2000 Days of 10,000 Steps or More

A few years ago, after I mentioned my morning workouts in conversation, a co-worker looked quizzically at me and said, “You work out?” Yes. I do. I may not be buff, slender, and sculpted, but I am fit. I work out every day. I have worked out daily for more than thirty years – and I hate it. 

When I began working out, I went to a gym on my way home from school. I was self-conscious and nervous, but I didn’t have any equipment at home and I didn’t know what I was doing. I needed the trainers to show me how to use the weights and machines. 

In addition to weights, I swam. I like swimming, partially because it doesn’t feel like I am sweating when I am all wet. It is clear that I am when I stop. I thought of swimming as my aerobic exercise. 

One day, I got to the gym and found that the pool was under construction. It would be under construction for a long time. Impulsively, I got on one of the stationary bikes and used that instead. I found that I liked the bike. I watched the news on the gym televisions or listened to music. It was clear to me that I was getting a better workout on the bike than I got in the water. Then it occurred to me: I could buy a stationary bike and work out at home! 

From that moment, I did at least a half hour on the bike every morning. I worked hard. It was my concession to physical fitness. It was like taking vitamins or eating vegetables. But watching my recorded TV shows made it tolerable and I didn’t have much time to watch TV.

A few years ago, I figured out that my iPhone was counting my steps. It didn’t count steps when I was on the bike, but it did keep track of my steps throughout my day. So I made a goal to get at least 10,000 steps daily. I realize that 10,000 is an arbitrary number, but I needed some kind of benchmark. 

After a year of doing this, I wanted to do better. I increased both the number of steps I took a day and the average steps per week and month. And I started using our home treadmill in addition to my stationary bike in the morning. 

I got a majority of my steps at school. I would have about 9000 steps by the end of sixth period. My last two periods of the day were usually my freshmen. They needed a lot of attention. When the day ended, I would usually have about 13,000 steps. Yes, flying around classrooms with students who needed attention was worth around 4000 steps! 

When I retired, my goal was to maintain my amount of movement. I had more time, so I increased the length and intensity of my treadmill walks. I walked longer and, as the walk continued, I increased the speed. 

During the pandemic, my children came home. My daughter brought her dog and I became a dog walker. In addition to my treadmill workout in the morning, I walked the dog at least two times a day. Even after my daughter and her dog went back east, I still take one or two additional outdoor walks each day in almost all weather. 

Since the end of January 2017, I have walked at least 10,000 steps a day. My monthly averages have gone up steadily and now are in between 16,000 and 18,000 steps a day depending on the season. It is sometimes too cold or wet for outdoor walks and I will take an easier treadmill walk in its place. My neighbors joke that I need a dog. No, thank you. 

I still don’t look great in a bathing suit. I am not a muscular hunk. I am a little flabby, but when the nurse took my EKG at my physical, she said, “You must be a runner!” I told her, no, I am a walker!

1000 Days of Retirement: What Keeps You Busy?

Whatever I want. 

I thought about leaving it at that. Seriously, asking people what they are going to do when they retire or what they are doing in retirement is akin to asking what comes next to high school and college seniors. 

Before I retired, I would tell people that I was going to take a gap year and just figure things out. I would also joke that I was going to become a pirate. It is difficult to plan for retirement when one doesn’t know what it will look like. 

And now, 1000 days later, I am still figuring it out. Of the 1000 days since I retired, 720 of them have been during the COVID pandemic. At least once a week, someone says some variation on, “you retired at the right time.” Yes, I did. I deserve no credit for it. 

What have I been doing in retirement? A great deal! However, the big difference is that I am busy without being frenetic. I call it easy busy. One of the best things about retirement is that I get more control of the pace, and I have been trying to slow things down. When I list what I do on a particular day or week, it is much less than in my life when I was working.  That is one of the best things about retirement: it is reasonable.  

I love my slow mornings. As a high school teacher, I awoke at 5:15, did a half-hour workout, put my lunch together, took care of whatever home tasks had to be done in the morning, and got to school in the 7:15 range. Now, I can sleep a little later, although my body is still trained for early rising. My workout is now about an hour long. I take time making a far more interesting breakfast and read my morning feeds. 

After that, my activities fall into a few categories: 

I am getting to things I did not have time to do while I was working. We cleaned the basement during COVID, redecorated my daughter’s room into a new study and media room (which I call my ready room), and began a project of scanning and organizing old photos and documents. I have some plans to do some learning activities once we are less concerned about COVID. 

One of my worries about retirement was that I would become disconnected from my friends, especially those for whom my main connection was school. So I am very purposeful about sending emails, making lunch dates, and keeping in touch. When we were locked down, this turned into more phone and video calls as well as texts and emails. But with or without the pandemic, socializing has become a far greater part of my day-to-day life than it was while I was teaching. 

I am very active in my congregation. I planned our twentieth-anniversary celebration, run the fundraising, and teach in our Sunday school. I used to coordinate the oneg Shabbat food after Friday night services, but we haven’t done that since the pandemic began. However, I am still in charge of announcements. I am delighted to be singing in our choir again! 

I coordinate two science fiction book clubs. I volunteer with the planning of the World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, which will be on Labor Day weekend downtown.  The pandemic made conventions more challenging. I attended a few virtual cons and have attended two in-person conventions in the last few months. 

I am spending more time and energy with my family. My children came home during the summer of 2020 and I helped with whatever they needed. I was walking my daughter’s dog, fixing meals, helping with technology, and helping my son move to Detroit and drive my daughter back to DC. Speaking of technology, I am the IT help desk for my folks and a few others. 

My family involvement includes more formal family structures. My wife, cousins and I are forming a family council. I have become the bookkeeper for our family's philanthropic activities. My involvement in our family business has increased far beyond what I anticipated. In fact, being more connected to the family business was a bit of a retirement surprise. 

I really really like to read. I have been reading RSS feeds, books, short stories, articles, non-fiction, and lots of other things. I have to be careful or I might read a day (or more) away! 

Before the pandemic, my wife and I would go to live theatre regularly as well. We love to travel and planning our trips took lots of time and energy. These are slowly returning. We have seen some plays at the high school. We went on a trip to California and I am planning trips to be with our kids. The more time I spend on travel planning, the more traveling we can do! 

Oh, yeah, and I grew a beard. 

Yet, when someone asks, “what keeps you busy,” I am at a loss to provide what I think would be a satisfying answer. Now I can just tell them to read this! 

A Year of Ten Thousand Steps

I have been counting my steps with my phone for a few years. It has been a fun fitness measure. I am aware that the accuracy is questionable, although I have found that I get a similar number to my fellow walkers who are counting with their Fitbits, Misfits, and other fancy devices.

Counting steps seemed a simple and effective way to measure my daily movement. My exercise has never been about “bulking up.” It is more about preventing me from bulking up in a different way.

At first, counting steps was a novelty. Then I focused on my weekly or monthly average. However, looking at the aggregated number meant that I could walk a great deal one day and then have a holiday the next.

So in January last year, I committed to trying to walk at least 10,000 steps a day - every day. I would still pay attention to the average, but my goal was to hit that 10,000-step number as often as possible.

As of today, I have walked at least 10,000 steps every day this past year.

I don’t like exercising. I sweat – a lot. I am not a sports person, so I need my stationary bike or treadmill. It is boring and repetitive, and I make myself do it. I watch TV while I working out. I am assured that all this exercise will improve both the quality and length of my life. I have certainly seen a bit of TV because of it.

Getting 10,000 steps in a day can be challenging. Most days, I get a few thousand steps walking to school. I walk to school almost every day.

I prefer to talk to people face to face rather than phone or send an email, so I walk the building to go to classrooms and offices whenever I can. As I say to my students, “I don’t do sitting well.”

Weekends can be difficult. Often, I increase my time on the treadmill on Saturdays and Sundays. Yes, I use the treadmill to meet my goal. I don’t need it as much on weekdays, but without it, I would not have hit 10,000 steps when I wasn’t at school. Is that cheating?

I realize that, if it were not for my job, I would spend way too much time in front of the computer. Many of my tasks, both school and non-school related, can be done on the computer. Working on the computer is more fun than working out.

So I make it a point to get up and do physical tasks that cannot be completed digitally. I have done a lot of reorganizing, cleaning, and sorting over this past year. More is in my future.

Winter is a tough time to walk. In nicer weather, I walk around my neighborhood and community. I greet people or listen to music or podcasts. It is nice being outdoors.

And yes, I do the usual stuff. I park further from the door. I choose the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. I go the long way around most of the time. It only looks like I am lost.

For 2018, I am not increasing my daily step goal. However, I am going to add an average to it. This year, I am going to try to walk at least 10,000 steps daily and have an average of at least 11,000 per week or month.

Yes, I could have a knee, foot, or leg issue that would slow me down. I have had a few days where it took a long time to slowly get the steps. I can’t plan for accidents.

I just keep putting one foot in front of the other, through leaves, over bridges. Step by step. And it has brought me here.