Measuring Activity is an Eye Opener

So last week I bought a pedometer. Weight Watchers encourages us to have a goal to walk 10,000 steps a day. [the above picture is not their most current pedometer, it's the only one I could find to post.]

Oh my! I am woefully lacking. After wearing the pedometer for close to a week I have found that I barely get 5,000 steps in a day just in my normal daily routine.

We went out shopping for most of the day on Tuesday and even with all the walking around the stores I still came up short on the 10,000 mark.

It's interesting how we think we, um...I mean, how I think I am getting in a lot of activity until I have something that measures that activity. What a shockeroo!!!!

There have been maybe 3 days where I made it to at least 8,000 steps...and I felt like all I did was walk...lol!!!

My hubby showed me a website about walking 10,000 steps a day and I was encouraged to see that they tell you to work up in increments. thewalkingsite.com/10000steps

"A reasonable goal for most people is to increase average daily steps each week by 500 per day until you can easily average 10,000 per day."

I'm glad to read this because after seeing how few steps I actually get I don't feel so overwhelmed trying to get in 10,000. I'll just do my best at getting as many steps a day as I can and keep increasing them each week until I reach the goal of at least 10,000 steps a day. It may take a while but that's ok because I believe increasing them in small increments will help me to make this into a lifestyle.

And making it into a lifestyle is doable and worth the time and effort, especially doing it a little at a time. I figure it's like wanting to run a marathon. If you aren't a runner you can't expect to enter a marathon and be able to run it without training and building up your endurance. This is no different.

It may seem silly to some that I am in essence training myself to walk 10,000 steps but I know that in the big picture of my life and my health it will be well worth it. And hopefully my example will also challenge my family to do the same.