Good morning,

12077 steps yesterday! up some 3000 from the day before. To be honest, I volunteered to walk someone’s dog late last night night to break through the 10,000 step threshold. The aim of this blog is to shine some light on the health benefits associated with walking, a charge I take seriously, and I promise to begin to explore these issues in the next day or so. I really appreciate those who have taken time to enter a comment, including Celtics fans.

Let me know if you have a canine in need of some late night exercise, I feel a business opportunity coming on.

Walk on,

Dr.D.

Wow,

This is going to be more difficult than I first imagined. I walked to and from work, jogged over lunch, and walked across campus, and yesterday I did not break through the 10K step threshold. Bill Collwell is finding the same experience. He is tall, and my sense is that his stride, like mine, translates into fewer steps per unit of distance travelled.  One of my  heavier friends had >14,000 steps yesterday, my theory is that his belly jiggles while he is walking, providing him bonus steps while he wanders…….For those perplexed by the pedometer, the devices we provided are reasonably sophisticated, you can count miles, steps, calories. For those mile counters, you will need to calibrate the device to reflect your step length. If you did not recieve instructions, please see Taryn for some. I am pleased to see so many of us walking to Staters, walking to lunch, walking to and from home.  I am going to start having walking meetings! Don’t forget to guess the total number of steps you think the challenge particpants will walk in total.

Keep on truckin!

Dr.D.

If the Lakers can defeat Boston and Cleveland in one week, then I can walk 10,000 steps a day for the next month.  Or can I? During the last several days I have worn my pedometer, including days when I have run for 30 minutes (an estimated 3 miles). During a typical office day, my pedometer suggests I walk about 3000 steps a day, while my 30 minute run adds an additional 5000. Thats only 8000. Its now 8:30 p.m., I have run, walked all over campus, and am ready to call it quits, and still only have 8900 steps. Lord help me. Tomorrow I plan to walk to work, lets see how this pans out.

It’s that time of the year again for Dean Dyjack (yours truly) to challenge the greater Loma Linda School of Public Health Community to dust off those New Year resolutions, and step up to better health. This year over 200 of our faculty, staff, students, and friends have signed up to engage in some good-natured competition to see who can walk the most over a four week period. I will be sharing with you via this blog some insights and outrages during the month, and trust you will share a few of your own.

Burning up a few calories as we now speak, and (S)miles ahead,

Dr. D.