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In Step

Stuart brought home a pedometer a few weeks ago. His company is having a Get Healthy campaign. It seems like waists aren't wasting away these days and so programs must be created to encourage trimness. Employees are divided into teams. Steps are counted and tabulated. The team that walks the most steps wins...something. Stuart doesn't know what. He doesn't even know who is on his team. Team spirit abounds.

After a week or so of keeping track of Stuart's steps, I became curious about my own step count. Wal-Mart offers a variety of pedometers. I purchased GOWalking by Sportline. As soon as I got out of the store I clipped it on. 200 steps around the Mexican restaurant...1000 on the ride home. Driving the Suburban counts as exercise! This is good news for someone who must drive a half hour to the grocery store.

I carried a fifty-pound planter from one end of the yard to the other. I huffed and puffed. Sweat dripped into my eyes. Eight steps read the digital display...Eight steps! You've got to be kidding!

I mowed the entire back yard in 500 steps. I took the same amount of steps this morning when I made potato pancakes. Funny, I didn't feel nearly as tired after the pancakes as I did when the yard was finished. In fact, I had so much energy left, I vacuumed the entire house...200 steps.

Sweeping the back patio, pool deck, and front walkway...2 hours...50 steps. (I would use the leaf blower but I have no control whatsoever with that thing.) Taebo only registers when I move the left side of my body. I tried moving the pedometer in the middle of my waist instead of my left hip...nothing...not a single step.

I'm up to about 9000 steps today out of my goal of 10,000. I think I'll go read in the rocker and knock off the last thousand.

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