10,000 steps a day

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner. The days are getting longer and warmer. It's time to lose the couch potato status that is synonomous with long winter months. But where to start?

My workplace is taking part in the 10,000 steps a day programme. Teams of four have got together with the intention of walking the equivalent of from Cape Reinga to Bluff (New Zealand's northernmost and southernmost points) during the next six weeks. We plot the number of steps we've walked each day on a map of New Zealand and see how many kilometres it translates to, which is pretty cool even if the conversion rate is somewhat unscientific.

To help move us along, we have all been armed with pedometers, drink bottles, sunblock, chapstick and sticking plasters (are we expected to hurt ourselves just walking??). The streets around work were a good target for games of I spy today as pairs and groups of coworkers could be spotted out pounding the pavements. I'm predicting that the days of this project and the numbers of walkers out walking will progress in inverse proportions. Never mind - the intention is to start people off and get everybody up and about.

So how far is 10,000 steps? Even if you don't manage to get out for a dedicated walk each day, the steps soon add up. I've discovered that a jaunt around the supermarket is about 2000 steps. Walking from home to some of my favourite cafés adds about 1000 steps each way and a quick 10 minute walk around the stream at work clocks up another 1500. Grabbing a coffee from the cafeteria adds a few hundred more steps each way and 10 minutes of dedicated exercise (swimming, cycling, Zumba, sport etc) qualifies for another 1000 steps.

So that's my challenge for the next six weeks: to walk the equivalent of 10,000 steps or more a day. Who's with me?