially if I am dressed nicely and do not want to show up with sweat stains under my armpits.

Otherwise, I always take the stairs at our City Hall and always take the stairs when I stay at a hotel, visit a medical provider, or a developer or business owner with an office on the tenth floor or below.

I realize that not everybody is cool with taking multiple flights of stairs, but if you work, live, or shop somewhere where there are a few floors to traverse, I suggest that you use the stairs if at all possible.

Fitbit tracks the number of flights that you traverse every day, so it is a bit of added motivation for me to increase that number.

#4. I Park Far Out

I am a frequent shopper, most often going grocery shopping (which I typically walk to) and to home improvement stores. I go to many restaurants with my family or pick up food from them.

Rather than finding the closest possible parking space, as I did for my first thirty or so years of driving, I now seek out a space far away from the glut of vehicles.

It not only makes it much easier for me to pull in and out of the parking space, but it increases the number of steps by a hundred or more each way.

#5. I Replace My Commute

I basically only have three, or perhaps four, friends.

Two work in jobs that require a lot of interaction, one works in a job that requires periodic interaction, and one works in Information Technology, which requires none.

My friend who works in IT for Blue Cross has yet to return to his office since mid-March of 2020. He also happens to be a guy who walks a lot.

Personally, I returned to the office in June 2020, but work from home most Wednesdays.

Although I sometimes sleep so poorly that I lie in bed until minutes before my work time, I try to go for a short walk during the twenty to thirty minutes when I would normally be driving to work.

By the time five o’clock rolls around, I typically sign out a few minutes before I would normally be leaving my office and go for about a mile-and-a-half to two-mile walk instead.

This is one of my favorite ways to get “extra” steps — to be going for walks while I would otherwise be driving through suburban traffic.

#6. Sometimes I Walk in Place

It rained all day this past Sunday.

Even though I went out for two short walks, one with my Morkie and one without her, I found myself well short of 10,000 steps early in the evening.

I typically strive to hit the 10,000 mark before I get home from work at the five o’clock hour.

It was rainy and cold and I felt extremely lethargic. I would have much rather sat on the couch and vegged out in front of the tube, but I walked in place for about an hour instead of doing that.

It looks a little silly, but my wife encouraged it and our daughter knows what I am doing. So even though I humble-brag about walking in a blizzard or extreme heat and humidity conditions, I opted for walking in place for about an hour, going from about 7,000 steps to a more respectable 11,000 or so.

My wife sat on the couch in front of me while we watched a few episodes of Million Dollar Listing.

#7. Opportunities Are Everywhere!

My brother seems to sniff out money-making opportunities no matter where he goes or what he does.

Goes weight lifting? Some guy at the gym offers him the opportunity to invest in a tech startup. Buys a new car? Some other guy offers him more than he paid for it.

While I am not so good at taking advantage of the money-making opportunities that come my way, I am the best at sussing out ways to get in more steps.

My wife even frequently gets in on this by asking if I am interested in getting some extra steps in. This usually means that she wants me to take out the garbage or carry some item from point A to point B.

Keen to get the extra steps, I typically gladly agree to do the little chore most of the time.

I also used to drive the one mile to a local small grocery store that we frequent, but have not done so for the past two-and-a-half years. Now I only buy as much as I can carry in my hands and backpack and walk there four out of five times and bike there the other one out of five.

I do some longer walks, like to the post office and library, but since both are two-plus miles from home, sometimes I do a hybrid of biking and walking there.

So if you knew me personally, you would most definitely hear about my prolific walking from time to time. I would show you my Fitbit (since I cannot see the numbers without my reading glasses) and tell you about whatever walks I had done that day.

And if I was still short of seven miles, I would not talk with you too long before walking to my next destination.

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