What's this?

John has a habit of deciding that it's time for laundry to be done. He carries the laundry basket to the laundry room, puts a load in the washer, turns it on and forgets about it. The wet clothes sit in the washer until I realize they're in there and move things along in the process. I made a silent protest today by dumping all of his dry clothes in a pile on the bed without folding them. As far as Spike was concerned, it was all good.

Back in the days when I had a Fitbit, I became obsessed with the 10,000 steps/day maxim. When I realized that, 
a) it didn't give me any credit for Pilates classes and
b) I was walking around and around the kitchen counter at the end of the day just to to reach the magic number,
I gave my Fitbit to my grandson who had excess energy to work off and I thought he could use the step count motivation to run around more. Then I discovered that my phone had been tracking my steps, unbeknownst to me on the preactivated health app. That struck me as both creepy and probably inaccurate. 

Now that I'm more or less unable to walk more than a few thousand steps a day I've been thinking about it even more. Why 10,000 steps? Why did that number suddenly become the Holy Grail of exercising? In me anyway, it seemed to create an obsession which took away some of the enjoyment I get from walking.

Some research* reveals that the first mention of 10,000 steps came from an a most unlikely and certainly ironic source. In 2004 McDonald's, under pressure to provide healthier food introduced its "Go Active" campaign...Happy Meals for adults containing a bottle of water, a salad and, instead of a toy, a so-called 'stepometer', pushed by no other than Oprah's trainer, Bob Greene, who suggested 10,000 steps as a worthy goal. Millions of 'stepometers' were distributed. 

The stepometers were, as one might imagine, c**p, and the campaign was withdrawn after a few months, but in the meantime the suggestion of 10,000 steps took hold and is still with us. Why not 45 minutes? or some other form of exercise? or anything that is enjoyable? Or something one can do when one is pissed off about not being able to walk?

To be continued...maybe

*Outside Magazine Business Journal
July 1, 2004