10,000 steps

If you've seen Steve or I lately, you may have noticed that we have been wearing a pedometer.  We only have one, so we take turns wearing it.  I keep it clipped to my pocket and Steve clips it to his belt and it looks a bit like a pager. 

Wouldn't that be cool, if I had a pager in 2012?  Although sometimes I feel like admitting that I have a regular old cell phone without a texting plan is something akin to owning a pager. 

Our goal is 10,000 steps each day.  We usually make it.  We had read that 10,000 steps is appropriate for an active, healthy person.  We both strive to be active, healthy people. 

But Steve has an office job and only gets to walk on his breaks and I spend hours on end sitting at the sewing machine, so I was skeptical at first about how many steps we were taking. 

I have been pleasantly surprised at how many steps it takes to complete my regular weekly tasks.  On laundry and sheet changing day, I go up and down the stairs several times with each load.  Laundry is about 1,000 steps. 

Grocery shopping is about 1,000 steps as well.  I thought it would be more, but I'm obviously a very efficient shopper. 

Mowing the lawn is a big ticket item at about 4,000 steps.  It's super easy to reach my goal on lawn mowing day. 

And the walk that we usually take after dinner helps a lot.  Walking our neighborhood (about half an hour) is around 3,000 steps. 

10,000 steps is about five miles and I love the thought that I'm walking five miles each day!  Wearing the pedometer is a great reminder to be active, so I'll pace the house while I make phone calls, or park extra far from the store to get a few more steps in. 

I try to set mini goals throughout the day to make sure I'm on track.  It's almost noon and I've taken 3269 steps so far, so I'm doing pretty well.  Which is great, because I have yet to figure out a way to simultaneously walk and blog.