How to Use Your Pedometer Follow these instructions and use the step tracker to track your progress in adding physical activity throughout your day:

Print a Pedometer Tracking Tool

• Download and print the PDF document
  
• Download the Word version to save on your desktop

Identify Your Baseline Steps

• Wear your pedometer for 3 consecutive days, with at least 1 of the days being a Saturday or Sunday.
  
• Log your three days of steps, calculate your average to determine your baseline steps. This is the starting point to setting your goals to increase your steps:
  Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3 = Total Steps / Divided by 3 = BASELINE

Tracking Your Steps

• Each morning, reset your pedometer to "zero". Keep it closed and attached to the front of your waist.
  
• Wear it all day. Check your steps throughout the day for motivation to reach you daily goal.
  
• At night, record the number of steps you've taken on the Step Tracker.

Setting Goals

• Each week, determine your new goal for the number of steps based on boosting your daily average by 20%.
  
• For example, if your baseline average is 3000 steps a day, set a goal for 3600 steps a day in week two. You can determine how fast you want to progress. If reaching 3600 steps a day is difficult at first, keep working on it until you are able to sustain it with relative ease. Then increase again by 20%.
  
• If 20% is too easy, try adding in increments of 1000 to 2000 steps a day to your previous weekly goal.
  
• Once you reach 10,000 steps a day, most days of the week, you are successfully meeting the exercise recommendations for good health.

Tips for Using the Step Tracker

• Choose the same time every day to set or reset your pedometer.
  
• Wear your pedometer all day.
  
• Keep your Step Tracker in the same place to record your steps, or use an online tracker on the Web, such as America on the Move.
• For proper placement, wear it on the frontside of your hip right above your knee.

Fun Way to Add Steps

• Walk to work
• Take BART and walk to your destination
• Park in the farthest space from a building's entrance
• Walk to lunch
• Take a meeting outdoors to "walk and talk"
• Take the stairs
• Walk to your co-worker's workstation instead of sending an email
• Walk to the store
• Walk your child to school
• Walk the dog
• Take walks after dinner
• Take a 5 or 10 minute walking break during your workday
• Take walking tours of historic sites
• Take a walking tour of your neighborhood
• Race walk with your children (give youngsters a head start)
• Walk to do your errands
• Walk to the mailbox or postoffice
• Get a Walking Buddy