3 Little Things I Love! April 4, 2009

• Lip Moisturizer

 I use this all the time, all four seasons.  My current favorites are Burt’s Bees Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil and LypSyl Pure Swedish Beeswax Honeyberry (with SPF 15).

• My WiFi Connection

It gives me Internet, anywhere, anytime, even while driving (as a passenger) enroute to Vermont.

• My Stainless Steel Coffee Mug

With Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in it actually (not Starbucks–too bitter/strong for me!) first thing in the am.

Are there any little things you absolutely love?  What gets you through your day?

10,000 Steps!

When I came across an old pedometer the other day, I was reminded of an article I had read a while back about taking 10,000 steps each day for your health.  I decided to wear it for fun just to check how I was doing and I tracked 15,547 steps that day, just from daily activity.  Adding a walk around our farm that evening with my husband (something we’re trying to do as many nights as possible), I added a couple thousand more steps.

This past week, I’ve been busy with my students helping them collect and analyze data, so this was a perfect tie-in to real-life experience.  They collected data by choosing an activity (dribbling a basketball, running in place, jumping rope) and timing how many repetitive movements they could do in a minute.  Some even wore pedometers, as they learned about rates, averages/mean, mode, range, median, etc.  I also let them know about the “10,000 steps per day” idea and many of them decided to count their steps for the day, too.  Fortunately, our P.E. Dept. had received a gift of pedometers (that were idle), which they were willing to share.

Anyways, this had led me to really think about getting more exercise and how I can up that daily movement into 20,000 steps to be even healthier.  You’d be surprised how many steps accumulate just from daily activity.  When you’re wearing a pedometer, I think you’re just motivatyed to do more walking because you’re thinking about it more.

So . . . a few friends and I have signed up to do some 5K Walk/Runs and I’m planning on our annual, 8-mile hike around a local reservoir when that opens up to the public in May.  I’ve never been much of a “runner,” although I did jog BC (Before Children).  I’ve always loved doing aerobic dance classes and ever taught them for a bit (AC) and while pregnant, I taught a prenatal aerobics class, which was a lot of fun.  These days, the gym doesn’t seem to be beckoning me as much, but the outside is, after being inside most of the day at school.

As spring is in the air, and it’s getting warmer and greener,  I know I need to firm up from too much “winter idleness.”  What are you doing for exercising?  Are you a walker or a runner?  Is the gym your exercise place of choice?  What fits into your day?