A journey begins with 10,000 steps

‘‘Just as an experiment I clipped it to the dog's collar - it worked.’’

They signed me up while I was away, my back was turned. I was working in the Kapiti newsroom when a Porirua workmate messaged to tell me I’d been signed up to something that sounded suspiciously like exercise.

We needed four to a team, she said, and as there’s exactly four people in our newsroom I couldn’t wriggle out of it.

‘‘Also you get free stuff.’’ I was in.

Steptember is a programme where you take 10,000 steps a day (In September. Get it?) and is designed to raise funds for people with Cerebral Palsy and get office workers like yours truly increasing their activity.

There’s no doubt my fitness has suffered since I became a news hack, previously working on a farm, my daily activity had ebbed away to virtually nothing.

A diet of coffee (black, no sugar), Jeanette’s morning teas (our newsroom is well known for these) and my beloved carbs has landed me in less than ideal shape.

This 10,000 steps a day lark could be a good thing, I figured.

The free stuff promised turned out to be a pedometer, a tiny black box that counted my steps.

Just as an experiment I clipped it to the dog’s collar - it worked.

I did an experiment before September came around, I wore it for a whole day and was horrified to see I had only done 3500 steps - I was in big trouble.

The next day, a 25-minute walk and a couple of waddles to the shop saw me clocking 7500.

The next day I hit the fabled 10k and it really wasn’t that hard.

So is 10,000 steps going to improve my fitness?

According to Clay Mosen, who owns The Achievement Room gym in Waikanae, any exercise is good but we should be striving for more than the magic 10k.

‘‘It should be we’re doing 10,000 steps a day and doing exercise on top of that.’’

Foolishly, I tell him I drive past his gym everyday and before I know it I’m booked in for an early morning fitness assessment next week.

This was not part of my plan. I’m exhausted already.

NEXT WEEK: The fitness assessment, a walk with Porirua’s acting mayor and inter-newsroom rivalry.

Check out Steptember here : www.steptember.org.nz

CANDIDATE QUITS: The New Zealand First party’s Mana candidate, Randall Ratana, has withdrawn from the race. ‘‘The campaign was really affecting my studies. I thought I could do both but that wasn’t the case,’’ he said.