Cheat your step-counter!
Many folks ‘stupidly’ spend their lives trying to impress other people, when what they should really be doing, of course, is trying to impress their step-counters. Smartphone health apps and Fitbit-style wristbands not only monitor your activity level but constantly encourage you to post it on the Internet for the world to see. So of course, people become competitive about never letting a single step go uncounted.
In an Internet discussion, a reader from Mumbai lamented: "I lost my Fitbit so now I can't move." If you are a step-counting addict, here are four ways to boost your score.
1) Put your Fitbit in your child's pocket and then feed him or her, a sugary snack.
2) Every time you hear music, indulge your inner Barenboim by conducting it.
3) Hang the thing on your dog's collar and send it out for a run around the park.
4) Get a ladder and hang your Fitbit from the ceiling fan.
Most attractive advice ever given was: If you eat three meals a day at buffet-style restaurants, your Fitbit will think you are an exercise nut. Now that’s an exercise programme we all could go for.
Non seriously speaking
The leaders on these website health pages are recording 80,000 steps a day each -- which is pretty impressive, since running an entire marathon only gets you about 45,000 steps. How do you achieve those kinds of scores? I got interested in this after a reader wrote to me about a restaurant in Harbin, China, which provides "fool your step counter" gadgets to customers. —IANS
