If you could walk a mile in my shoes...

...it would take you a whole lot longer than anyone thought! Quick, ask me how I know! Northland has started a big "Fit for Service" program to encourage their staff and faculty to get physically fit. They are self-insured, so any changes we as a staff make to become healthy will only help lower their health costs. One of the big incentives is a program where we get points for doing healthy things. For example, we get 100 points if we eat 3 servings of vegetables and 2 fruits each day. We get 100 points for 30 minutes of exercise each day. And at the end of each quarter there are monetary prizes awarded for attaining certain point levels. Well, one of the 100 points per day is for walking 10,000 steps...IN ONE DAY! We were all given pedometers to keep track of our steps. Let me tell you that being a stay at home mom in the middle of a frozen tundra keeps one rather sedentary! For example, I put my pedometer on before I took 2 steps this morning and now at 3:20 I only have 3,616 steps! And I went out to a baby shower this morning! I've been retraining myself to walk around the house while I talk on the phone instead of sitting in my comfy blue chair. I've been purposefully being inefficient in the way I do things so I can make extra trips to get extra steps. The kids and I even walked around the circle of our living room and kitchen several times last night so I could get my 10,000 steps in. I even tried to iron one of Brent's shirts while walking in place...I gave up that idea rather quick! But I am determined...needless to say, my treadmill has gotten more use this week than the past years combined! But I do have to say it's all paid off--I have lost 6 pounds this past week...I am a woman on a mission!