three

This hasn't been a good month for me, step-wise. In terms of weight loss, it hasn't been bad: I'm down to the last notch on my big leather belt—a notch that I'd had specially punched in for me by an old belt-kiosk ajeossi over at Euljiro 4-ga in 2014, back when I'd been losing weight from all the Namsan hiking. The old man had told me to come visit him whenever I might need new holes punched into my belt, and I'd told him that I'd take him up on that. If things continue as they are now, I'll be visiting him soon.

But I've definitely been walking less: I used to do my creekside megawalk—around 34K to 36K steps—at least three times a week, but that began to wear on my feet, and then the full force of Korean summer hit, which sucked away much of my motivation to walk. I currently do the walk about twice a week, and I try to do my building's staircase another three times a week, thus leaving we with two "free" days during which I do no significant walking.

A thought occurred to me, however: walking only twice up my building's staircase—even though that's the rough equivalent of one trip up the Namsan stairs—still puts me below the aerobic minimum traditionally suggested for good health, i.e., 30 minutes of continuous activity. Two times up my building's staircase means only 23 minutes' walking, so... God help me, but I think I need to commit to walking up 26 floors three times per session, not two.

So this week, I've resolved to up the ante and walk up my building's staircase three times, for a total of 78 floors. I won't do that today, but after my Monday megawalk, I'll be 3X-ing from here on in. I'm not looking forward to the change, but this is what it means to commit to a minimum of aerobic-fitness activity.

If I suddenly stop blogging, you'll know I've keeled over from a heart attack.