Library fitness

A short while ago, some of my colleagues heard about a ‘pedometer challenge’ that was being run in another department in the University. They thought it might be a good idea to get involved and try to encourage people to move away from their desks at breaks/lunchtimes. A small group of interested people signed up to take part and I have to say the results have been quite interesting.

I was pretty confident that I ran about a lot during the day – my office is at the other side of the floor from the rest of the staff and I feel that I am constantly going back and forth between the two areas. 10000 steps per day? I’m sure I do that, no problem. Er, no, as it turns out, how far you think you walk in a day and how many steps you actually take is quite different! I started off with one of those cheap pedometers, but I was sure it wasn’t very accurate (and I kept accidentally resetting it by leaning against my desk) so armed with my Nectar points, off I went to Argos where I bought myself a Fitbit wristband. I have never become so addicted to something in my life! It keeps a very accurate record of your movements during the day and when synced with the app, you can see how many steps you have taken on a graph at 15 minute intervals. It has shamed me into moving away from my desk as much as possible! Previously, I would send various items to the printer then pick them up all at once the next time I was at the MFD. Not now. I will go and pick up my prints every time I send them!  Arrive at work early? I’ve started running up the stairs from level 2 to level 12 (so far I can get to level 9 before having to walk the rest but that’s better than when I started!). Nice weather at lunchtime? 40 minute power walk round the park! Even then, I’m not hitting 10000 steps per day but I’m getting close!  Once or twice a week we’ll try to get a group of 4 or 5 people together to go out for a lunchtime walk but I actually find I quite like walking on my own. The worst thing was seeing my results for a Saturday – clearly I sit around most of the day watching tv or knitting! I have now shamed myself into walking round the village where I live on a Saturday afternoon (I do however feel that I should borrow a dog from one of my neighbours as dog-walkers look at me as if I’m mad out walking without an obvious reason!).  One of my colleagues mentioned that in the US, mall-walking is a big thing where people just power walk round shopping malls. She wondered if we could do that in the library on days when the weather is bad – wouldn’t that be a sight to behold!

So, if you see me at the FIL conference walking around talking to people and you think I’m actively socialising you’ll know I’m secretly just trying to increase my step count for the day! 

Joanne