Or maybe it is a weird trick.  And do doctors hate it?  Are they unable to explain it?  I don’t think so.  All I know is that you should put your phone in your pocket if you play Pokemon Go.

Seriously.

Okay, maybe I had better lay out some context.

When my wife and I hit level 47 in Pokemon Go I posted about the requirements to get to the next level.  There was, of course, yet another huge pile of xp needed to be earned.  21 million xp, or more than the 1-40 journey.  But there were also four tasks to complete, three of which looked to be pretty easy.

The level 48 requirements

As I posted yesterday, I am already done with the first two, and the third one is well on its way and will be done long before I get to 21 million xp.

But then there is the walk 25km in one week… which is Monday to Monday in the world of Pokemon Go… which is something that felt like it was going to be a barrier.  Pokemon Go tells you every Monday how many kilometers you’ve walked, and I have rarely ever hit 25.  I think I did it the week we were in Honolulu, where we walked more than 10K steps every day.  But day to day, not so much.

So it looked like I was going to have to put in some effort to get this done.  There is a 1.5km route I walk most days which has a gym at the mid point of the loop.  I expanded that to make it a 2.5km walk and set about to do that daily.  That got me closer, though some bad weather kept me home a few times.  But after a stretch of clear skies I did get close to the 25km, sitting there on Sunday night at close to 22km.

I wasn’t going to go walking out in the dark and cold, but I felt like this shouldn’t be that hard.  But I am also a bit fussy about when I walk, and restricted by work.  I don’t like to walk in the dark, or when it is raining, or when it is too hot, and I have to give myself enough time between meetings to make sure I don’t show up late.  And some days I just don’t have the time between starting the work day and dropping onto the couch after dinner, at which point I am done with the world.

But I also noticed, in reviewing my activity, that I was very deliberate about when I was walking for Pokemon Go.  For that 2.5km I picked my phone up off my desk, put in my ear buds, turned on a podcast or an audio, and headed out.  On my return, I put everything back down on my desk and carried on with work.

My phone, save for the walk, remained on my desk so I could hear it if somebody… specifically my wife… called or texted.  If she is at Costco and I want something while she is there, I need to be on the ball.  So my phone was pretty much sitting still all day while I was often walking around the house… I am prone to pacing about when thinking or planning, muttering like Pop-eye in his early animated features.

So, after another close week where I didn’t quite make it to 25km, I decided to make sure my phone was in my pocket all day rather than sitting on my desk.

And that week I blew through the 25km mark, landing almost 10km ahead. Now, it happened to be a week of nice, cool weather, so I put in a bit of extra walking outside just to press myself.  But on looking at the data I walk a good 1.5-3km every day just striding about grumbling.

Even the iOS Health app noticed the change in my behavior, marking a noticeable uptick in activity.

Change from just carrying around my phone

This, of course, doesn’t mean I did anything more.  I just made sure the phone was tracking what I was doing.  That is the whole Adventure Sync aspect of this.  You need to get that configured… which should be easy… and then you steps get counted by Pokemon Go even when your phone is in your pocket.

I suppose this is easier if you have an Apple Watch or some such, but after my iPhone finally got me to stop wearing a watch I’ll be damned if I am going to go back to that.  And I don’t know what the analogue is on Android, but I assume that there is one.  My state issued Samsung phone is locked down so I can’t, for example, put Pokemon Go on it… or see an activity/exercise app.  So YMMV.

But the point is that I just need keep my phone on me as I make my way to level 48 in Pokemon Go.