A Day Away

Mike and I took a trip to Chicago this week, just to get away for a day.  We had a ton of fun doing different things in the city.  We went to the Chicago Public Library, walked around Chinatown,

Goal Check (Formally Weekly Update)

I don't like the title: Weekly Update, because isn't even post I make an update of some sort?  I am going to continue my weekly check on my goals, and hopefully be more consistent, but I'm going to call it my Goal Check.

But before we get to this week's Goal Check, an update in my life:

Happy Labor Day!

Today is a day full of family/friend time, great food and hopefully a day off of work! It may be a day to cheat in our healthy lifestyle a bit and I say go for it!! Once in a while it's okay to cheat. I think that allows us to stay strong most of the other days.

I started off my day with a 5 mile walk over 7 different bridges in downtown GR. There was a bunch of people there. I walked with my parents and one of my friends. At first I didn't know if I wanted to get up for an 8am walk, but I knew it would be a great way to exercise. It turned out to be a great walk!! I got over 10,000 steps just in that walk. Then I followed that up with a breakfast consisting of two pieces of wheat toast, two pieces of bacon, 1 scrambled egg, and some potatoes with onions, which I seasoned with ketchup and salt. :) Some days you need to cheat.

To you and yours, staying with your healthy lifestyle or cheating a bit today, I hope you all enjoy your Labor Day!! And if you have any healthy foods you ate at your cookouts or an activity you did to burn off those burgers and dogs, please share it here!! I'd love to hear about it!

Weekly Update - late

This update is a little late, so you'll get another update from me in a few days. The information in this post refers to the week of Aug. 21-27.

Weekly Update

GOAL #1: Walk 10,000 steps a day. Sunday: 7179
Monday: 8441
Tuesday: 12067
Wednesday: 10314
Thursday: 8901
Friday: 12993
Saturday: 8280

I'm very happy with this week's numbers. I just need to keep this up!

Weekly Update

I'm going to try to do a weekly update about my progress in my health journey, so please enjoy this first one.

GOAL #1: Walk 10,000 steps a day.
Monday: 3557
Tuesday: 9614
Wednesday 8034
Thursday: 10659
Friday: 16374
Saturday: 13536

Over all I'm doing pretty well. Monday was pretty week, but I did really well Friday and Saturday to make up for it.

Pedometer

As you know one of my goals is to walk 10,000 steps a day. To track my steps, I was using the pedometer I got for free from work. I thought it wasn't working, but every time I looked at it and counted the steps for a few feet, it seemed to count good. However the other day, I walked for 1 1/2 hours while catching up on my phone with a friend, but by the end of the day I still only had 4,000 steps. I couldn't believe it!! I thought, "This is the last straw! I'm buying a new pedometer."

I went to my local store, picked up a new pedometer and then I wore both pedometers one on each hip for a few hours at work. On the free pedometer I had 410 steps. On the new pedometer I had 1223 steps. So all this time I have been struggling with reaching 10,000 steps, thinking to myself that I am not walking enough and it had been the equipment! Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I'm very far short of beating the amount of steps I took last summer. With about a month left in the stepping challenge, I'm not sure if I can catch up, but I'm going to try!

The good news is that I was put into a prize drawing and won a $50.00 gift card for a local shoe store. Any recommendations on a good pair of running shoes?

Steps & Health Quiz

Steps
My job's health and wellness program has a health challenge ever summer called Summertime Steps. Participants wear a pedometer everyday to try to see how many steps they take throughout the summer. I believe the goal of the program is to be aware of how steps you are (or aren't) taking and try to increase it. My goal this summer was to beat the amount of steps I walked last summer. I don't have the number of steps I did last summer in front of me and I don't know how many I have done so far this year, but I know I'm not doing as well. Granted I have forgotten to wear it a couple times and I had a broken one on for a while but still. I need to step it up (no pun intended)!!

The coordinators of this program said we should be doing 10,000 steps a day. I have heard this number repeated in two or three other places, so since many health professionals are agreeing on 10,000 steps I believe this is a pretty solid number. My new goal for the rest of this summer is to try to get 10,000 steps a day. Today I got a measly 3,946! I need to get my walking shows on!

Health Quiz
I get the email newsletter from DoctorOz.com and today's newsletter had a very comprehensive health quiz in it. I think there are over 200 questions on it. It goes by very fast though and after the quiz there are videos to watch about each question, so if you selected yes, I have this symptom, you can learn what might be causing it. I would recommend to everyone taking Dr. Oz's quiz Quiz: How Healthy Are You?!!