How many times are you at work, standing in line for the elevator? How often do you take the elevator or escalator at the mall or at the workplace instead of taking the stairs? For those of us who are able to take the stairs, why don’t we? I often see abled individuals (who I know are able-bodied) at work standing for several minutes to take the elevator to the next floor, whether it be to the floor above us or to the one below us. Many times, the stairs are just next to the elevator! Are you guilty of this?

Did you know that you burn roughly 10 calories per flight of stairs that you climb? Think about how many opportunities that you may have to climb the stairs at work, and how many calories you could potentially burn.

Let’s look at an example: Assume that you don’t change anything else about your diet or exercise routine (and thereby don’t eat more calories by taking the stairs instead of the elevator). If you take the stairs up one flight of stairs instead of using the elevator 10 times throughout the day, you can burn 100 calories. If you do this every day of the year, for a year, you can lose 10 pounds in a year! It really can be that simple!

If you are in a situation where there are no sets of stairs available, and all you have is an escalator, walk up them! Standard etiquette is to stay to the right on an escalator if you plan to stand there; those who plan to walk up/down the escalator walk on the left. Make sense?

So, today, if you go to a mall, find the stairs to get you to the next level or walk up the escalator. When you go to work, take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you are at a job where you don’t need to take the stairs throughout the day, consider going to another floor when you need to use the restroom instead of going to the one in/right next to the office. Every little bit counts!