5000 Steps

My employer, a healthcare system, is promoting wellness for bothemployees and our patients. As part of that initiative, we have all been given the opportunity to wear a pedometer that logs our steps, individually, and collectively. As a group, our goal is to reach 1 billion steps this year. Our executive leadership team reached 1 million steps last year.

Well, a few weeks ago, pedometers arrived in my department, and after registering them online, and having an electronic "reader" connected to one of the desktop computers, I was set to go. Knowing that the recommended steps per day was 10,000, I was curious to see where my baseline might be. Keeping in mind, that in the last 2 1/2 years, I had a couple of freak falls and broke my right tibia, and then a year later had a complex fracture of my left knee cap, I have "just" made it to walking on smooth terrain c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y, I was expecting my daily steps to be around 5000 or so. Well, I was far, far short of that mark.

I have come very close to hitting and breaking 5000 steps in a day, but have just fallen short. My "best" days (in the 4500-4800 range) have occurred on days when I have been in a shopping mall. Sad - isn't it? I think I hear a treadmill calling my name.