Steps In Time...

Most people measure their days by minutes and hours. A few might use calories or carbs consumed in a day. For the last 2 weeks though, my days have been measured by the number of steps I walk. When the university I work for joined a walking program and offered pedometers at a tremendously discounted price, I figured why not.

So now my days are measured by the number of steps I take. It’s quite amazing how few steps I take, especially during the work week. Its one of the downfalls of having a desk/computer based job. So I am now trying to park a little further from the office. I walk the long way to the restroom. Walk over to the University Center more often. I’ll take the stairs more often than before. But I will embarrassingly admit I have taken the elevator and just paced back and forth while waiting on it. I probably racked up more steps that way than actually using the stairs.

There are a couple of different recommendations. One is to aim for 10,000 steps a day. Another is to increase your daily count by 2000 steps. I’m just aiming right now to increase.

I’ve gotten hooked though. First thing I do in the morning and put on my pedometer. Can’t let any steps get away uncounted. I forgot my pedometer the other day and it bothered me. Partly because I wasn’t going to get an official step count for the day but also because I knew it would be a high count day. I had to walk across campus to teach a class. And when I teach, I pace a lot.

My lowest days have been in the 4,000’s and my highest day was just over 10,000. That was the day my sister and I had a yard sale. I usually average between 5,000 and 7,000. Today, I’m only at 862 so I guess I need to finish this up and start doing some chores or something to get the count up. Maybe I’ll hide the remote and force myself to walk over to the tv to change channels today or leave my drink in the kitchen so I have to walk all the way over there to get another sip. Creativity is kicking in…