I'm sorry Sir, that's way too far to walk ...

Looking back, we wrote a lot about how much we walked on our trip 

     The best way to see a place, it seemed to us, was to just take off and start walking around.  
     On our recent big Round the World trip, when we arrived at a new city or location, we would have a look at a map to get oriented and set out on foot ... walking.   
     It was a lot of fun to see a new city this way.  It would often lead to unexpected discoveries, such as wandering around Namibia, Africa (shown below), and finding that all the signs were in German.

     
      A very beneficial side effect was that walking is terrific exercise.  We got a lot (sometimes a tremendous amount) of exercise walking around in places like Istanbul, Rome, Cape Town, Malta, and Cambodia.  
     A skeptical person might ask:  Oh yeah?  Like how much exercise?  How do you know how much you walked? 
     Well, I've been wearing a FitBit device for two-and-a-half years.  It tracks every step I take.  So when Fiona and I set out on a days walking journey, I know exactly how many steps I/we took and how far we walked.  (I usually had a head start because I would go jogging in the morning, but other than that, we covered the same amount of steps)
     Here is a picture of me after a morning jog in Iceland, which was very cold!

Here is a typical conversation when we wanted to start walking somewhere

     *** The following is a paraphrase, an exaggerated example of real life conversations ***

     Often we would ask how to get to a destination when we arrived in a new place, and we would get the answer:  "I'm sorry sir, that's way too far to walk."  (remember, they always called us sir, even Fiona)
     Our answer:  "Oh, but we like to walk."
     Their response:  "Why do you want to walk?  You should take a taxi"
     Us: "No, we don't need an overpriced taxi to take us somewhere we don't want to go and take too long and charge too much.  We would miss all the street life that we came here to see."
     Response:  "Yes, but ... it's not safe, it might rain, what kind of shoes are you wearing?  Besides, you are fancy white people from America who never walk anywhere, and we don't want to be responsible for giving you advice that might get you into trouble"
     Us:  "Oh, we don't mind a little trouble, and we want to experience this place from ground level, and taxis are stuffy and traffic is terrible and it's almost quicker to walk and you always see more interesting stuff".
     Response:  "You have just completely blown my paradigm of Americans out of the water and I don't know how to respond further, and ... here's my card, please call me if you have any problems!"
     

So what constitutes a good day of walking? 

    According to most commonly accepted standards of walking or activity, a good day (or a good goal) is 10,000 steps a day.  This is roughly equivalent to five and a half miles.  Steps means measurable foot steps, when you move your foot from one position to another.

     Is this healthy?  Is it good for you?  How much is enough?
     Of course, this depends on a lot of variables, such as:

• How long is your stride?  inches count, you have to measure your stride, it's very important
• Are there hills involved?  Going up and down makes a lot of difference.  Walking and running are different too. 
• How much time are you walking?  Are we talking a long straight stretch, or shopping in a marketplace?   How long does it take you to walk a mile?
• How much do you weigh?  How tall are you? (remember stride counts, and your legs are different than someone else)  How old are you? Are you male or female?

     That being said, you have to use some kind of standard, and there is always the comparison to - what is normal and what do others do? 

Working at the Winery

     As an example of everyday walking here at home, I have mentioned before that I work at a winery.  It's near my house, and I sometimes walk to work (which is about 5,200 steps, with a lot of hills!).
     But there is no such thing as a typical day of work at a winery.  Some days there is a ton of walking, with multiples trips back and forth across a large space and pushing and pulling barrels.  It can be very physical.
     On other days, when you are bottling or labeling, there is not a lot of steps involved.  You stand in one place and although you are very active, you don't generate steps. 
      The picture below shows me working at a labeling station, where I press the foil caps on top of the bottles.  You are rooted to one place and repeat this motion a whole bunch of times. 

     So a day like this can be very taxing and give you a real workout, but not a lot of steps.  
     Again, what is a "normal" day?  A normal day for many people might be sitting at a desk at work and then going home and watching TV.  I'm not passing judgment here, but that kind of day does not result in a lot of measurable activity, or steps.

     So if your goal is a lot of activity and you want to generate a lot of steps, you probably have to work at it.  It doesn't just happen by itself.  

A really good day of walking

     On the other hand, our original topic above was how much walking took place on our trip, and there were some days when the step count went ballistic. 
     As an example of that, we had several days where we walked all day, on purpose (or maybe by accident - the bus never showed up!).  We might have had a particular destination far away, or we just had a very active day on foot.
     Our best day walking was somewhere around 32,000 steps.  This would be something like 18 or 19 miles.  It can be exhausting, but you have the benefit of the excitement and adrenaline rush of a foreign place and exotic sites. 

     In the month of April on our trip, we averaged 18,763 steps a day, which is close to eleven miles.  

A final comment

     So the point of this is not to brag (well, maybe just a bit), but to open a discussion into ... how much activity should most people strive for?
     For most Americans, the answer would be more than they currently generate.  
     The ultimate goal should be:

• To get more physically fit
• To lose weight
• To be healthier and live longer

     Of course, the side effect of this much walking is that you burn a lot of calories, and you get hungry.  So you have to balance the exercise with how much you eat.

     It's the old classic formula = how many calories you consume vs how many calories you burn. 

     So to reverse that previous concept, you can eat as much as you want of anything, as long as you walk it off!