\health_and_fitness

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2016.07.16Thank You, Pokémon GO

Congratulations to Apple, Google, Niantic and Nintendo, on adding a tidy gazillion dollars to your bottom line in the week and a half Pokémon GO has been on the mobile market.

Even more amazing to me is the miracle happening in our public park. Teens are flooding the parks in the evenings, walking through the flower gardens — albeit with phones in hand.

Laurel and I are going out for longer evening walks. Our phones are in hand much like the kids’ were, but the extra steps are only being noticed when I check my health app.

I don’t know much about the game. I don’t know much about Pokémon. From the app, I have figured out that notional creatures can appear in front of me and I need to flick this ball at them and hit them with it so the ball opens up and captures them. The trivia nerd in me recalls that “Pokémon” is a portmanteau created from the words “pocket” and “monster.” And now you know everything about it that I do. Go forth and collect them all!

We seem to have no shortage of Pokéstops around our area. For some reason, the planners had a thing for churches. The other day the power was out at our home. Laurel and I drove around and stopped at a number of them (she handled the driving, while I handled the “app-ing”).

The game is getting us out and keeping us out longer than we would otherwise be. It’s a great boost to my health effort right now. If staying this course means flicking notional balls at imaginary purple rats, I’ll flick notional balls at imaginary purple rats.

This morning when I awoke, my phone told me that I set a record yesterday for burning the most calories (for me) in a day. It wasn’t a ton — a little over 450.

All I did was walk.




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