From SFGATE.COM:

Chevron workers’ journey to health begins with 10,000 steps

When Dominique Ralph arrived at Chevron straight out of college, she wondered about the little black boxes with the company logo clipped to the waistbands of employees’ pants and skirts. They weren’t security badges. They weren’t pagers. What were they?

Today, 628,000 steps later and 12 pounds lighter, Ralph knows.

They were pedometers.

Two years ago, in an effort to improve the health of its workforce, Chevron started giving free pedometers to employees who adopted a goal of walking 10,000 steps per day.

The San Ramon company is among a growing number of employers promoting walking as a way to encourage fitness and weight loss.

Since beginning its “10K-a-day” program, 40 percent of Chevron’s 22,000 U.S. employees have taken pedometers, devices that measure the distance people walk. Company officials say that participants have logged a total of 814 million steps (the equivalent of about 407,000 miles) and lost an average of 4 pounds.

“It is the most successful health promotion program we’ve done,” said Tanya Lughermo, associate manager for health and productivity.

(more here)

I like this story because it shows that it really is simple to lose weight,  you can do a lot of little things,  like take the stairs,  drink diet instead of regular soda, or double your walking every day,  and over time, it has a huge cumulative effect.

Also once you start losing weight,  and get into the habit of having, well, good habits,  you find yourself avoiding crappy high caloric foods,  you actually feel ill at the idea of eating the pure garbage you’re so used to eating now.