I exercise daily and try to get enough steps each day to add up to two miles. That’s around 6,250 steps if anyone is counting.

Well, my iPhone is counting ‘em. The steps, that is. And the miles.

My exercise routine got started by accident. More than a year ago, I ate some Macaroni and Cheese that my son Nicholas had left out overnight. I got sick as a dog, couldn’t keep anything down, and ended up driving to the emergency room of the VA Hospital of Philadelphia.

  I ended up losing some 50 pounds.

    Yeah, you read that right. Fifty pounds knocking my weight down from 208 pounds to a solid 158 pounds which is just right for my 5-foot-six-inch frame.

And more importantly, I kept the weight off!

I did it by taking part in a study for persons over 65 who were issued an iPhone to keep track of their vital statistics for a study group conducted by CORE Human Factors of Bala Cynwyd, PA. Someone retained the group to study me and other seniors over one year. You had to wear your watch the entire time, and at the end of the study, they’d pay you $650.

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I completed the study and learned how to track my exercise routine through the I-Watch. I was intrigued by the record my watch was creating, and I joined the local gym, SuperFit of Conshohocken.

There are some 20 treadmills there, and I use one of them at least five days a week.  I never would have joined the gym had I not been given the incentive to exercise by the watch.

And while I had to turn in the watch at the end of the year, my IPhone kept the records of my daily routine.

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     In addition, my loss of weight added — or in this case, “subtracted” — another benefit. I got cured of the sleep apnea that had forced me to wear a mask in bed for the past 10 years or so. (See sleep article.)

I don’t believe that I would have gotten “back into shape” had it not been for both the accident and the incentive offered by the study. It just goes to show you that the Universe can conspire and use different forms of magic and synchronistic efforts to affect your overall well-being.

Just stay away from spoiled Mac and Cheese!