Shop: The right shoes for 10,000 steps a day?

I've been delinquent with my posting. Activities related to moving into my boyfriend's apartment and planning a vacation are to blame, but with that kind of stuff on the horizon I can't really complain, can I?

TMI moment: I found 2012 to be an extremely challenging year. Divorce, sale of my home, a loss of a dear family member, work conflict, and ulcerative colitis flare ups were difficult obstacles to say the least. But after some time, reflection and prescription medicine, I feel like I'm starting to move past it. I have tons to look forward to; work and personal life appear to be on track so it's time to focus on my physical health a bit more.

As part of my effort to feel healthy and strong again, I joined the global corporate challenge this year with a team of 7 coworkers. For 16 weeks we will wear pedometers to track our distance walked. We will then post the daily results on their website to track our cumulative distance. It's a competition with other corporate teams with an end goal of raising funds for children's physical activity in schools, but also to encourage physical activity within corporations. It suggests a minimum of 10,000 steps a day, which I'm told is close to 5 miles distance. The competition starts tomorrow and goes into September. Yesterday I received my care packet, which includes my pedometer. I thought that I'd do a little experiment and wear the pedometer today knowing I have no plans of altering my regular activities, just to see what an average day looks like. I can only assume it's shameful. I have a strange relationship with exercise, I tend to do it in phases and then drop it completely, which I know is awful for a persons' health. Right now I'm in the inactivity phase so this friendly competition is exactly what I need. I know it will set the tone and within no time I'll be back to running, yoga and spin classes.

All this to bring me back to shoes (talk about a meandering blog post!). A girl can't walk 10,000 steps a day wearing high heels unless she's a masochist. I'm clumsy and way too much of a wimp to deal with that. So considering I like cute shoes and I don't want to compromise my work outfits with clunky running shoes to clock my 10,000 steps a day, I need alternatives. Luckily my predilection for footwear means I already have the answer to my problem; flats! Ballet flats, loafers, sandals, oh my! I know it's not enough cushioning for real exercise, but for taking the stairs and throwing in extra steps during the work day, I'm hoping they will do the trick. Today's selection are Jessica Simpson polka dot ballet flats. Cute, right?

They were an impromptu eBay purchase as the price was too good to resist (38$!). I've owned Jessica Simpson ballet flats before and aside from the fact that they don't last very long, they are easy to find for a good price, available in cute colours/patterns and are easy to break in (essential!!!). To be honest, I'm not very talented at mixing prints/patterns so I don't wear these too often. But today, I'm wearing Gap Khakis in Brick and Banana Republic Safari blouse in black; I thought that a red/black combo would pair well with white polka dots. I'd post a picture of the full ensemble but I haven't figured out how so many fashion bloggers take such good selfies (That sounds dirty...).

Courtesy of BR

Courtesy of Gap