Up front, I should say that the concept of getting 10,000 steps a day is not entirely a myth. It is just a bit of an oversimplification. Read on to learn more about how to maximize the health benefits of walking.

1) 10,000 steps is not always feasible.

If you are wondering, 10,000 steps is roughly five miles. Don’t beat yourself up too much if you simply can’t get in 10,000 steps/per day. Even if you are in good shape, it takes 1.5 hours to walk 10,000 steps. I don’t always have that long to walk either.

2) Any amount of steps is helpful.

If you can’t get in 10,000 steps/day, try for 5,000. Recent studies show that you get health benefits (including reduced cancer, heart disease, and dementia risk) from as little as a few thousand steps/day.

For example, one study showed that you lower your risk of dementia by 50% if you walk 10,000 steps/day but can still lower your risk by 25% with just 3,800 steps/day.

3) The speed at which you walk is important.

You would probably be better off walking fewer steps at a faster pace rather than ambling a lot of steps at a slow pace. Studies show that you get a far greater benefit if you walk faster. If you want to measure yourself, try to be in the range of 80-120 steps/minute.

4) There is nothing magical about steps at all really.

If you want to maximize your time, forget about steps and just find a way to get a bit breathless for thirty minutes each day. By that, I mean you should be exercising at a level where you would have some difficulty having a conversation.

5) You do not have to get all the steps at once.

If you are moving constantly throughout the day, it can be hard to keep track of your steps, but those steps count too. In fact, there is no real evidence that they are not just as beneficial as the benefit you would get from doing all your walking at once.

6) Remember that none of this is a magic bullet.

I recently overheard a conversation where someone claimed that she walked 30,000 steps per day because of her job. Yet, she clearly was not in great physical shape.

I don’t really doubt her because here is something I know to be true: you can’t overcome other bad health habits and a bad diet with some magical number of steps. It does not work that way.

Even so, tracking steps is a great way to get started on the road to better health. You can get free apps for your phone that will do this for you quite easily and record your progress over time. It can be fun to watch the miles add up. According to my app, I have walked enough to almost cross the Saraha Desert in the past year (1200 miles)!

One of the weapons in our arsenal for healthy eating is a Traeger smoker, which uses wood pellets to cook/smoke food. They are unbelievably easy to use and the food tastes incredible. There are other similar brands of wood pellet smokers on the market and I am sure some of them are just as good.

Let’s talk price. I will tell you upfront that Traeger smokers are not cheap. In general, eating well is not cheap. But on the flip side, a Traeger allows you to quite easily cook better-tasting food than you can get in almost any restaurant. And once you figure that out and start replacing dining out with food you cook at home, a Traeger will pay for itself quickly.

The Traeger almost magically simplifies and demystifies the whole smoking experience. Suddenly, with almost no effort, you can make foods that are unbelievably good. For example, over the weekend, we smoked chicken, and it was probably the best smoked chicken any of us had ever eaten. Here is what all we did:

* Brined (soaked in salt water) the chicken overnight.

* Lightly coated with Meat Church Gospel and Meat Church Honey Hog seasonings (you can buy these online).

* Smoked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes to an internal temperature of 162 degrees. (You should cook chicken at a relatively high heat so it does not dry out.)

You don’t need a Traeger to eat healthy of course. It is just a thought for those of you that like to eat as much as we do. You can buy Traegers about anywhere online or in your local hardware store. There are many websites where you can research the various models as well. We don’t really think the high-end ones are necessary, but we do recommend you consider one that has the WIFI app capability. It is nice to be able to control your cooking without having to walk out to the smoker so much.

If you are to believe the bombardment of media that comes in your direction, you can stay healthy with careful eating even if you never break a sweat. Or, you may hear that if you work out religiously, you can eat anything you want and stay healthy.

Of course, both perspectives are biased and driven by whatever someone is trying to sell you. And, of course, both are wrong.

A new study came out a few weeks ago addressing this question. The conclusion is neither careful eating nor exercise by themselves will help you live longer.

If you want to reduce your risk of dying, you actually have to both eat healthy and exercise.

Now, according to the study, here is the good news: you don’t have to be extreme. You can eat some unhealthy food from time to time. And, you don’t have to run marathons. You just need an hour or two a week of physical exercise (the kind that makes you sweat).

In other words, you have to be intentional about what you do to protect your body but you do not have to go extreme.

Our advice is something we have said over and over. Don’t follow the latest health fads. Don’t go on an extreme diet. Don’t start working out four hours a day.

Just make some common sense changes in your diet that make it healthier without ruining your life. And find some activities that you enjoy that will get your heart rate up from time to time.That is all you need to get on the right track.

This salsa recipe is light years better than you find in most restaurants, way healthier, and way cheaper. You will be shocked at how good it tastes.

Tip: If you cannot afford the high carb/calorie counts in tortilla chips, slice a cucumber and use the slices as chips. Really pile on the salsa because it is the star of the show.

One 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with juices

One 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes with juices

1 large handful of chopped fresh cilantro (just do it…)

1/4 cup sliced fresh jalapeno pepper (more or less depending on your tolerance of heat)

1/4 cup chopped scallion (or onion)

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 clove of garlic (minced)

Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients with a food processor. Season to taste with salt.

Most of us do not have to overthink our health. You don’t need to follow fads and keep up with every new study. Really, it is just a matter of following some tried-and-true wisdom that has been around a long time.

Here are my six steps to good health that will not wreck your life.

1) Get engaged

Better health starts with a decision, but a decision is not enough in itself. Once you decide to start improving your health, decide what your plan is going to be, and then, make sure you have a way to monitor your progress.

Remember: the metrics you decide to watch are the metrics that are going to improve. 

You simply cannot play around with this and just do healthy things when you feel like it. Rather, it has to become a regular part of your life.

2) Start moving

You don’t have to overdo exercise. You don’t need hour-long workouts. If you feel you have no time to exercise, just find ten minutes a day to do something relatively intense. The important thing is to get started. Ideally, you will eventually exercise closer to 20 minutes/day, but in the beginning, just get started with something.

3) Begin eating better

Don’t punish yourself or make yourself dread upcoming meals. Forget extreme diets and don’t eat foods you don’t like. Rather, just start making intentionally healthier choices about what you eat. Identify unhealthy foods that you can live without and replace them with healthier options that you like too.

4) Make sleep a priority

Identify reasons why you are not sleeping enough and fix them. You might need a more regular schedule or you may simply need better curtains in your room. But, research has shown over and over that sleep is vitally important to your overall health. You can’t ignore sleep quality and stay healthy.

5) Control your media intake

Your emotional/mental health will affect your physical health. Don’t read/watch things that make you anxious, bitter, or angry. Find ways to replace subpar media with great media that will improve your mind. Read well-written fiction, history, or classics. Or, try the Great Courses (my obsession).

6) Don’t beat yourself up 

You will never be perfect with your plan. Some days, you will not feel like exercising, and some days, you will eat junk food. You won’t always sleep well and sometimes you will binge junky media. When that happens, just acknowledge it, move on, and resolve to do better the next day.

If you are doing healthy things and hitting health goals, it is good to celebrate. But, you have to be careful about that because as it turns out, those “rewards” are often devasting. Here is a picture we took this week in an ice cream shop.

Want a milkshake? At this shop, it will cost you up to 2500 calories! In terms of exercise, that is roughly five hours of running or 10 hours of walking.

I can’t prove it, but my guess is that people “rewarding” themselves after a workout leads to an awful lot of weight gain.

Be careful. You cannot out-exercise milkshakes with calories in the four-digit range. I am not saying to never drink a milkshake, but you have to count the cost.