Typically, I sit in the Method office from around 8:30am to 6:00pm. I get up to go to the bathroom, to get coffee, and to harass my co-workers when I am feeling lonely.
But, since our Operations Manager extraordinaire, Saudia, started a company-wide steps competition on May 1st, this has all changed.
The average number of steps one should take a day is around 7000 to 8000. The average number of steps I achieved was roughly …far less than that.
So, when it was first announced Methoders were participating in a steps competition to get fit for the summer, I immediately left the email unread for another two weeks.
But there was a buzz around the office. People were already tracking their steps. Conversations were focused around how much walking was done the previous day. People were excited about exercising.
And so I downloaded a pedometer app to my phone and signed up on the last day. On May 1st, we started our little competition, and I’ve been sore ever since.
I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I don’t really like walking. Sure, I go to the gym and put some treadmill time in, but walking is a whole different beast. You can spend hours of your time walking and going nowhere, but that’s what I do now.
Every morning and evening I spend forty minutes walking to work. I spend my lunch hour walking. And when I go home, I ask my wife to go on walks with me.
Am I driven to win this competition? Heck, no! There’s no way! The top competitors nearly double my daily steps, and I take a break on the weekends so Alex no longer calls me “Mr. Hobbly”.
But I’m enjoying the walks. I feel I’m getting the exercise that has been sorely missing in my day. And if ever I’m in a situation of uncomfortable silence with a co-worker, we can talk about how many steps we’ve done.
Ok, I kid, my co-workers are awesome. They think I’m a bit weird, I think, but hey, so does my family.
In the end, I hope to continue my daily walks well past May. It doesn’t really add that much time to my commute, and I can get healthy to boot!
