15,000 steps a day seemed a steep though reasonable goal until Superstorm Sandy put a halt to my mojo. Things were going well until I was almost felled by a tree and scaled back my need to walk at the expense of my life. As a result I had three days under 15,000 steps but I excused myself due to extenuating circumstances.
Following Sandy I went to Philadelphia to teach an anatomy training that was so much fun but I was inside or driving the whole weekend and failed to walk 10,000 in the two days I was there. Oh the pain!
15,000 steps is a lot and you need a lot of time on your hands to get there consistently—I have to take a one hour walk at some point in the day.  So far, it has been either a long walk with the dog when I wake up or before I go to sleep. The funny thing about any kind of exercise routine is that we get conditioned to it and I was noticeably bummed when I couldn’t walk during the storm or last weekend.
When my wife and I first moved into the neighborhood that we are currently in we lived in a section that has one of the largest conglomerations of Victorian houses in the country(Ditmas Park, Brooklyn). It is a stunning array of mansions of which no two are alike—my wife and I would take walks with our dogs amidst these houses every day. Then the kids came along and routines change.
Now I am back walking among the Victorians as the extra bit of time it takes to get to them puts me over the top in terms of my walking needs. It usually takes about 15 minutes before I get into that zone where I feel that I can walk forever.
***