Ten thousand steps

You know those ads you see which tell you that you can have this body is 6 weeks?  Yeah, that never worked for me either. 

About two years ago I got my first fitbit.  I’ve always struggled with fitness (and weight,  but that’s another issue) and though I live in NYC and walk everywhere,  once I put the fitbit on,  I saw that I was walking less than I thought.  I was averaging about 6,000 steps a day, whereas current wisdom is 10,000 steps for maintenance, 12,000 steps for weight loss.   So I wore it for a couple of months, and some days made 10,000 but I don’t think I made 70,000 a week once for that first year.  I lost it when I was shopping, trying on clothes, and it took me about 3 months to replace.

But I like the fitbit,  I like the calm relentlessness of the numbers,  you can’t cajole or argue with it,  you either met goal or you didn’t.  So I bought another one.  That one I killed by accidentally putting it in the washing machine.  That took about 2 months to replace.

After a year or so, I realized I was actually walking more.  I was doing 10,000 or close most days,  and it was less of a struggle to do so.  I still didn’t always make 70,000 a week,  but I was in the 60’s most weeks,  occasionally hitting goal.  When the new puppy ate my last fitbit,  I looked up on ebay (I was sick of paying full amount) and bought one the next day.  I wear it all the time now, and this year,  maybe 2 years in,  I average 12,000 steps a day,  definitely make 70,000 steps a week.

I’m not telling you this to gloat, but to say that a journey of a thousand steps starts with the first one.  My first year was far from stellar, the graph is definitely not a clear progression, lots of loops and pauses there.  It’s an incremental journey, but one that you can absolutely see results from a few years down the track…