A Year Without Elevators

It’s a new year, and it’s time for another new years resolution.

I’m not crazy about them, but I don’t take new years resolutions that lightly–I try and pick something reasonable, something that I can stick too. The resolution doesn’t have to be a permanent thing for me either. I take a while to think about the year before, and what it all means to me (that post is coming for 2009) and then I try and think about something I want to accomplish.

For example, last year I was just starting to get back into shape. Working out was going well, but my diet was questionable. Still, I was losing weight, so I figured it couldn’t have been that bad. My resolution was to count calories as best I could for the month of January. For the first two weeks I didn’t change my diet, I simply counted calories to see what I had been eating. I bought a food scale, and while I still grabbed handfuls of peanuts, I weighed them first to see how many servings I was inhaling. Turns out, one big handful was about 1 oz–a serving size. Overall I was consuming 2900-3500 calories a day! It really got me to think about portion size and controlling my snack urges. I stopped counting when January was over, but to this day I’m much more mindful of what I’m eating (i.e. giving up putting mayonnaise on everything).

This year it has been tough to think of something. Sure I want to stop leaving such cryptic song lyrics as facebook statuses, but that’s not resolution worthy (just something I need to do). I’m still working out and eating better, so those weren’t options. There had to be something I could work on in my life. Then it hit me on my walk into work this morning.

You see, for about the last year my boss has given up using the elevator to get up to our 4th floor office. He’ll take it down, but he always takes the 67 stairs up. I started walking up with him if we were headed back to the office together. About a month ago I decided to try and it out full time, and I haven’t taken the elevator up yet.

As I walked up the steps today I wondered if I could carry over this habit to my home life. I live on the top floor of a 6 story building with 26 steps per floor. That’s 130 every time I go up to my place. I walk up the steps from the second floor workout room (I can’t call it a gym), but I still take the elevator every other time I head up to my apartment.

Yesterday I gave it a shot. Similar with my experience to quitting the office elevator, the hardest part is breaking the habit. When I got home from work, I grabbed my mail and called the elevator. I got right in and paged through envelopes as I ascended with no effort. The door opened on 6 and I realized that I had completely forgotten about the stairs. So I took it right back down and walked up. It feels pretty stupid doing that, and it gets you out of the habit fast. Sure enough, when I got home from racquetball–even as tired as I was–I walked up to the elevator, and as I was about to push the button I remembered the steps. By the end of next week I won’t even think twice about it, I’ll just head right over to the stairs.

I want to take this further than just my office and apartment building. I’m going to try and go for the remainder of 2010 without riding UP in an elevator. And I vow to go to the observation deck at Carew Tower at least once.

Hey at least it’s not A Year Without A Car.

I’m sure I’ll post throughout the year how it’s working out. It gives me an excuse to go through some tall buildings just to take the steps. And the more people that know about it, the more embarrassed I’ll be if I give in.