My new toy to track my steps. Over 4 days I averaged 12,000+ steps a day. And on Sunday I rested.

Concerned that I was falling back into my old couch potato ways, I decided to buy a pedometer to track my steps. The last few weeks the weather’s been wet and windy. Who wants to walk in that? Not me. So poof, the idea of getting the pedometer popped into my head. I was curious.

How much I sit on my butt at home.

I usually track my walks with the RunKeeper app. But it can’t track you inside buildings. I do have a Fitbit. But while I want to track my steps, I don’t want Google watching my every step.

So pedometer it is.

It arrived late Wednesday. I quickly set it up and put it on my bedside table, ready for Thursday morning. Sure enough, I woke up, clipped it to my PJs, and started my day. I made a promise to myself not to look at it until the end of the day. I just wanted an idea of how much I move in a day. I guesstimated that I’d hit around  2,500 steps.

Ha!

I had no reason to fear. Gardening season is in full swing. I’m so busy I easily surpassed 3,000 steps by 10:00 a.m. nearly every day.

Since putting on that pedometer I’ve logged 48,398 steps.

That’s more than 5 miles a frickin’ day.

Oh, and those 48,000+ steps do not include Sunday, which turned into a mandatory rest day as my hip raged at me. I didn’t even bother putting on the pedometer as I planned to rest all day. Oh and that rest day ran into Monday morning (my hip had a lot of rage).

I over did it. It’s my way. I’m embracing it.

This weekend we added several hundred pounds of top soil, compost and cow manure to finish the raised beds in time for the first planting tomorrow.

All of those steps were logged in my tiny yard as I pruned plants, pulled weeds, hardened off my seedlings and filled raised beds with hundreds of pounds of soil, compost and cow manure.

Oh and I walked the entire length of my garden center — the only sane place on planet Earth right now — 3 times!

Why? It wasn’t because I love looking at all the colorful flowers (oh, but I do!). I knew I was wearing that pedometer. Why not walk some extra steps and while picturing which annuals would look lovely in my flowerbed.

My fear of becoming a couch potato was overblown. I’m logging the miles. Way more than I thought. I don’t need a gym. I have a garden.

But I think if I had put that pedometer on back in January, I’d have a much different story to tell you. I honestly think I’d barely log a mile (2,000 steps) on Day 1. That’s couch potato territory.

It does make me regret that I didn’t buy it sooner. I clearly walked extra steps knowing that I’m wearing that tracker. Heck, Saturday night, despite being exhausted, I walked 50 extra steps around my bedroom before getting into bed. Why? Those extra steps put me over 15,000 steps for a single day.

Yeah, I’m embracing it.