The Dart Maker Blog

A pedometer is a great inexpensive exercising tool that tracks your progress and keeps you motivated to stick to your daily workout. Let’s take a look at what exactly a pedometer is and why you need one.

A pedometer is a small electronic device, about the size of a pager or smaller. The basic function of a pedometer is to track or count how many steps you take. Most models will also convert our steps into the number of miles you walked and calculate how many calories you have burned. More advanced models will save several days worth of date and some will even connect to your computer so you can chart your progress through software provided as well.

So the pedometer helps you keep track of how many steps you walked. I find that I’m much more motivated to take a little walk through the neighborhood, or park a little further when I’m running errands when I’m wearing my pedometer.

A recent study by the University of Minnesota shows that people wearing pedometers tend to walk more. The study split people up in two groups who were both encouraged to walk each day. Only one group was given pedometers to track their steps.

Those with pedometers increased their steps by about 2100 per day, or 20 minutes of steady walking, a 30% increase in daily steps. They walked almost twice as many blocks as those without pedometers. People using a pedometer also tend to stick much longer with a walking routine.

To get the most out of your pedometer, set daily and weekly goals. Start by setting a baseline number of steps. To do this, simply wear the pedometer for a few days. Don’t try to aim for a certain number of steps. All you are doing at this point is measuring how many steps you take in a normal day. Calculate the average number of steps you take any given day. Next you want to start taking 500 to 1000 steps each day. You can easily accomplish this by taking a little walk around the block, parking a little further away during errand and at work, as well as walking to a college’s office instead of calling him or her. Each week, or every two weeks increase your steps and additional 500 to 1000 steps until you reach a minimum of 10,000 steps per day. If you are walking to lose weight, work yourself up to 12,000 to 15,000 steps per day.

Walking is one of the easiest ways to exercise every day and a pedometer will help you track your progress and motivate you to keep walking. All you have to do is put on some comfortable shoes, clip on your pedometer and put one foot in front of the other. I encourage you to give walking and using a pedometer a try.

Susanne Myers is an avid walker herself and encourages others to do the same with her website. She provides you with great resources to walk off the weight, including articles on healthy eating and walking, low calorie recipes and product reviews. Visit www.walkingofftheweight.com to learn more and to sign up for her weekly tips and encouragements to keep you walking off the weight.

Newport Beach, home to Newport Harbor and Balboa Island, is fifty miles from Los Angeles, fourteen miles from Disneyland in Anaheim and thirty miles from Catalina Island. It’s a great place to get away from it all but still have it all. It is a small, population approximately 72,000, affluent city surrounded by major attractions.

Rent a condo or villa, stay at an inexpensive motel, park your RV at the Newport Dunes Resort & Marina, check into a medium priced hotel or pamper yourself at a luxury hotel like the Balboa Bay Club & Resort which shares the same address as the Balboa Bay Club (”The Balboa Bay Club which boasts a star-studded history with a guest register bearing the signatures of luminaries, including John Wayne, Ronald and Nancy Regan, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood and many more.”), Four Seasons, Hyatt Regency, Mariott or the Balboa Inn.

Dine at one of the many excellent restaurants like the Newport Landing Restaurant (”Newport Landing is Newport Beach. Located on the Bay overlooking the historic Balboa Ferry with a panoramic view of Newport Harbor, Balboa Island, Newport Center, and the distant peaks of Saddleback.”), The Ritz Restaurant & Garden (”Synonymous with elegance, gracious service and award-winning cuisine.”), The Sol Restaurant in the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach (Featuring World Island cuisine from the Caribbean, South Pacific, and Gulf of Mexico.), Woody’s Wharf (”Live entertainment Friday and Saturday night. Valet parking and quest slips available fo the boaters.”) or The Harborside Restaurant and Grand Ballroom (”Famous for its world-renowned cupola and illuminated by more than 1,400 white lights, the Balboa Pavilion has served as the beacon of Newport Beach for almost a century.”). These are but a few of the fine restaurants in Newport Beach.

Spend some time at the clean sandy beaches, cruise the large smooth water harbor while viewing the large yachts and multi million dollar homes, charter a sport fishing boat, rent a sail boat, have a party or get married on a chartered yacht, take a ride in a gondola, visit the Orange County Museum of Art, visit the many gift shops, art galleries and sidewalk cafes on Balboa Island, visit the boardwalk shops and restaurants at Newport Pier, visit or take a swim at Pirates Cove, which is best known for the filming of Gilligans Island, go hikeing, horseback riding, scuba diving or surfing at Crystal Cove State Park or catch a ride to Catalina Island.

If for some reason you need more to do, close by you will find Disneyland in Anaheim, Knott’s Berry Farm and Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park and golf courses galore.

For more information about the city of Newport Beach, California see http://newportbeach.usacitydirectories.com, a directory of links to city of Newport Beach, California guides and directories listing information, resources, services, attorneys, realtors, things to do and places to go.

David G. Hallstrom, Sr. is a retired private investigator and is currently the publisher of several internet directories, including www.usacitydirectories.com a directory of national, state, county and city guides and directories listing local guides, directories, web sites and web pages providing resources, services and information about things to do and places to go.