Tuesday, May 29, 2012

About the pedometry

So yes, they gave us pedometers, for team spirit.  So we can write down every day how many steps we've taken.  I foolishly asked my good friend google what counts as average, - it's 5000 steps, if you're a woman, and 7000 steps if you're a man. The difference between sexes is kind of odd - considering most women are slightly shorter than most men, so you would think they would need to take more steps to cover the same ground.  I have two theories for why this might be - A - Multitasking - women get more done at a time, so can iron while practising harmonica and still manage to nag their husbands (might as well go the whole hog on the stereotyping) and typing too of course.  so they don't need to retrace their steps as often.   B - The method of measurement.   The pedometer is attached to me all day - and there is an honour system whereby the people running the event trust the partakers to enter the correct number.  Now there is a possibility that sometimes men might feel compelled to fib just a tiny bit to make their number look bigger.  I'm not saying they're more competitive than women, but they're more competitive than women.
Anyway - turns out - I'm a smidge below average most days - 1000 or so below if I'm feeling womanly, and a whopping 3 K less on my manly days.  And well short of the 10 thousand steps a day that we're actually really supposed to be taking in order to stay healthy.... I was telling my colleague about it the other day "I think my pedometer is broken" I said, "It never seems to go up, I was sitting there last night waiting for it to go up..." how they laughed....  So I'm lazy - it's been officially diagnosed.

4 comments:

The Dead Acorn said...

I still remember Neil Armstrong's historic utterance upon walking on the moon: "That's one small step for man ..."

followed by a collective "yeah, no shit ..." from the women of the world.

And I'm pretty sure that there will be a pic of me practicing harmonica whilst ironing posted soon.

The Bug said...

We're getting pedometers too! Not to alarm you, but we were given pedometers about 7 years ago & as I faithfully strove toward my 10,000 steps every day I noticed that my left hip stayed sore all the time. That was when I found out I had arthritis in that hip (at the ripe old age of 41!). And thereafter I whined about pain & stopped walking - & gained 50 pounds. Sigh.

So, I have a new hip, a new pedometer, and a new outlook on life. All I really need is someone with a red hot poker to make me GET UP and move.

Howling at the Moon said...

I look forward to reading about the inventive ways you find to add on steps (if you feel compelled to do so). There's walking around in circles before you lay down to sleep (like cats do), walking through the house as you brush your teeth (as a former co-worker's husband did, driving the co-worker crazy)....

Niamh B said...

still awaiting that pic Acorn!
Oh Bug - that just proves exercise doesn't pay! (ah no, am sorta striving too - it's slightly motivating)
Howling - I could never give away my secret ways of gaining steps, but I will tell you I'm pretty sure it's not waterproof, so If I was considering putting it in the washing machine that would not be an option.