Burning Bananas

My sister bought me this exercise gadget a few months back. Well it's not an exercise machine exactly but a device that tracks down how much exercise you have done for the day. It's a pedometer that you attach to your hips and it will give feedback on how far you have walked, average speed, how many calories you have burned and how many steps you have made during the day, each of these information is displayable in the LCD screen depending on which option you set on the device. Mine is the istepX1 from www.sportbrain.com and it's really cool. Aside from being a step counter, the device has a USB interface that you plug into a computer. Your exercise history is then stored online and you can compare your progress against your set target and even with the average steps made by all users of this device worldwide in your age range (I always fall behind the average of my age range). They claim that seeing the average performance of your age helps motivate you to exercise more. The way I see it you're either motivated or get frustrated. Haha. The estimated calories burned is even converted to number of cheeseburgers or bananas burned if you are interested in that sort of thing. The way I use it right now, I just set a daily target and at the end of the day, I just run the remaining steps off the treadmill when I get home. So if I just sit at the office the whole day surfing the net or listening to MP3's I should compensate by running longer at the end of the day. But if I spend it going up and down the second floor of the office building then I should run less at the end of the day. Unfortunately, the probable reason why I would keep on going up to the second floor of the building is to go to the pantry upstairs to get some snacks. And I have this gadget to make me feel better at the end of the day. Look everybody! I managed to burn half a banana today! How's that for a sense of accomplishment? :D