I have a new obsession. It’s a healthy one, but I still think I need to come clean. I obsess about the thing night and day – I always make sure it is somewhere near if not physically on my person because without it touching me, all the work I do won’t count. Sure, walking is good for your health, but if the FitBit isn’t counting, what’s the point?

It started innocently enough when my fittest friend – and by fittest what I really mean is not human, insane and totally, completely, unbeatable unless you sleep 2 to 3 hours a day on average – suggested to me that I download the FitBit app  so we could track each other’s exercise.  What she really meant is so she could track me.

She is my personal trainer and best friend.  A great gift most of the time, even when she is attempting to kill me in the newest form of run up the mountain as fast as you can having sat on the couch for the last year marathon. Oh, and let’s be sure to do that in the snow with snowshoes and crampons. Ice is fun! Snow is better!

 

I am a month or two into my newfound desire (again) to chase her up the mountains a minimum of three times a week, and she is kicking my ass. While I work sitting and live sedentary, she works nights, hikes daily, and occasionally takes a cat nap to recharge her batteries. On an average day she is at roughly 12,000 steps. I started at 335.

This week began with these words – “Let’s see if you can beat me.”

Being a competitive spirit and totally carrot driven, this was a game I could get behind. My goal is 10,000 steps a day; which, by the way, is the American Heart Association standard.  That translates to roughly 5 miles per day. I did the math to prove it, and verified with Google. Likely more mileage for her as she stands 5’2” on a tall day to my 5’9” on a short one.  Doesn’t matter, she bench presses her 50 pound backpack when she’s not wearing it to impress the mammogram lady with her chest muscles. Each press counts as a step.

I am three days into the 10K a day challenge, and she has beaten me every single day because I have the audacity to sleep. She gained 3,000 steps working until 5 a.m. while I slept.  You can see how this game is rigged. She’ll be back up before lunch running some poor soul up the mountain and I’ll be pacing my office in the hopes of gathering a step or two more.

Last night, I paced the living room until I exhausted my poor dogs. They happily trotted around with me for the first 3,000 steps before collapsing in a heap in my path in the hopes of figuring out what had gotten into the crazy lady.  I told them I would stop when the darn phone beeped  my success. It happened at 11:34 p.m. mere minutes before the 24 hour clock ran out. I was exhausted.

Today, I awoke, went to the barn for morning chores, walked back and forth to my garage twice in search of my coffee cup (this is easily 200 steps each way), and I ran around the house preparing myself for work only to find the phone was sitting on my dresser the whole time.

Forty minutes until she’s up again. I’m going for a walk.