For example if you are a train traveler simply by parking a station further down the line and walking to your normal station. Then getting off a station early you can add up to 6000 steps to your day.

If you take the tram to work, walk. An hour to half an hour walk will rack up 3000-5000 steps. If you do just this twice a day, you will be reaching your allocated steps.

Making Saturday or Sunday your family walking day is also a great way to get some exercise together, debrief the weeks events, and also become closer as a family.

You will be amazed about what walking together achieves.

It is a great way to re-connect with your loved ones.

If you take your children to play at a park near home, walk rather than taking the car. In fact if you are going anywhere within a half an hour radius don’t drive, walk.

By doing this you will show your children that walking is a normal part of life, for them it will start to become strange when they get a lift in the car.

This is what we need as a society, a generation of children who re-connect with physical activity. The only way to slow the growing rates of childhood obesity, is for parents to show the way.

Children may idolize rock stars or sporting heroes, but their parents are their true role models.

Their lives will follow the pattern their parents lay out in front of them.

The following chart converts steps to both kilometers and time. It is a good way for you to decide when and where you will walk and when and where you will drive.

2000 steps is approximately 1km and should take 15 to 20 minutes

4000 steps is approx 2km and should take half an hour

6000 steps is approx 3km and should take approx 45 minutes

8000 steps is approx 4km and should take around an hour

10000 steps is approx 5km and should take an hour and a half.

12000 steps is approx 6km and should take around an hour and 45 minutes.

So you can see finding time to get your step count up to 10,000 is not as hard as it sounds. Three 30 minute walks a day, one in the morning, one at lunch and one after dinner is more than enough.