Walking

I'm trying to make sure this holiday season that I'm logging 10,000 steps a day, to combat the rising digits on the scale with rising digits on a pedometer. I'm doing ok, but have seen no real change in the scale yet, though a previously unwearable pair of jeans has now become merely tight. That's ok for now. I'm also thinking that setting an average goal of 10,000 steps a day in the new year may be something that gets me up and moving, breaks my sedentary habits, and is an exercise I can actually get my heart into (and hopefully, for the holidays I'll get a cool and more usable pedometer to replace my old but servicable one; unfortunately, the reset on that one is prone to jarring and a heartrending 00000 appears midday.) I don't watch tv or sit around much, other than when computing. After wearing the pedometer for a few days without consciously trying to change my habits (although I suppose I must have just by putting on the pedometer!), I found I logged a baseline of 5,000 or so steps 'natively'. After trying to adjust my habits a little - by following the Jane Fonda credo to "park far and walk" to get in shape, I started to get up and moving more - and that surprisingly nudged me up to around 7000 steps easily. Wow, a 40% change with just a little more thoughtfullness. Yesterday, I put the dog on the leash and we went for a trot; this sent me right up to 13,000+ steps.

I'm also planning to log my steps at walkertracker.com. Check out the nifty widget they have for me, now debuting in my sidebar. I love useless statistics and trivia, and this widget blends them so artfully.