How many steps did you take today? People counting their steps have invaded my life recently. Everywhere I turn someone is counting steps. I feel left out, or as if I am missing something because I am not counting my steps.

It doesn’t matter which child’s house I visit, someone is checking their wrist to see how many steps they have logged so far. Even the grandkids are stepping it up. While on vacation with friends, my friends were checking to see how many steps they have logged. I felt the odd man out because I couldn’t look at my wrist to gage how many steps I had taken that day.

Do I want to purchase one of those fancy gadgets that help me log my steps and tell me how well I sleep? I know I need to lose weight, up my exercise and watch my eating. I also realize I have a hard time shutting down my creativity or my responsibility and relaxing. I seem to be more stressed if I don’t have something planned that I must do. Then I am stressed because I have thought of so much to do.

It never used to be that way. My husband points this out continually that I never had a problem being lazy and reading a book all day in my earlier years. And I didn’t. Perhaps it was easier when I was tired and needed to rest from following toddlers around all day.

I decided to revise my day. Instead of getting up, having my coffee and going straight to work I would start my day with meditation, prayer time, exercise and then get to my workday of writing. I didn’t realize how hard that was going to be.

It made me anxious to change my routine. It is hard to take time right after I got up for the day for prayer and exercise. In my home environment it was hard to change.  I concluded this was crazy.

In a different environment it was easy to get up and take a walk when I had a beautiful walking path and nature to entice me in the morning. I could meditate and pray at the same time while I walked in the stillness of the morning, without car noises, and people activity.

My friends and family also recommended another app to help me change. This app tracks calories and eating habits. This app was free so I decided to try it.

The app calculates how much weight you want to lose, how long it will take you, and how many calories you should eat each day. My calorie count was 1,200 calories. It informed me on this regimen I would lose 1 pound a week. Only a pound a week?

The first day I ate wisely or at least I thought I did. I logged my oatmeal, my low-cal lunch, my healthy snacks and my healthy dinner. I was 495 calories over. I hardly ate anything, and I was over!

I decided the calorie count was still lower than what I normally ate. It was a start. For me, it was hard to remember to log what I ate, but the app kept reminding me.

I don’t care how many steps I take in a day. It would stress me out knowing I didn’t take as many as I should. I have a feeling I don’t want an app that counts calories. I would stress over going over the calorie count.

There is also an app to remind me to be happy. I forget to check that too. Looking at my phone if I spent my mornings checking all the apps that are supposed to save me time, remind me to do things, and give me a more peaceful life, I might not get to live that life because I am too busy learning how to have a life from my apps.

Those apps are appetizing and I am always downloading a new one because I am sure it will improve my life.

We’ll see how I do on my pray, exercise, write journey. I have friends joining me to support one another on our journey to balance. We are doing it manually. I must admit if it doesn’t work the old-fashioned way I am sure we can find an app for that.

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at hermionyvidaliabooks@gmail.com. Her Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/julie.