discouraging

So I'm getting pretty determined to get in shape, because I've been feeling pretty cruddy and I think that's partly to blame. "They" tell you that you need to walk 10,000 steps a day to stay in shape, and "they" usually also say that it isn't hard if you just walk around a little more than usual... take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. Since the weather isn't so oppressively hot and muggy anymore, I decided to start by walking to and from the MARTA station... (which Google tells me is 1.1 miles one way) this is on top of the quarter mile one way I already walk from MARTA to my office building, AND taking the stairs everywhere... but that's not all! After dinner I walked a quarter mile up to our apartment's gym, ran 2 miles on the elliptical machine (I love elliptical machines), and walked the quarter mile back. By my math this is 5 miles of walking not counting random everyday walking that people who are inactive do. And what do I have to show for it? I'm a couple freakin' hundred steps short of that "easy" 10,000 steps, according to my trusty pedometer. My trusty pedometer also tells me that I only walked 4.6 miles, but by my math and according to my Google maps, that should be more like 5.2 miles. But that just means my pedometer isn't calibrated properly to the length of my steps.

Anyways, all this rambling is to say that I feel like I did a good deal of integrating exercise into my daily routine as well as "going the extra mile (or two)" at the gym, and it's frustrating that all of that doesn't reach that 10,000 step suggested daily exercise. Blah. I guess I need to ignore the stupid pedometer and come up with different goals. Or something.