I rotate through shoes each day. So far, they’ve lasted a long time. Walk, walk, walk.

Here’s the fact I like most about the past 12 months of walking 50 to 70 miles a week while working: One hospitalization.

Yep. In years past, that number would be two or three hospital stays in a 12-month period. And the only reason for the last visit in November was because I caught the virus from hell.

Luck? Perhaps. But isn’t luck something we make ourselves?

There’s no doubt my conditioning is much better. I don’t get tired when we’re out and I walk a long distance. I can stand while others with normal health sit. I can stand all day now.

(Knock on wood to all of this, as life has a way of punishing me when I write good things here. I’ll risk it.)

So, in the last 12+ months, I estimate I’ve walked across the country – 2,500 miles or more. I average 10 to 14 miles a day, and 50 to 60 a week. Sometimes more than 70. My record for one day is 18 miles.

Total steps in the last year: I’m in the millions. I wish that total was in dollars.

I do my treatments while I walk. I eat M&Ms Minis while I walk. I eat and spill yogurt while I walk. I’m writing this post while I’m walking. And so far I’ve done all of these without wiping out, though I’ve had close calls.

The one downside created by the miles is planter fasciitis. The reality: my feet hurt. It’s hard to walk barefooted now. But it’s been worth the benefits to my lungs and the endurance I’ve gained in my legs.

I’ve lost about 10 pounds, a lot of it around my gut. And I’ve done it without eating less.

I’m grateful I read the New Yorker article a year ago and learned about walking on a treadmill while working. It had never occurred to me that there was an alternative to sitting all day at a computer. Lucky me, I say. Lucky me.