Category / Exercise

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Fitbit 12 – Week 29

A tremendous week thanks to my trip to Boston, notching my highest total since going to Hawaii in 2022 for the third time in the last four weeks and scoring my first 20,000 step day since 2019.  The week got off to a great start on Sunday thanks to a morning walk, which left me with 7600 steps.  Flying to Boston after work on Monday put me over goal for the second straight day, finishing with 7800 steps.  Tuesday went a little nuts, as I walked around Boston, having breakfast, going on a duck boat tour, and, eventually, meeting Angelina at Fenway Park for a horrible baseball game, ending the night back at my hotel with 20,100 steps.  Coming home Wednesday morning, I saw a big drop, falling just 7 steps shy of 5600.  A trip to Wrigley on Thursday pushed me back up to 6900 steps.  A morning walk on Friday pushed me back up over goal, hitting 7800 steps.  A longer walk on Saturday morning followed by a trip to Rate Field for Ozzie Guillen’s jersey retirement finished the week with a bang, coming just a single steps shy of 11,800.

Total steps: 67,685

Daily average: 9669.3

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Fitbit 12 – Week 28

Another great week, going over goal two days as my step challenge at work came to an end.  The week got off to a great start on Sunday, with a trip to Rate Field for Munetaka Murakami bobblehead day leading to 7300 steps.  The good times continued on Monday, wrapping up the step challenge with 7900 steps.  Things slowed down a bit on Tuesday, falling down to 6200 steps.  I rebounded on Wednesday, with a White Sox/Yankees tilt leading to 9100 steps.  A busy Thursday left me with 6000 steps, with Friday dropping by a mere 12 steps to also score 6000.  A rainy Saturday ended the week with 5200 steps.

Total steps: 47,939

Daily average: 6848.4

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Fitbit 12 – Week 27

Another tremendous week, again notching my highest total, and my first week hitting my goal, since going to Hawaii in 2022, and going over goal six days.  The week got off to a great start on Sunday, using a neighborhood walk to come within 17 steps of 8400.  The good times continued on Monday, hitting 7700 steps.  The low point, if you can call it that, of the week came on Tuesday as I fell down to 5800 steps.  I rebounded on Wednesday, jumping back up to 7900 steps.  A slight improvement on Thursday pushed me up to 8400 steps.  A return to Rate Field on Friday left with 7900 steps.  A longer neighborhood walk on Saturday morning helped me finish the week with 8700 steps.

Total steps: 55,018

Daily average: 7859.7

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Fitbit 12 – Week 26

A tremendous week, notching my highest total since going to Hawaii in 2022 and scoring my first 10,000 step day in nearly 2 years as we reach the halfway point of Year 12.  The week got off to a great start with that 10,000-step day, my first in the state of Illinois since 2021, finishing with 10,100 after utilizing street parking to watch the White Sox battle the A’s.  A neighborhood walk on Monday put me over goal for the second straight day, finishing 13 steps away from 7800.  The start of a steps challenge at work on Tuesday fell 14 steps shy of 7000.  Wednesday dropped off a bit, falling to 6000 steps.  A slight improvement on Thursday went up by exactly 100 steps.  Friday was the low point of the week, coming in with 5400 steps.  A longer walk while charging the car on Saturday morning led to my third day over goal for the week, finishing just over 7500 steps.

Total steps: 50,080

Daily average: 7154.3

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Fitbit 12 – Week 25

Another great week, pushing my 40,000-step streak to four weeks.  A long morning walk on Sunday started the week off on a high note, finishing with 7300 steps.  Monday dropped down a bit, falling just 3 steps away from 5700.  Tuesday was the low point of the week, coming in with 5000 steps.  Wednesday jumped up again, needing 36 steps to reach 6100.  A single step is all that stood between me and 6700 steps on Thursday.  A morning doctor’s appointment on Friday left me with exactly 5500 steps.  A trip to the Rate wrapped up the week on Saturday, finishing with 5900 steps.

Total steps: 42,256

Daily average: 6036.6

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15 Years Of Step Tracking

Fifteen years ago, I started a program through work that “encourages you to track your steps and help you to focus on your fitness in a simple and accessible way.”  They gave us a tracker, which attached to your shoe and used “an accelerometer to accurately calculate the number of steps, distance walked, calories burned and time of activity.”  I received that first tracker fifteen years ago today.  After a little more than three and a half years, the program shut down and I finished with a little more than 6.5 million steps.

That same week, I ordered my first Fitbit, looking to continue tracking my steps.  Which worked out well, at least until March of 2020 when a global pandemic caused the world to shut down for a year or so and for me to become a remote worker.

I crossed the 10 million step plateau in 2016, 15 million in 2018, 20 million in 2020, 25 million in 2023, and 30 million earlier this year.  To date, my total is 30,439,765 steps over 15 years, which averages out to a little over 2 million steps per year and 5600 steps per day.  In the early days, this was well above my goals, but I’ve been hoping for more for quite some time now.  I started looking to get 2,000,000 steps in those first few years, which I had a difficult time making.  As I moved over to the Fitbit from the Global Fit tracker, I started meeting those goals and, subsequently, increasing them each year.  These last six years have seen incredible backslides, but I’ve started to inch back upwards this year thanks to some weight loss and increased energy and stamina.

Along the way, I participated in some 5Ks, hiked up a mountain, traveled the world, and endured a global pandemic, racking up steps along the way.  Now that my world is opening back up again, here’s hoping the next 15 years are even better.

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Fitbit 12 – Week 24

Despite the excessive heat warnings, it was another great week, finishing with my highest weekly total in nearly two years, multiple days above goal for the first time since January. and pushing my 40,000-step streak to three weeks.  Afternoon baseball at Rate Field on Sunday started the week off on a high note, finishing with 7600 steps.  Monday dropped down a bit, falling 28 steps away from 5200.  The overbearing heat arrived on Tuesday, so an early morning walk helped push me to 6200 steps.  A trip to Wrigley Field on Wednesday again pushed me over goal, ending the day with 8400 steps.  An appointment for blood work followed by a car wash left me with 5500 steps on Thursday.  A morning walk on Friday pushed me up to 6200 steps.  The week wrapped up on a high note on Saturday, using another morning walk to finish with 6700 steps.

Total steps: 45,941

Daily average: 6563

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Fitbit 12 – Week 23

Yet another great week, as I pushed past the 40,000-step mark for the second straight week, extended my streak of weeks over 30,000 steps to twenty, and passed the four-month mark at days over 4000 steps with 125.  A rain-soaked Sunday wiped out my Father’s Day plans, leaving me 5 steps shy of 4800 to start the week.  Monday saw a big improvement, falling 30 steps away from 6900.  Tuesday was more of the same, needing just 18 steps to reach 6800.  A busy Wednesday was the low point of the week, missing 4500 steps by 26.  Thursday saw a nice bounce back, jumping back up to 6200 steps.  A 22-1 drubbing of the Royals by the White Sox on Friday pushed me past my daily goal, ending up 25 steps away from 8300.  The week wrapped up on a good note on Saturday, ending with 5000 steps despite a graduation party taking up the afternoon.

Total steps: 42,463

Daily average: 6066.1

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Fitbit 12 – Week 22

A great week, as I pushed past the 40,000-step mark for the first time in a month and extended my streak of weeks over 30,000 steps to nineteen.  The week got off to a nice start on Sunday, as I used a long walk through the neighborhood to finish a single step shy of 6700.  Monday kept the good times going, ending with 5600 steps.  A very small drop on Tuesday left me with 5500 steps.  Wednesday was the low point of the week, as a busy workday limited me 4300 steps.  Thursday saw a nice bounce back, falling 27 steps shy of 5900.  The Juneteenth holiday on Friday, spent getting a haircut followed by a Cubs rout of the Blue Jays at Wrigley Field, surpassed my daily goal and ended up 39 steps away from 8400.  The week wrapped up on a good note on Saturday, ending with 5400 steps despite a graduation party taking up the afternoon.

Total steps: 41,861

Daily average: 5980.1

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Fitbit 12 – Week 21

Another good week as I pushed my 30,000-step week streak to eighteen as I took care of my sickly mother.  The week got off to a nice start on Sunday, starting things off with 5100 steps.  Monday saw a nice improvement, going up to 6000 steps.  A small drop on Tuesday dropped me to 5300 steps.  Wednesday was very nearly a duplicate, again finishing with 5300 steps.  Thursday fell just 2 steps shy of 5200.  Friday was the low point of the week, getting 4800 steps.  The week wrapped up on a high note on Saturday thanks to my return to the ballpark netting me a Colson Montgomery bobblehead and 6300 steps.

Total steps: 38,256

Daily average: 5465.1