One of the things I noticed while living in London way back when the boys were little was the vastly increased amount of walking I did everyday. We did not own a car, and we lived in the city where it was easy to walk everywhere. I walked to pick up the boys from school, and we all walked home. I walked to the park and to the grocery store. I walked to go shopping. I ran sometimes, and went to the gym occasionally, but really my main exercise was my everyday commute. In Hong Kong, we do own a car. I drive occasionally but usually I walk, take our building’s shuttle (which stops in two central locations) or take a cab. The boys take a bus to and from school, so the school commute is off my walking schedule. When I do drive (about once a week so the car doesn’t die) parking is so hard to find that I usually end up walking at least part of the way to my destination anyway. I spend some time in the gym, particularly because exercising outside means breathing in air that exceeds the WHO’s maximum limit for pollution, or the heat and humidity impose languor.

In the summers we go home to two beautiful areas that are hubs of physical activity. Scituate is filled with triathletes, runners, cyclists, boot campers and weekend warriors, and Truckee is known for its bevy of outdoor activities. But here’s the thing. In both Truckee and Scituate, in spite of all the opportunities exercise in beautiful green surroundings and fresh air, I move less.

I originally imported a Fitbit to Hong Kong to see if all that walking was adding up to more activity. Did the pollution and heat mean I was spending less time physically active? Or was the daily walking adding up? In the US, did all the working out, the ellipse and treadmill in the house, the fresh air, really add up to less activity? I paid up for the Fitbit One because it uses some sort of voodoo to track stairs, and if I was going to be walking uphill, I sure as hell wanted credit for it. A few months married to my Fitbit proves it. In HK, I regularly average about 10,000 steps a day and regularly exceed uphill steps equal to 25 flights of stairs. Here in the US where the air is fresh? Half that. And the stairs? Not even half. Yikes.