"The pedometer tells me i'm going to die"
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
My brother and his wife are out visiting me in NYC--and he brought his pedometer!
My brother, like all good Southern Californians, does not walk all that much. However, a recent article in Men’s Health Magazine stated that to maintain health, one should walk about 10,000 steps per day. Having measure his normal activity (waking up, getting into his car, walking into his office, walking out of his office, and driving back home), he determined that the 2000 footsteps he took per day were not enough to save him from the slavering maw of a fatty, artery-clogged death.
Hence, he now keeps track of how close he is to that maw on a daily basis. The numbers do not rise much above 2000.
EXCEPT this week. He and his wife are walking ALL OVER NEW YORK. I think the first day, they clocked about 18,000 steps. That’s like a bijillion percent increase from normal activity! Even *I’m* tired walking with them, and I walk a lot every day! As of tonight, they’ve clocked about 24,000 and they’re still out there walking! Yay! Back fatty fatty death! You may not have my brother! (not quite yet at least)
So the take home lesson for today is: Pedometers are cool. I want one.
Have you ever noticed that on one hand, you have health nuts lamenting the loss of childhood playtime, and occasionally even of manual labor like field work. People were “naturally” active. And then you have the freaks who MEASURE THEIR EVERY STEP. The complete antithesis to free-spirited, impulsive activity. But sure, it’s cool in a terribly anal-retentive sort of way. Hey! If you walk backwards, does it demerit steps?
Posted by on 06/18 at 11:06 AM