Taking Steps

According to the man on the radio today, a (healthy) person should take ten-thousand steps a day. Ten-thousand steps?! Doesn't that seem like a lot to you? It sure does to me. We're talking regular steps, which is what, about 4 feet? Think about it: if you take ten-thousand steps a day, it means you're walking about 7 1/2 miles a day without even going anywhere!

This got me thinking: how can a person possibly take that many steps in one day? Considering we have a pretty big property (about 21,500 square feet) and two extremely active kids utilizing every inch of it, I figure I must take ten-thousand steps a day, at least! But to find out for sure, I thought I'd go ahead and count.

This morning I took twelve steps from my bed to the coffee pot. Ten steps from the coffee pot to Mia's bed. Eight steps from Mia's bed to the living room. Ten steps from the living room to Bram's bed, then another five steps form Bram's bed to the living room. Three steps from the living room to the coffee pot again, six steps from the coffee pot to the bathroom. Two steps from the bathroom door into the shower (does turning around in the shower count as steps?) Another twelve steps from the bathroom to my bedroom to get dressed. That's sixty-eight steps already, and I haven't even gotten dressed yet!

After getting myself and the kids dressed (which took another twenty-three steps in total), I took thirty-five steps to the car. Five steps around to the other side of the car to load in Mia, then another eight steps to run after Bram who tried to escape. Then took another five steps to get Bram into the car, and finally, two steps to get to the driver's side and get in. That's one-hundred-fourty-five steps and it's only 8:30am!

I took fifteen steps to walk from the car to the pre-school door. Then I took another twenty steps following Mia around the classroom as she showed me the drawings she did. Twenty-two steps to catch Bram, who tried to escape out the front door again. Thirteen steps to go and open the door for a friend and her baby buggy. Thirty-three steps to take Mia to the potty and back. Eighteen steps to kiss Mia and Bram goodbye, then another twenty-five to walk out the door and to the window to wave goodbye. And then twenty to walk back around and to the car. Half an hour later, and we're at three-hundred-and-nine!

When I got home, I took another thirty-five steps from the car up to the house. Ten steps to the coffee pot, then twelve steps to, and from, the bathroom. Twenty-six steps from the bathroom to the bench outside under the honeysuckle. Sixty-seven steps to take a walk around the garden to see what's in bloom. Ten steps to the laptop to check my e-mails. That's four-hundred-sixty-nine. I get the kids from pre-school and by the time I come home at 11:54, I've taken five-hundred-fifty-nine steps. I take a walk with the kids to see the horse down the road and back, which took eight-hundred-eighty-five steps. The kids played in the yard all afternoon till dinnertime, during which time I took a total of teo-thousand-two-hundred-and-sixty-eight steps. Grand total at 6pm: three-thousand-seven-hundred-and-twelve steps.

Ok, this is terrible. We just had dinner and I am nowhere near ten-thousand steps! My evening will consist of a couple hundred more steps at most, seeing as all I plan to do is give the kids in bath. Honestly, I didn't even take half the required amount of steps! Ten-thousand steps. It's futile. (Maybe I should've taken more baby steps.)

I challenge you, dear reader, to see how many steps you take in a day. If you take ten-thousand, consider yourself unbelievably, inconceivably healthy! I may have actually only taken just under four-thousand steps today, but my feet and I agree, it feels like a million! Maybe someday they'll come up with a 'Ten-thousand times a day bending down to pick up toys program'. Now that I could manage.