Ten thousand this, ten thousand that. What on earth were they talking about? I pondered this question as I listened to the chatter going on between several people. Finally I figured out they were talking about steps. Not stair steps, but walking steps that humans do each day. The goal for each individual is 10,000 steps.
In order to keep track of these steps, one needs a gadget, to wear, much like a wrist watch......most kids don't even know what that is...and said gadget will count all the steps one makes in a day.
I thought that was rather silly, why not just count the steps in your head, but the wearers of such gadgetry seem to be on a constant vigil to make sure they attain the golden number of steps. I have even heard people talking to their gadget..."Only so many thousand more steps to go!"
Realizing that I was not getting enough exercise, I decided to start walking. First, I just walked. My jaunt takes me straight uphill. Having not exercised for quite some time, I discovered I could not make it to the top of the hill without having to stop and catch my breath. Runtly, the ever so entertaining Jack Russell Terrier, comes in handy on this walk because he likes to stop and sniff anything that catches his attention and it makes me look like I'm just out taking the dog for a walk. On the times I left him at home, I had to stop along side the road.....three times...... and willingly accept the fact that I was really out of shape. Then I had the splendid idea of counting my steps. Surely ten thousand steps was not that big of a deal. When I got to the top of the hill and counted off the last 100 steps, I could not remember if it was 800 or 900. I decided to just figure how long it took to walk so many steps and divide that into the entire time I walked. My grand total seemed to be somewhere around 3000 steps.
That meant I would need to walk this route a little more than three times a day. Good grief, I thought to myself, who has time for that? I had things to do.....didn't I?
My new young friend Jazzy, being impressed with my walking habit, grabbed my phone the other evening and said, "Let's put an app on your phone that will count your steps!" I agreed to that and we found one for free that even counts steps made throughout the house.
The first day I had walked 4319 steps. I had burned a whopping 206 calories. I had traveled 1.7 miles. I had been active 48 minutes.......I had been physically active less than an hour.....for the whole day. If that was not bad enough, the smart-alec app had the audacity to tell me I was SEDENTARY and then followed that insult up with two words: Do More.
So, now I understood why people talked to their step counting gadgets. I will show that smarty pants app a thing or two....and... from now on, just to get it over with first, I will always eat crow as an appetizer.
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