June 6, 2004

• Happy Stepping

  
  

  How much do you get up and move around during the day?  Have you thought about that?  Ever wondered whether you were more or less active than the average person?  McDonald's has started offering something that will help you figure it out in the "Adult Happy Meal." 

  
  

  You may remember that only a few weeks ago I was right here on this spot cursing the man/woman/yam who came up with the idea of the Happy Meal toy.  Kids are suckered into begging for the Happy Meal in order to have the rather lame toy.  These toys accumulate and an alarming rate until all of a sudden one day Mom realizes that there are bags and bags of these toys hiding in every crevice of the child's room.

  
  

  Well, one of the McDonal's people must have seen that blog and decided that honor demanded a suitable revenge for my unleashing venom upon them.  They have introduced the Adult Happy Meal.  This meal includes a salad, bottled water, and a toy.  The toy at this time is a pedometer.  Oh, it's a crafty ploy.  I've seen pedometer's before, even considered buying one and decided it was a gimmicky gadget that I could do without.  Sharper Image offers two pedometers on their online catalog, one that talks to you and one that won't shut up.  The Discovery Channel store has one that will track your heartrate.  And if you go to Pedometersusa.com you can find dozens of models you can get with special volume discounts.  For example the Sportline monitor is available at the special rate of $7,650 if you buy 1,000.  Someone should tell Walmart about this because they are selling the same model down the street from me at the rate of $8.49.  I'm pretty sure that Walmart bought more than a 1,000 of these babies and so if they want to really impress me with their falling prices, I think they should at least match the price I could get online.  Not that I'm going to buy a 1,000, I don't have quite that many friends to start with and I sure the number would dwindle if I implied to them all that they needed a work-out program. 

  
  

  So by now you've guessed that on the trip from Indiana to Arkansas I plunked down my $4.99 for the Adult Happy Meal.  I clipped my pedometer to my waistband and started walking.  The thing is just about addictive.  I would check that little box a dozen times a day measuring myself against the little information sheet that recommended that for healthy adults walking approximately 5 miles or 2,000 steps a day was the goal. 

  
  

  I was expecting to have to slip a work-out into my day in oder to meet that goal, but for the first two days, I made it to 10,000 steps just after suppertime.  On the third day, I made it to 4,258 steps and the thing quit counting.  I mean it just stopped.  It blinked happily, but it wouldn't count another step.  Oh, well, it was a HAPPY MEAL TOY, what did I expect, right? 

  
  

  I lived without it for three days.  But now, I'm hooked.  I'm wondering all day long whether I'm an active adult, or a sedentary adult.  What if I only walked that much because the counter was counting and now that I have no counter to impress, I'm slacking off?  Last night I went to Walmart.  In addition to the aforementioned Sportline monitor for $8.49, they had another one approximately equivalent to the one in the Happy Meal for $4.49. 

  
  

  Whether it's because the monitor is monitoring or it's because I'm an active person anyway, I'm well on my way to hitting my stride at about 12,000 steps a day.  Has anyone else tried this pedometer?  Did you like it?  Did you use it?  How did it work for you if you were trying to increase your fitness level, were you able to see improvement?  Any suggestions?

  • 3:59 pm
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