It’s nearly 10pm and I’m tired. But I’ve checked my phone and the news isn’t good. I need to go out into the cold once again. “I’ll be back soon!” I call out to my daughter. “Get into bed!”
I have pressing business. I need to finish my steps. My phone is telling me I’ve done only 9132, and I need 868 more to reach my magic 10,000.
Credit: ABC
Since installing a step tracker on my phone back in 2020, I have walked 10,000 steps nearly every day. I will not sleep until I hit my goal. If that means walking around the block in the dark and the cold, I will put on my coat and walk. If that means marching up and down the tiny hallway in my apartment, I’ll march. If it means pacing around my bedroom to get my last few dozen steps, I will pace in my socks.
I need my 10,000 steps. It is my personal lunacy.
Earlier this week, this masthead reported that we don’t need 10,000 steps a day to stay healthy. For women under the age of 60, like me, somewhere between 8000 and 10,000 a day is ideal. “There is nothing magical or evidence-based about 10,000 steps a day,” the article reassured me. “So feel free to let go of that goal.”
Brilliant! I thought. Except … I already knew that. I’ve read similar research before. I know I don’t “need” to do 10,000 steps. But I cannot, will not, don’t know how to stop.
Walking is great for your health. This is true. I am much fitter now than before I’d started walking every day. Walking helps with my anxiety, my stress levels, and my overall wellbeing. I often walk without a podcast or music, and the time alone with my thoughts is precious.
But we don’t need to walk 10,000 steps. It’s just a random number that gained popularity with the invention of the first commercial pedometer, the Manpo-kei, in Japan in the ’60s. Manpo-kei is Japanese for 10,000, and its characters look like legs in motion. If the characters for 9132 looked like legs in motion, I might have been in bed 10 minutes earlier.
Many of us are victims of random numbers. The Millennials gulping from two-litre emotional support water bottles (and, presumably, keeping their steps up by running to the toilet several times a day). The sleep-obsessed, fixated on that mythical eight hours. The weight conscious, convinced that their lives will be perfect if only they achieve a certain number on the scales.
But we step addicts are also victims of technology. You can’t count 10,000 steps a day in your head; you need a Fitbit or tracking app to do it for you. And these apps are designed to be addictive. They literally use gambling technologies to keep us hooked.
Now, I have fought the lure of the apps for years. I’ve taken most notifications off my phone, and spend much of each day on Do Not Disturb. I am very good at switching off. But I cannot fight the lure of the step-tracking app. I am hopelessly addicted to the win. And honestly, it’s a pretty lame win. I don’t get a prize when I walk my 10,000 steps, or a cash payout, or even a message of congratulations. You know what I get? I get confetti — a three-second burst of animated confetti on my screen. There are people refusing to get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day and I’m marching around my bedroom for a confetti cartoon.
I do realise how illogical I am being. Nothing magical happens when I hit 10,000 steps, and nothing terrible will happen if I only hit 8500. I won’t suddenly be catapulted into heart disease, or high blood pressure, or depression if I call it quits a few dozen steps early.
But logic has nothing to do with it. It is emotion, and it is drive. I am hooked on the sense of satisfaction. I am hooked on the illusion of control. I can’t control much in this chaotic life. My health goes up and down. My kids have bad days. The world is full of inequity. But I can walk 10,000 steps. I can have a little victory, every single day.
The confetti explosion is enthralling, even if you’ve seen it 10,000 times. Credit: iStock
And I’m not the only one. There are hordes of us, victims of Japanese lexigraphy, striding down streets and hallways and corridors, trying to get to that magic number. Hope and triumph and, yes, delusion are just a few steps away.
Kerri Sackville is an author, columnist and mother of three. Her new book is The Secret Life of You: How a bit of alone time can change your life, relationships and maybe the world.
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I don’t care if I don’t need 10,000 steps. Get out of my way! - Sydney Morning Herald
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