I work on the 10th floor of an office building in Boston. As part of my recent health kick, I have been walking up the 10 flights in the morning and between floors during the day. In fact, I have found that when the 2 o’clock slump comes (read that as me at my desk snoring), I find that if I go all the way back down to the first floor and come back up, I am usually recharged…for a solid 20 minutes. At which point, I realize how stupid it was to go all the way up and down.
In fact, unless I am with others that are not interested in being on the stairs, I will always take the stairs. Otherwise, I have no problems with “social elevatoring” as a very literal and expedited way of working my way up the corporate ladder.
The new year kicked off for many of us with the usual array of resolutions that last for precisely the amount of time it took to come up with them in the first place. To celebrate the new year, the City of Boston and [insert company name here] decided to incorporate a “Take the Stairs. Every Step Counts” program as a way to encourage people to get healthier.
The Mayor of Boston as well as our CEO had a very nice ceremonial kick-off in the lobby of the building and walked up a flight of stairs. Our HR department very nicely plastered the stairwell with various signage to motivate people…assuming they were motivated to begin with because otherwise, they would not be in the stairwell to begin with. At each landing there were signs that read “Every Step Counts” and “You Can Do It”, etc. Very nice. I can feel Eye of the Tiger playing in my head.
But there is one sign that is completely immobilizing me. Frankly, I am puzzled by it. It reads: “Walking Upstairs Burns 3 Times More Calories Than Taking The Elevator.” Stop for a few seconds and think about that statement. Are you as dumbfounded as I? The first thing that strikes me is that this sentence is the exact equivalent to “Jogging burns x times more calories than sleeping.” Well, DUH! Doing something is always going to burn more calories than doing nothing! The second thing that strikes me is that if I read this correctly, ONLY 3 TIMES? So, what you are saying is that all I need to do is come in in the morning, go to the elevator, take it to 10, then let the doors open, take it back down to 1 and then press 10 again. Once I have done that, I have officially equaled the calories I have used while sweating and getting dizzy walking up the stairs. Ummmm…folks, where is the incentive?
So, my revised New Year’s Resolution is to take the elevator 36 times a day. I can feel the excess weight slide off!