I started wearing one of those screenless health monitors last year to track my steps, heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep, etc. Most of last year I was hoovering around 8,000 steps a day. Earlier this year I bumped it up to around 9,000-10,000. But last couple of months I’ve been averaging 11,000 steps.

My secret to breaking 10K: daily trips to the grocery stores. I’m very lucky to live in the Goldilocks zone to a grocery store. A legit grocery store that’s well stocked and affordable. Not too close where it wouldn’t really help with the step count but not too far that daily trips to the store would be too much hassle. I estimate a round trip is around 1,500 steps. These 1,500 or so steps is what pushed me pass 10,000.

Looking at my financial software, I made 35 purchases last month. Now I don’t actually go daily (weekends I tend to skip Saturday) which means some days I actually go more than once, presumably I forgot something and needed to go back. Instead of one big trip to get a week’s worth of groceries I just go daily, only purchasing food I will immediately eat today or tomorrow.

I just frankly hate driving these days. Sometimes I’ll crave a dish at my favorite restaurant but end up not going because driving there is just too annoying. I’ll end up walking instead to a neighborhood restaurant that I don’t prefer as much. Another trick I use is to park about half a mile from my destination. The other day I wanted to grab House of Prime Rib. That’s a big, unhealthy meal. So I parked about half a mile away, forcing myself to get in an extra mile that day.