Category Archives: Goals

Pedometer Prep

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by Ann Votaw, CHES, MA

While researching pedometers for a corporate walking program, I’ve determined three factors: (1) cheap translates into useless landfill plastic (often branded with your company logo), (2) batteries must be easy to change, meaning the chamber must open with a regular-sized screwdriver, not a watchmaker’s tool, and (3) reset buttons must do their job within this century and with minimal effort.

A $12 New Balance pedometer, purchased last year at Target, exhibits all three annoying qualities of flimsy construction, poor access to battery chamber, and a reset button I must stab with a pen using diamond-forming pressure. I imagine how well this bad boy would hold up in a work-site wellness challenge, participants constantly asking for instructions or replacements.

So far, my favorites include the Weight Watchers PointsPlus Pedometer and the Omron HJ-113, both which match nearly every footfall and reset at midnight. (Unfortunately, I needed battery-changing assistance for the Omron at my neighborhood Radioshack because the screw was so tiny.) The PointsPlus is not as accurate but is the most convenient in that the battery chamber opens with a coin, the reset button does its job, and the numbers appear upside down — allowing the user to see steps right side up.

In the days that follow, expect a table depicting my suggestions. On-line searches reveal the Omron brand as a customer favorite as well as Fit Solutions SW-200 Yamax Digiwalker Pedometer, which I purchased on Amazon for $19.50.

Easy battery change is crucial as most die within three months. To my surprise, many health fair pedometers offer no way to get inside, likening them to carnival goldfish — enjoy them while they last.

Most free on-line walking programs range from six- to eight- weeks. My goal is to find the most accurate, inexpensive, and user-friendly step counters. I want participants to work out with well-functioning equipment, anywhere from eight weeks to eight years after the challenge.

Ex-gawky girl runs in blue!

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Just one of a pair of really awesome running shoes, the Saucony pro grid, Ride 4, in the brightest colors I could find!

by Ann Votaw, CHES, MA, Inwood Resident

I have a confession. I am a forefoot striker, something I learned yesterday at Jack Rabbit Sports.

After watching me run twice on one of the store’s treadmills, my salesperson/angel (whom I will call Brad) said, “Interesting. Most people are heel strikers, which means they land on their heels first. You run on your toes.”

Brad re-played the video in slow motion. Embarrassed, I admitted that I point my toes and roll toe-ball-no heel. In essence, my running style is a series of mini jetes or leaps, carry-over from my years as a dancer.

Kindly, Brad explained that I should concentrate on a shorter stride in order to articulate through other parts my feet. In other words, don’t be Baryshinikov!

Brad, who was just super nice, asked if I had running goals this year. I pretended he was my un-paid therapist, disclosing that I am a later-in-life athlete who as a teen performed in The Nutcracker (as a giant mouse), covered her face when confronted with softballs, but who competed in karate championships in her early 30s.

In short, I am late bloomer who has yet to hit her stride. I would love to run a 10K and some silly races involving costumes, like the New York Road Runners’ Coogan’s Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks.

“Running without a costume is really boring,” I explained, “but running in a hat really gets me going.”

Brad sweetly hooked me up with the brightest pair of shoes we could find that provided lots of cushion in the instep. He also procured Beginner I and II class information without making me feel like my gawky pre-teen self, the one who trudged through PE in a retainer and a regulation blue jumper, purchased from the now defunct Family Fleecewear Section of Belmonts, in my Indiana hometown.