Yessssss! It’s February. We’re another step closer to Spring & Summer.
This weekend signals the end of Dry Jan, Christmas debt and the start of noticeably longer days.
How did your new year’s resolutions work out? How’s that diet going?
Most people fail to stick to any diet or exercise regime after just four weeks, but what we all tend to do is walk that little further in an effort to get fitter for summer.
Do you try and get your 10,000 steps in per day? Are you constantly checking a pedometer? These days it is hard to walk the streets without stumbling upon someone anxiously looking at their wrist to see if they are on target to reach the magic 10,000 steps or attain a calorie burn goal.
And where did that 10k steps figure come from? You might be surprised to hear it was the result of a 1960s marketing campaign in Japan.
In the run-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a company came up with a device marketed to the health-conscious. It was called a Manpo-Kei. In Japanese, “man” means 10,000, “po” means steps and “kei” means meter. So it was, literally, a 10,000 steps meter.
The device was an early pedometer, based on the work of Dr Yoshiro Hatano, a young academic at Kyushu University of Health and Welfare.
Dr Hatano was worried that the Japanese were busy importing a slothful American lifestyle, as well as a love of watching baseball, and wanted to help his nation get more active.
Hatano reckoned that if he could persuade his fellow Japanese to increase their daily steps from 4,000 to around 10,000 then they would burn off approximately 500 extra calories a day and remain slim. That, apparently, was how the “10,000 steps a day” regime was born. It was a great marketing success.
Onto this week’s blog and (of course) we check out the Grammy 2018 Red Carpet winners.
Plus, as we edge ever closer to summer, it’s time to talk about Ibiza, where else…. and I bring you the very latest A-list treatment – Sculpting Your Smile.
