Hallway Laps

Last week while scavenging through one of three of my kitchen junk drawers, I discovered my long lost pedometer. I tried to remember the last time I wore the pedometer, which was most certainly before Robby was born. I began to contemplate how many miles I walk everyday.

The next morning with the pedometer still sitting on my counter, I decided to satisfy my curiosity. Since it was raining outside, I knew that my walking was going to be limited to indoors, but I figured it would be interesting little project. After changing the batteries and recalibrating, a task which should have taken two minutes but ended up taking nearly twenty, I clipped the little counter onto my waistband and started my day.

Perhaps because I was wearing the pedometer I was more cognizant of my movements throughout the day. I was shocked at how many times I walked up and down our hallway traversing between the bedrooms and living room. It seemed like every time I made it to the kitchen or sat down in the living room, I was being called. I was beginning to think that a secret closed-circuit camera system must have been installed so that Robby and Scott knew when I was taking a moment to relax!

Seemingly every time I tried to sit down, I was beckoned by the squawking of my boys. When "Momom, I need you" wasn't echoing through the house, I was hearing, "Peggy! Come here!" from Scott. The reasons for the screaming ranged from "I don't like this cartoon" to "The phone is ringing." Did they really need me for either of those issues? I have one leg, yet I seem to be the only one in this house who is capable of walking down the hall to communicate!

At night after I tucked Robby into bed, I unclipped the pedometer and checked out my results. Without walking outside, and without changing my routine, I walked a whopping 12,129 steps. Considering that each mile consists of 2000 steps, I walked over 6 miles!

6 miles walking up and down my hallway, responding to the seemingly incessant inconsequential requests from the boys. No wonder I'm tired by the end of the day! I think I'm going to invest in a pair of headphones, and institute a new family walking program so I'm not the only one going up and down the hallway.