The 2010s have drawn to a close and its time to take a look back at the previous decade. Today, we finish off the series with exercise, specifically my step performance between 2010 and 2019. I started tracking my daily step totals in July of 2011, thanks to a program at work that ““encourages you to track your steps and help you to focus on your fitness in a simple and accessible way.” The GlobalFit Destination: You program lasted until late January, 2015. At the point, I had enough invested that I wanted to continue, so, after looking at a couple of options, I purchased my first Fitbit as a replacement option. The rest of the decade used one of 4 Fitbits I’ve had (with the most recent coming this past Christmas), giving me about 8 1/2 years of data for the decade.
In just over 3 1/2 years on the GlobalFit program, I finished with 6,511,500 steps. This estimates out to about 35,197 steps per week, or 5028 steps per day. My best day came during a 2013 trip to Disney World, where excursions to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom ended with 24,988 steps. I finished with 45 days over 10,000 steps, 4 days over 15,000 steps, and 2 days over 20,000 steps. Over the last year and a half, my highest weekly total was 60,216, thanks to a trip to southern California in 2014, and my lowest total was a mere 15,800, thanks to a long Christmas vacation that caused me to lose data before I could check back in at work.
For the nearly 5 years remaining in the decade, I put up 13,041,430 steps tracked with a Fitbit. That averages out to roughly 2.6 million steps per year, or 50,159 steps per week, or 7165 steps per day, over a 2000 step increase over the GlobalFit program. My best day came during a 2018 trip to New York, where the day’s excursions included trips to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, Central Park, the Guggenheim museum, and, finally, the Empire State Building. I finished with 216 days over 10,000 steps, 36 days over 15,000 steps, and 11 days over 20,000 steps. My highest weekly total was 105,924, thanks to a trip to Washington DC last summer, and my lowest total was a mere 18,510, which really only consisted of 3 days as I switched over from GlobalFit to Fitbit.
Overall, I logged 19,552,930 steps in the 8 1/2 years I was keeping track, with 261 days over 10,000 steps, 40 days over 15,000, and 13 days over 20,000. I completed 2 BTN 5Ks, 4 Sprint & Strides, 1 hike up a mountain, and numerous trips to foreign countries, amusement parks, and tourist destinations. My highest step total by locations were:
- United States – 27,470
- Disney World – 24,988
- State of Illinois – 20,592
- Disneyland – 20,374
- Universal Studios – 18,725
- Canada – 18,259
- Northern Ireland – 18,043
- Purdue – 16,714
- Italy – 15,198
- Scotland – 12,797