An Extra 11 Miles

1.13
Eleven miles seems like a long way to walk... and it is. But if there was a simple way to add an extra 11 miles to your year, would you be interested? I've had a habit of parking 'away from' the entrance to stores and malls and offices, including the office where I work. It wasn't until recently that I actually figured out what those additional steps yield.


The parking lot where I work isn't that big, and the walk from the back edge to the front door is about 40 yards. If you multiply that times the number of trips back and forth over a year, you literally end up with eleven miles in a year! (From the car to the office door and back on about 250 working days of the year). I have rerun the numbers over and over because it was hard for me to imagine that it equaled over 11 miles.



When we choose to live a wellness lifestyle, there are practical, simple investments, and small sacrifices which we can make to benefit our lives immensely. The simple act of walking an additional 40 yards, a couple times a day, pays a big dividend in physical activity. And when you're at the mall, it saves a bunch of time: instead of cruising the parking aisles looking for the illusory open spot right next to the main entrance, just park where there's an open space and walk.


Some other movement generators:

• cut the grass with a push mower (or better yet, an old-fashioned reel mower)
• grab your gloves and a bucket and weed the flower beds instead of using weed killers
• the old standard of taking the stairs instead of the elevator / escalator 
• hand saw some boards for a home project (instead of a circular saw, etc.) or chop some wood instead of renting a splitter
• in winter, shovel show instead of using the snow blower
• hand scrub some floors instead of using a mop or swiffer

(why does all this sound a bit Amish...hmmm, they're usually pretty healthy, though...)

You get the idea. It can be quite physically rewarding to invest a bit of each day doing something to move, flex and stretch our bodies instead of using a power tool or shortcut to do it. It really isn't a big deal in the moment, but it sure does add up over time. So what simple activity can you add to your day?

By the Way

Ben (son #1) and I are signed up for our first run of the season: the Sauder Egg Run on 4/19. This will be our 3rd year participating. It is a 5 mile run, and right in Lititz - simple enough. The greatest benefit to me is that it creates a specific goal to train for. Without something like this on the calendar, I would find 10 reasons to not get out and train. With it on the calendar, I stay motivated to eat better and get running. I even get out with 2 or 3 of our kids for training runs (Ben running with me and Joe and Becca biking along with us.) It is a worthwhile investment of time and energy. What training goals do you have on your calendar?