The New McDonald's Stepometer

First off, I really like the new adult Happy Meals. You get one of the big salads, a bottle of water, and a stepometer toy. It's about a buck more than one of the big salads alone, which is about fair. (Though I suspect I'll get just the salads more often.) Besides, it comes with a toy! Toys just make everyone happy, and certainly it made me feel better yesterday about eating light and exercising more. My parents now want stepometers too, so I have been detailed to eat a couple more adult Happy Meals this week.

But...there's always a but, isn't there? In this case, it's that the stepometer is just a toy. Once you get walking along on a hard surface with a good rhythm going, the stepometer will be accurate. If you're pounding straight up and down stairs, it'll probably work pretty well. But if you walk along "softly jangling", the little rattle-clack step counter will count one step as more than that. If you step softly and use your Mad Ninja Skillz, it won't count the steps at all. Running bounces the step counter around no end.

So the long, long walk up the hill to church for choir last night was a little more than a mile (accurate) and so was the walk around the long curve of my street and back (yeah, right). The counter said I walked almost six miles yesterday. Now, walking around from Mickey D's to work, doing work errands, going from work to Walmart to home, and home to choir (plus my morning walk) is a lot of walking. But not five miles' worth, I'm sure. See, I refuse to believe I walked half a mile in Walmart. In the grocery. Picking up three items. Nope.