Pedometer Green

We just love it when a plan comes together. Sometimes our writing prompts align perfectly and this was such a week. Last week, our blog friend Small Footprints issued her weekly Change the World Wednesday challenge (#CTWW for those who follow along on Twitter).

Last Week's Challenge:
This week's challenge is going to be fun. It was suggested by Jennifer (aka @noteasy2begreen) who picked it up from @CelloMomOnCars who found it by way of @lutzfernandez. Here you go:

This week we're going to track the driving trips which WE DON'T TAKE. Yep ... for every time that you walk, ride a bike or simply choose not to make a trip, keep track of it.  At the end of the week, please come back and share how many miles you didn't drive (and money saved, etc, if you also track that information).

We'd also like to hear about your strategy for meeting this challenge. This is based on an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled The Road Not Taken May Be a Key to Driving Less. 

The serendipity behind the challenge was that Our Daily Green recently received a digital pedometer to review as well as had planned a trip to a serious walking city, Savannah, Georgia within the same week as the challenge.

Perhaps there was an unfair advantage, as I already knew I was in a city of walking, but what I want to say is twofold:

1. It was incredibly easy to track footsteps with the pedometer. The one that Ozeri sent tracks up to ten days of walking and has an input area for length of stride and weight as well as a  3D Tri-Axis Bosch Sensor which can measure accurately in all positions. It calculates time walked as well as number of steps and is one of the thinnest and lightest pedometers on the market. 
2. With the act of counting footsteps, a goal of 10,000 steps per day is easily achievable. I live in a community where walking places is difficult, but walking is not. Inspired by the number of steps I walked, I aim to find new reasons to walk not just for errands but also health. 

It's much easier in Savannah to park the car and use your feet

By the numbers, I walked 114,954 steps at an 18 inch stride = 32.65 miles in 10 days or a little over 3.2 miles/daily. I confess that the past 5 days were nearly double the first 5, due to being in a walking city. But I want to take some of that philosophy and confidence and apply it to my regular life. I think it's time to play tourist in my own town and see what I can see from a slower pace.

It's something we had started a few years ago, but had let slide. #CTWW inspired me to rethink that. The pedometer helped me measure it and Savannah reminded me that I can.

While a vacation trip is somewhat of a departure from the CTWW challenge, I was reminded how easy it really is to walk. Granted, many cities are not as walking friendly, but really, walking is simply the process of putting one foot in front of the other. How many times do we hop in the car to take our kids to the neighbor's? Or run something over to the neighbor's? It's time to rethink how often we start a car and instead lace up the shoes. 

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