Fitness Friday

13,530 Wednesday. 10,479 Tuesday. 10,175 Monday. 10,362 Sunday and 10,043 Saturday. What’s that, you ask? That’s how many steps I took each of those days. As for calories burned: 3,354, 2,830, 2,951, 3,719 and 3,354. How do I know and why do I care? Well, that’s the feedback I’m getting from my new Fitbit, a relatively inexpensive gadget that Tracy bought me at our local Sports Authority so I could keep track of how much exercise I’m getting, how many calories I’m taking in and burning, my heart rate (77 beats per minute as I write this), how much sleep I get and whether it’s restful or not.

We all struggle to juggle work, family and personal time. For me, more often than not, family and/or work trumps personal time. So although I enjoy the gym, golf course, tennis court, bicycle and other physical activity, I, like most of you, I’m betting, don’t get as much exercise time in as I’d like. Such is life. So Tracy thought it would be a good idea for both of us to set goals for daily activity, especially now that the weather has broken and summer is right around the corner. Hence, the Fitbit.

The model she picked out for me is a simple black rubber band that I wear on my wrist, all day and all night, except when showering (mine isn’t waterproof). It syncs with the app that she downloaded on my iPhone. And so now, at any given moment I can check my daily progress. I’m happy to say that since I first starting wearing it last Saturday, I’ve exceeded my daily goal of at least 10,000 steps. On Monday, for example, when I got home from work at 7:30pm, I saw that I had only registered 7,000 steps (so much for a desk job.) So, I took a walk for about 15 minutes and racked up another 2,500 before going upstairs. The other 500-plus were easy to finish off over the next couple of hours. But without the Fitbit, I wouldn’t have been as aware and would have been more sedentary.

So from now on it’s 10,000 steps a day, every day. As for the calorie count, I set a goal of burning 3,000 per day and consuming less. I find I’m either exceeding or coming very close to both (ok, well, on 5 out of 7 days on the in-take side). Suffice it to say I’m hooked on the Fitbit.

Here at Marcum we’ve been focusing on wellness as a firmwide priority and encouraging our people to eat better and exercise more. Now that we’re in the final throes of our first busy season of the year, wellness is even more important as we work through the annual crunch to make the April 15 tax filing deadline. We actually accelerate our wellness agenda during busy season, supplying every office with fresh fruit, holding exercise and healthy lunch contests, and offering other incentives to keep our team feeling as strong and fit as possible. Some of these will continue as part of our year-round wellness program.

And speaking of busy season – It’s Friday, April 10, 2015 – Do you know where your tax accountant is?

I do. In her or his office, nose to the grindstone. For most CPAs, the next five days will pass at a fever pitch, with lots of sweating and grumbling, gobbled meals, and working at triple speed to get everything done in time.

So eat your apple, stand up and do some stretches, and get a good night’s sleep. We’re in the home stretch.