Week 3: A Little More Effort

It is now 10:00 pm, and I just climbed into bed after walking laps around my bedroom. Yes, you read that correctly. I was walking laps around my bedroom so I could reach my 3,000 steps a day goal for this week. I surely couldn't let myself, my readers, and my fellow team members down by not increasing my goal again this week.

Although 3,000 steps still is not that many compared to the miles I walked last summer, it does take a little more effort than walking around the house every day and easily clocking 2,000 steps. I can saunter around the house all day, picking up this, picking up that, letting my dogs out, getting a cup of tea, making dinner, looking out the window, or whatever random thing I am doing, and easily pick up 2,000 steps. Today, it was not so easy to get to 3,000 steps.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

First of all, I forgot to charge my smartwatch last night, so I had to wait until around noon to put it on. All the steps I did this morning making breakfast, putting dishes away, and doing a load of laundry were lost to the universe. Around lunchtime, I put my smartwatch on, so I could go sit at my desk and work most of the afternoon. Like many people these days, most of my work involves a sedentary activity which means that I have to make myself get up and move around.

My second issue occurred at dinner time. I looked down at my smartwatch, and I only had completed 1,700 steps. I was 1,300 steps shy of my goal. I thought to myself, "I can easily do this before I go to bed." Within half an hour, I was at 2,020 steps. I went back into my office, sat down at my desk, and started working some more. The next thing I knew, my dogs were sniffing around my office, which is their cue to tell me, "Hey lady, we need to go outside, and it's time for bed." I got up and let them out. My watch said, 2,700 steps. I still had 300 steps left before I could take off my watch and call it a day.

I let the dogs in and we all marched to the bedroom to get ready to go to sleep. I brushed my teeth...still wearing my smartwatch. I picked up the bedroom, put my shoes away, folded laundry, whatever needed to be done, so I could get my steps in. I looked down. 2,900 steps. I thought, "Is this thing working? Surely, I have done 300 steps." That is when I started doing the aforementioned laps around the bedroom. Finally, I looked at my counter. 3,038. I took my watch off and laid it on the charger. I decided I was not going to miss my morning steps tomorrow.