I’m not usually one for New Year’s resolutions (mostly because I don’t see any reason to wait if you want to make changes in your life — now’s as good a time as any), but one thing that has been playing on my mind for a while is how to get some more exercise into my life. With three kids and a full-time job plus this writing gig on the side, there just never seems to be enough time in the day to do everything I’d like and exercise is one thing that seems to fall by the wayside when it really shouldn’t. 

Of course it’s a mind over matter thing — there actually is enough time in the day — but separating that time out from the mush and swirl of everyday life requires a level of organisation and efficient productivity that I’m just not very good at (certainly not as good as I am at sitting on the couch watching TV and eating cheesecake). My wife uses a Fitbit to help with her exercise schedule and I’ve been thinking about getting one myself for a while now, but due to a certain level of psychological resistance on my part the thought has remained just that. I always figured the most useful function of such a device for me would be the pedometer, so it was a happy surprise to discover last week that one of the many things my iPhone can do is measure my steps. After seven years of owning a smartphone I’m not sure how I missed out on this knowledge (my wife suggested that I was probably the only person on the planet who didn’t already know it) but I’m pleased I’ve finally figured it out because it’s a really handy feature. Not only that, it means I have one less first world problem to worry about.

According to the data my phone has already collected without me being any the wiser, I averaged just over four-thousand steps a day last year. However, much of that time my phone would have been on my bedside table or in my bag or at the bottom of the enormous pile of washing in the laundry basket or in between the seat cushions on the couch or in the vege drawer of the refrigerator (it has an unnatural habit of hiding in the darndest places) and so many of my steps wouldn’t have been counted (certainly not the ones made searching for my phone). Since my pedometer revelation, I’ve kept it on me as much as I can (to the point of slipping it into the waistband of my undies in those early hours of the morning when wearing pants just seems like overkill) to get as accurate a reading as possible of just how many steps I take.

The result has been pleasing. They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. However, in the world of exercise regimes, ten-thousand steps seems to be a generally accepted measure of a reasonable daily level of activity, so in this instance, I’m going to say a journey begins with ten-thousand steps. On Thursday I did eight-and-a-half-thousand steps and all I was doing was pottering round the house performing the usual summer school holiday routine — making untold rounds of Marmite sandwiches, folding the enormous pile of washing in the laundry basket and shouting at my children for shouting at each other. On Friday I did twenty-thousand steps with a little more intentional effort, including a lovely bush walk alongside a river and to a waterfall with the kids, but it was by no means excessive.

Ten-thousand steps seems entirely doable, so, aside from publishing novel No. 2 (which is progressing more slowly than I’d like but also surely — I’m about two-thirds of the way through the second draft), my New Year’s resolution for 2021 is to keep the iPhone on my hip and try to average ten-thousand steps a day. It will be interesting to see how easy that will be once I return to work. Being a teacher may not be the most sedentary occupation on the planet but it’s certainly more sedentary than being an aerobics instructor, for instance, or a ninja. Although they do say that children need to experience learning in a variety of contexts before it really cements itself in their brains — perhaps, leading by example, it’s time to increase the interpretive dance component of my teaching programme.

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions for 2021? Let me know in the comments.

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