The HJ 112 is a workhorse of a pedometer. My favorite aspect of the Omron HJ 112 pedometer is that I don't have to wear it on my belt (something I normally don't wear) or attached to the waistband of my jeans or jogging pants. I can carry it around in my jacket pocket or even tossed inside my handbag (never to be seen again!) and the pedometer still keeps an accurate count of all the things it is measuring for me.

It keeps track of my steps, calories burned during workouts and the distance I've traveled. It tracks aerobic steps and minutes as well, though I don't usually use it for that. I'm really just trying to get to the 10,000 steps a day (still working on that!) And you can put in your stride length so you'll get even more accuracy in your readouts.

One feature on the Omron HJ-112 that I really like is the weekly tracker. There are some days where I'm on the computer all day and manage hardly any steps at all!

But this pedometer resets at midnight every day and keeps track of my weekly progress. So even if I don't feel like I'm moving enough on certain days, I can see how I'm doing over the course of the week. If I take the dog out to our secret walk in the woods location, we'll usually spend an hour or so walking (she runs around like a nut, I walk).

I'm actually looking forward to taking the HJ-112 pedometer with me on my next trip to Walt Disney World. I had meant to have one with me on my last trip, but then forgot all about it. So this time it will be interesting to see how many miles I actually clock on a typical day in the parks. I spend a lot of time wandering Epcot and that place is huge!

You'll notice in the photo that this pedometer has a safety strap and a clip attachment. I normally don't bother with either of them, since nine times out of 10 I'm wearing a jacket with pockets or I'm carrying a my handbag (or fanny pack). But if you tend to walk with your pedometer clipped to your waistband, then the strap will certainly keep it from crashing to the pavement if it happens to fall off of your pants!

One thing I've found since getting the pedometer is that it has increased my motivation substantially now that I can see exactly how much activity I'm doing each day. Although frankly it was quite alarming to learn that there were days where I walked less than a 1000 steps in a day. For the average stride, 1000 steps is about a half mile so I wasn't even managing that on days that I was glued to my computer.

Now that I have the Omron digital pedometer though, I find myself taking the time to get up off my butt and outside into the sunlight and fresh air for awhile. This is something I needed to do anyway, but it took the numbers on the face of the pedometer to get me moving.

So now, the next thing I'm trying to achieve is to get my activity up to 10,000 steps per day. For most of us, this is about 5 miles a day of walking. I can do that in a single afternoon at Disney World, but when I'm at home, it takes a bit of work.

If a half hour is about 3000 steps, then 6000 is an hour. But if I need to make up for a shortfall on days I'm getting a lot of work done online, then I might need to walk for an hour and a half or so. Honestly, I can't say I have a lot of time for that.

But one thing I have been working on is learning to walk faster. I tend to stroll. If I have the dog with me, she makes it worse. But now I have a longer lead and I try and do a bit of fitness walking when we are out --- this gets my heart rate up and kicks my metabolism into gear and it is a nice aerobic work-out. So we'll see how that works out in the long run.