The Self-Care Solution by Jennifer Ashton M.D

Author:Jennifer Ashton, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-12-29T16:00:00+00:00

Week 3

How More Steps Can Suppress Appetite and Kill Cravings

The week started with consecutive mornings on GMA, then long hours in my medical office both days as I saw patients I’d been unable to see the previous week. My steps were consistent with busy workdays, as I tallied only 3,889 steps the first day and 4,963 steps the second.

Midway through the week, I took another night flight, this time to Paris, fitting in a quick twenty-minute walk on the treadmill before I had to head to the airport. I tried to add some extra steps while waiting to board, but when I took my seat, I had only 4,584 steps for the day. I was disappointed the week now seemed to be off to a bumpy start, but I knew, as I tried to get some sleep on the plane, that I would be able to walk as much as I wanted in Paris. The trip was purely for pleasure—a short vacation with my friend Laura—and it would be great to see the city in a way I never had before.

If there was a theme to the next three days, it would have been Vive le Marche: all we did was walk. Laura was generous enough to allow me to lead her just about everywhere on two feet, which we did to nearly all our destinations. She had a Fitbit, so we spent many hours over café comparing how many steps her device reported she took compared to my iPhone. Interestingly, the step counter was consistently 20–25 percent lower in steps than the Fitbit, which made me feel better about my pathetic walking days earlier in the week. And it made me even more impressed by what we did in Paris, logging 16,513 steps the first day, 10,401 steps the second day, and 19,021 steps on the last day—my record for the month to date.

On the plane home, I was definitely fatigued from all the walking, but I didn’t have any aches or pains, not even in my knees. I also didn’t have a single blister: I had worn gym sneakers almost the entire time, purposely planning my outfits so I wouldn’t look like a tacky American tourist but wouldn’t feel hindered when I walked. That last day, I logged only 3,412 steps, but I wasn’t upset. Instead, I looked at my weekly average, which was an impressive, for me, 9,212 steps.

After Paris, I also felt my appetite drop. It was already low after my June hydration month, but this was getting impressive: despite spending three days in a country known for its butter croissants, chocolate soufflés, and other rich food, I hadn’t been as tempted by these treats as I normally would have been. Plus, I was far more mindful about my wine consumption, after January’s dry month, so I wasn’t consuming as many calories from alcohol as I might normally while on vacation.

At the end of the week, I had lost another pound and a half—while taking a trip to Paris, of all times.

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