With public transportation still far from being back to normal, chances are you’ll be walking if the distance isn’t that far.  Wouldn’t it be better if you’re able to track how many steps you’re doing on a daily basis even without a dedicated tracker?

That’s exactly the predicament that I’ve been in pretty much the entirety of the pandemic.  I left my Fitbit Inspire HR charger somewhere 24 kilometers away so I’m left with no way to track how many steps I was doing, especially when I go out to do the groceries on foot.  It’s such a shame that I normally do at least 10,000 steps daily before the lock down, and now hardly anything is recorded.

I realized that I may not have a dedicated tracker or pedometer to track my steps, but I do have a device that is good enough to capture some of them—my mobile phone!

Unless you’re not using a smartphone, it’s most likely that your device has a built in accelerometer and in which case, it can “sense” your movement and can make a calculated assumption of you taking steps.  The only thing you need to do is carry it with you wherever you go!  It may sound a bit inconvenient, but if you have a pocket in your pants, you can just leave it there while you go about your errands and let it do it’s thing.  You don’t even have to install any app or be connected to the internet or have GPS on for it to work.

Still, nothing beats a dedicated tracker or pedometer when it comes to counting your steps—they’re much more convenient, they “disappear” in the background, and may even be motivating, but having some of your steps counted is still better than nothing, right?  I admit even I don’t do this daily as I don’t always have pockets in my pants whenever I’m at home, but whenever I do I just grab my phone and put them in there.  It’s sometimes annoying when it shakes when you move but it’s a minor inconvenience if you really want to track.

If you have apps that link into Health (iOS), Google Fit (Android), or its equivalent on your device’s operating system, they should automatically register these “shakes” into measurable step counts.  If you’re trying to complete a virtual distance, this helps even if you remain indoors.

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