Exercise was a big step for me

Column originally published Dec. 4, 2007

Once again, I am a failure. Just as in the past three years, I have fallen woefully short of my goal of walking 2.5 million steps between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31.

Travel back with me to September 2003. My wife and I were living in Clinton, Iowa. Both of us noticed our pants getting a bit snug, but only one of us had a good reason, the proverbial bun in the oven. I had just grown accustomed to eating as much as I want whenever I desired without much consideration for my slowing metabolism.

At the time, I'd read a lot about people who wore pedometers to track their daily walking activities. Most of the sources I came across suggested trekking10,000 steps each day was a fine way to improve physical fitness. After a few days of walking to kill time before evening baseball games, and sure I was racking up steps by the thousands, I spent a few bucks on a bottom-line pedometer. Two things happened. One, I learned exactly how long it took to rack up 10,000 steps. And two, I became addicted to my step counter.

Going back to late October 2003, I have ended every day (or started the next morning) by scribbling down the date, the number of steps I've taken and the distance equivalent, figured at 30 inches per stride. I've filled one notebook and started a second. I also created a computer spreadsheet to help me with the math. The document now calculates my monthly averages and tells me how far off the pace I actually am (let's just say it's in the low six figures).

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