Ten thousand steps
Sunday, 5 August 2007
On the way home from viewing yet another house in North Shields on Friday afternoon (which was very nice, but absence of garage (or any other feature on the list) = vetoed, so watch this space) I impulsively stopped at Argos and emerged quite a long time later (massive queue moving slower than the average snail) equipped with new hand-held weights, a gym ball and a pedometer, which is one of those things you clip to your belt and which records how many steps you've taken over the course of a day. After a thorough read of August's 'Zest' magazine, I have ascertained that we should all be aiming for 10,000 per day but that many people achieve only 3/5 of that (Mother Muir will not be impressed if I don't cancel the fraction), so decided to put my own daily journey to the test with the aid of this new toy. Once Ben had shown me how to work it, I affixed it to the appropriate area of my clothing and strode variously around the flat, the supermarket, Ben's parents' house and to the pub and back. At bedtime I peered at the display and lo! - in common with all those other sedentary ladies alluded to by 'Zest', I had achieved only a measly 6,000ish. And given that 14 of those were magically achieved whilst travelling to Derbyshire in the car, I'm already starting to question its reliability after only 24 hours of ownership. Today's total is even worse - at 8:12pm, I have racked up a mere 3,873! Unimpressive, I feel, although the day was spent at a barbeque at the Merrick family compound and the only significant distance travelled was between the garden and the fridge whilst carrying a bowl of fruit punch - hardly a normal day at school, but it's still slightly embarrassing to have achieved such a small percentage of the ideal. 'Zest' assures me that women who walk 10,000 steps or more per day have smaller waists, a healthier weight and better BMI than - it seems - people like me. This is perfect timing because I have lately been mulling over the idea of trying to make one's own little corner of the world a better place in various ways, and perhaps today's realisation will force me out of the car and onto the pair of (tiny) feet that God gave me, reducing my carbon footprint and my waist measurement in one handy fell swoop. Ben already walks 4 miles a day so while we still live in Heaton I shall be following his excellent example. And the lovely Fiona Smail has challenged me to do 40 sit-ups for every episode of The OC and The West Wing watched during the summer; Ben's just pointed out that I already owe 160, so I'd better go and start crunching!
posted by fiona @ 20:00
3 Comments:
- At 08 August 2007 14:06, Anne Witton said...
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Haha!! I used to have a pedometer which I loved, even though all my colleagues mocked. I was distraught when it broke, although I suspect mine wasn't terribly accurate either as it used to notch up steps when I bent over to tie my shoes laces or coughed vigorously.
- At 10 August 2007 18:04, Nick said...
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This post has been removed by the author.
- At 10 August 2007 18:15, Nick Jones said...
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Pedometers are wildly inaccurate (at least, the cheapy ones which just register strong vibrations are). Perhaps you could invest the money saved from the reduced petrol and cake consumption on paying someone to walk behind you and count your steps instead?!
