Walk On By

I'm not really sure why, but I got it in my head a few weeks back that I wanted to buy a pedometer. I guess I had heard that a person should walk 10,000 steps per day in order to maintain a good fitness level. I go to the gym three to four times per week, but my gym opens too late in the morning for Mrs. TBF to go. I thought that walking might be a form of fitness that Mrs. TBF and I can do together (awwwwww!), so I bought us both pedometers at Dick's Sporting Goods when I was in Chicago last week. They were cheap; something like $14.99 each.

I put my pedometer on right after I bought it, and I was fairly surprised to find that I had difficulty walking 10,000 steps per day while I was in Chicago. As a matter of fact, I had a bit of a problem walking over 5,000 steps per day. I think there was one day when I hit 7,000 steps, but that was only because my sister (pushing my frozen, 16-month old niece in the stroller) and I went for a fairly long walk in order for me to "...get in more steps". On most days, I was averaging between 4,000 and 5,000 steps. Granted, I wasn't really making an effort to exercise because I was "...on vacation from doing nothing" as my friend Dave likes to say, but I found it interesting how much less walking I was doing in the "driving society" that America is than I normally do when I'm home in Basel.

Zip ahead a few days, and now I'm back in Basel. As you can see from the picture of my pedometer that I took before going to bed in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, I managed to top 11,000 steps for the day - no problem. The longest walks I made yesterday were to the grocery store (a 7-minute walk) and to the dry cleaners (about a 10-minute walk). Other than those strolls, there was nothing really out of the ordinary.

Right now as I'm writing, I just took a look at my pedometer and I'm happy to report that I'm currently at 10,165 steps which comes out to 4.81 miles. DAMN! Who would'a thunk it?

According to the little booklet that was included with the pedometer, walking...

burns almost as many calories as jogging

slims your waist

lowers blood pressure

lessens anxiety & tension

is easy on your joints (i.e. my "glass" knees)

can be done when you're traveling (i.e. Mrs. TBF)

...just to list a few things.

Hey, maybe I'll go out and buy some of those nordic walking poles, put on a green felt hat, and a dour expression, and...

OH...MY...GOD!

I'm becoming a SWISSY!!!!