As it turns out, I take twice as many steps on the average day as my dog does but a couple thousand fewer than the president recommends.
Personal Trainer: Walking
Nintendo DS
Mike Musgrove
This is my main takeaway after a few weeks of regularly carrying a pedometer around in my pocket, a device included with a recently released piece of software for the Nintendo DS called Personal Trainer: Walking.
About the size of a keyring, the game's pedometer quietly counts off every step.
A tiny light on one side blinks red until you've knocked out a default target count of 3000 steps each day; hit that modest goal and the light turns to green.
If you're more active and want to set your daily goal higher, that's easily done with the software.
Snicker if you will.
But recall Nintendo's last big foray into video-game fitness, a title called Wii Fit that came packaged with a balance board on which users can practice yoga and do push-ups.
Hard-core gamers rolled their eyes, but Wii Fit became one of last year's standout hits, outselling blockbusters such as Grand Theft Auto IV despite the Nintendo title's heftier price tag.
The company says it has sold 22 million units worldwide.
A gold rush is now on, as models and fitness personalities race to get into the Wii business: Jenny McCarthy, Jillian Michaels and Daisy Fuentes all have lines of new or upcoming Wii titles that incorporate the balance board into Pilates classes and cardio workouts.
Gold's Gym has a fitness game for the Wii, too.
Arming kids with pedometers to encourage them to move around could be the next craze.
Next month, Nintendo is releasing remakes of some of its old best-selling Pokemon games for the DS.
The twist with these remakes, which will be released only in Japan for now, is that they'll come with Pokemon-themed pedometers.
To unlock some of the stuff in the game, you have to earn it by walking around in, yes, the real world.
Personal Trainer: Walking is certainly kid-friendly, though it's not specifically aimed at children.
The title, which lets you use the "Mii" characters that represent you in Wii games, intends to introduce a bit of lighthearted competition into the area of physical activity.
Although the software comes with two pedometers, it can track the activities of four people (or pets) if you buy extras.
At the end of each day, you hold down a button on the pedometer and "beam" your activity log into the chequebook-size DS, which keeps a running calendar of your activity.
On June 16, I logged 7530 steps; on July 4, I walked 9308.
On average, according to the device, I take about 8000 steps a day.
By clipping one to my dog's collar, I learned that he typically makes about 4000.
The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports recommends that healthy adults get about 10,000 but does not make any specific recommendations for a Belgian Malinois.
Mark Fenton, an author of books espousing the health benefits of walking, says he approves of the Nintendo game.
"I don't tend to be a spokesguy," he said.
"Walking is a very simple activity, and it doesn't need a lot of accoutrements to be good."
But plenty of studies indicate that people who use pedometers walk more, and the pedometer that comes with the DS game is actually pretty good, Fenton says.
That's why Personal Trainer: Walking has his blessing.
"It uses the best of what we know about how to encourage physical activity," he said.
My 8-year-old stepson was fascinated when he saw me beaming my daily step counts into the DS.
When I gave him a pedometer of his own, however, he lost it after a day or two of summer camp.
"Walking is a game now?" one of the lad's incredulous teachers campmates asked as they waited for the morning bus to arrive one recent weekday.
"Nintendo is genius." - Mike Musgrove.
