Stepping it up

For some reason the end of summer is when I put on a few pounds. I don't know why but it's like this every year. I generally get back on track in the fall and spend the winter inside on the treadmill. This year I'm trying to curtail the "end of summer blubber" by buying a pedometer. I was reading an article that said getting 10,000 steps a day is great for overall health and a great way to get moving every day. 10,000 steps equals out to 5 miles of walking a day. So onto Amazon I went and bought a nice little digital pedometer. It's not one of those clicking kind. You know, the ones that audibly "click" every time you take a step? Apparently those are not very accurate. I bought a Omron HJ-321 and it works great. I like how it tracks 7 days worth of data. How many steps, miles and calories. Oh and it was cheap, under $17.

So I've been wearing this bad boy for over a week now and I gotta say, it is hard to get 10,000 steps a day! I'd say I'm a fairly active person and I get to about eight thousand step every day. This is even with 45 minutes on the treadmill. I find myself just walking around the house to get a few hundred more steps in. Last night after I fed the animals I walked in circles around the back yard to get to my quota. The neighbors must think I'm nuts. In the last seven days I've only reached my quota twice. How sad.

I took the kids to the playground at the school in town over Labor Day. They were playing and I was walking. Then I look up and discover a big lake next to the school that wasn't there before. They had been working on, what I thought, was a big ditch for years. Then one day it turned into a lake. The city had poured a nice sidewalk around it and put a fishing dock in as well. It was awesome and the kids and I walked around it thoroughly enjoying ourselves. It's funny, you can grow up in a town and never know something like a small lake was created right in the middle of it.

Anyways, it's been a fun way to try and become more active. That little pedometer has kick started my activity level after a long, hot summer. So looking forward to getting outside more in the upcoming, cooler months.