Four years ago my wife and I tried the 10,000 step program with a pedometer. We both, at the time, worked in the back office of a financial institution and basically, chained to our desks. It was a revelation to me to see that, even when I would purposely go on a lengthy walk at lunch, I was barely doing 5,000 steps a day. I don't think we ever hit 10,000 in the three months that we did it.

-Regards,

Charley

Your plan makes sense, and–as you say–it is malleable. So you can adapt it as you need to. One suggestion would be to check into the 10,000 Step program. If you get a pedometer and wear it on your belt all day, you'll see how much walking-around exercise you're getting and can increase it bit by bit. It's not intense exercise, but it all counts. There's been a lot of study of this at the Cooper Center in Dallas (founded by Dr. Kenneth Cooper, author of Aerobics).

Let us know how your exercise plan works.

This is your cousin Matt out here in Portland. I commuted by bike everyday out here for 7 years, but unfortunately wasn't doing much else so my body got out of balance. Now I'm doing much better (in fact I feel better physically now than I have in the last 5 years) by riding three days a week and running or walking the other two. But what has has been perhaps as good or better than the exercise/commuting routine has been hitting the gym every day at lunch. There I can do a variety of things: yoga, weight lifting, stair master, swimming, etc THAT I WOULDN'T DO OTHERWISE. So for my experience, your thinking is on the right track: do a variety of exercises and fit them in when it doesn't take away from family time and Charley time.

~matt