$3,791 a Day For Exercise is Just Too Much

It’s raining again.  I think the weather has been yucky for the last few days.  Of course it is nothing in Durham like it is around most of the country. I am not going to complain about our rain when it could be ice or snow.  But officially winter has not started yet and I do live in North Carolina so I feel entitled to nice weather 90% of the time.

Our dog Shay Shay who has never left the state also dislikes rain and cold weather.  If we open our front door in the morning and it’s raining she stands at the glass door with a sad sack look on her face and turns and goes back to bed, opting to hold it rather than go out in the rain.  I have to drag her outside and then she will go about three feet from the front door pee and run back to the house.

All this rain is not helping me get my exercise done.  Yes I still go and see my trainer in the rain, but that exercise hardly registers any steps on my wrist master.  I did some time on the elliptical only to discover no steps were registered with that machine.  I guess the gliding motion does not count.

My friend Margaret, who lives in Minneapolis, texted me a picture of her gym this morning to show me how she is able to get her steps in.  The room must have 300 exercise machines in it.  Poor Margaret.  When she used to live in Durham I would see her walking outdoors almost everyday.  I can’t imagine doing all my steps inside.

Actually I can imagine it because that is what I have been doing the last few rainy days.  Today after lunch I went to Costco.  I thought I might really be able to get a lot of steps in there and stay dry and do some shopping all at the same time.  I looked at my phone to see what number I was starting at.  I had only gone a measly 3,005 steps by 1:45 in the afternoon.

With my cart and card in hand I started in at eh big screen TVs.  I wanted to make the most of the steps as well as the Christmas shopping so I went up and down every aisle of the warehouse.  I tried to keep up a good pace but some elderly shoppers as well as some interesting items slowed me up.  For the record no senior citizens were injured in my workout/shopping trip.

I made sure not to miss a single aisle even the automotive one where I knew there was not one item I needed.  I found many things to buy to the tune of spending $419.  I was certain that I must have taken at least 2,500 steps.  As I rolled my full cart out to the far reaches of the parking lot I looked at the step counter.  Only 1105 steps!!  That worked out to just under forty cents per step.  WHAT!  At that rate it would cost me $3,791 to get my 10,000 step goal.

I am giving up on getting steps shopping.  It is hard enough to maneuver a cart around all those people browsing and avoiding the sampling elves yelling out, “Try my chocolate peppermint bark,” is enough to do me in.  I did consider stopping in the Home Depot next door to get steps in without any temptations, but my socks were sliding down inside my shoes and I had a car full of expensive food that I thought I should get home.

I am hoping that the rain lets up soon and I can walk my dog outdoors like a good southern girl likes to do.  I can’t bring myself to go to one of those exercise factories like Margaret has in the great cold north.