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by wonder_er 427 days ago
often-enough after a meal, I feel an impulse to walk a little bit, and I do. I live in a 5-floor building with roof access, thus six total flights of stairs.

I find myself walking down from my middle floor level to the first floor, then to the top, and then the bottom, and the top again, often enough, after a meal.

My body contains 4.5 liters of blood and I sometimes imagine pumping it a few times through my system to help the rest of my body process the meal.

This is especially true if the meal was carby/sugary. Instead of lying there motionless and making my insulin do all the work of bringing my blood sugar back to normal, I imagine myself "pumping" the sugary blood through something that is happy enough to do something with the sugar (your/my muscles, as walking up 12 flights of stairs obviously accomplishes).

I am on the margins "athletic", but some days find myself at the end of a pretty sedentary day.

I _always_ am thrilled to have a single airpod in and listen to a book while meandering 12 flights of stairs, even if it's late, like, midnight. I've 100% done that a few times, and i find it helps me sleep well. Maybe the lack of exercise + insulin spike + no muscle activity usage of blood sugar would disrupt my sleep more than having pumped the sugary blood through muscles a few times.

I quite like this for me. I've lived in this building longer than I've made use of the convenience of walking up these flights of stairs. Some days I do 40+ flights of stairs!!! Even I am impressed. But doing them simply a few times a day, two or three trips. 12-18 flights at a time. Adds up quickly, obviously.

1 comments

isn't it unhealthy to exercise after meals?
Depends a lot on the person and what they've just eaten and how they're exerting themselves.

Light to moderate activity to help keep glucose levels flat-ish is almost certainly a net positive.