Middle America's Worldview

As you 3-5 viewers might have guessed now, my job has me in front of a PC all day. I guess you can call it a desk job. If I am not in a conference call, viewing a webex, or simply working on projects, I monitor interfaces. Many times, all at the same time. Irregardless, I am in front of my PC all day long.

Last Christmas,I was given a pedometer. Out of curiosity, I wondered how many steps I really took each day.

Before I show my number of steps, check this out.

How many steps per day are enough? Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke has been studying pedometer walking and released a new opinion in the January, 2004 issue of "Sports Medicine."

10,000 Steps a Magic Number?

A goal of 10,000 steps per day has become common, based on promotion in Japan by pedometer companies and its adoption by walking clubs. But there was no body of research to back up that number. Numbers as low as 6000 steps a day were shown to be correlated with a lower death rate in men in the Harvard Study.

Many people view 10,000 steps a day as too few for children, yet not achievable by many who are aged, sedentary, or who have chronic diseases. Some suggest instead of using a blanket 10,000 steps per day that instead the goal be based on the individual's baseline plus an increment of steps. For example, a woman who wears a pedometer in her ordinary activities notes that she logs 4000 steps per day. Her goal should be to add the equivalent of a half hour of walking to her day, for example 2000-3000 more steps per day.

They say average number of steps is 3000 per day.

So here are my steps. I noticed the higher ones are those days, I had extra activities (errands) in the evenings. I didn't "try" to walk any more. I just did my normal routine.

Mon- 3391
Tue- 2360
Wed- 2124
Thur- 773
Fri- 147
Sat- 5351
Sun- 6540

Total all week, 20686.

So, if I took the 10,000 rule, only 2 days of walking done in a full week.
Wow.