Monday, February 23, 2009

Night Rider

Or alternately titled, "In Which MissKitti Rocks Pedom-o-thon 2009"

February is National Heart Health month. So, come on folks, lets all get healthy hearts!

I'm participating in a "pedom-o-thon" at work, for the month of February. Participants put in $5 and wear a pedometer, tracking their daily step counts. There is a weekly prize for the highest step count at the end of each week and a grand prize for the highest total step count at the end of February. Participants can only win one weekly prize and anyone can win the grand total.

We mean business in the Food Lab. We don't kid around about our competitions. (Seriously, our last competition, the Bark Off, saw people entering up to six varieties of bark, not to mention the ingenious names. We even went so far as to make up official ballots and have silent taste testing so as not to influence each other.)

Folks, I won last week's weekly prize. I set a goal to walk, at minimum, 10,000 steps each day. This is equivalent to about 5 miles/day. (1 mile = ~2000 steps). Unfortunately, my sights were set too low. My goal put me roughly in the middle of the race. I could see an adjustment was necessary. This past week, my grand total? Da daadaa daaaa...........147,304 steps! I know, right? I'm so proud. The next closest step count was 109,432.

How did I accomplish this? one might ask. A combination of walking and riding my bike. We all agreed that any form of exercise could be converted into steps. So at the end of every day if my step count wasn't as high as I wanted, I hopped on my bike and started to ride.

On Saturday, I thought it would be fun to reach 30,000 steps in one day. Guess what? It wasn't fun. No. It wasn't. But it was possible and so I did it. Walking 10,000 steps and riding 10 miles. I made it to 30,000 steps.

And so I won for this week. Also, it turns out stretching would have been a good idea.

Happy Heart Month to all!

14 comments:

Meg said...

I am totally impressed! I love all these new contests to make people healthier! Congrats Kitti! Oh, and what was your fantastic prize?

Sherry Carpet said...

you're inspiring, misskitti! last week i ate a cookie for every step i had NOT walked and it does not feel good at all. oh, what an @$$ am i. this week i resolve to be more like you!

Nicea said...

I, too, am impressed by your total dedication to whatever competitions you put your minds to. We're gonna be one healthy family, yeah?

And you made me laugh with your line, "And it turns out stretching would have been a good idea." Ha. What an understatement, yes?

annie said...

i heart you, miss kitti. last year, my office mate and i got each other pedometers for christmas. i think the novelty wore off by the end of january. and then i dropped mine and broke it (happens a lot with small electronics in my hands). good work for stickin to it!

Jana said...

Good for you!!!!!! Seriously, what was the prize - we're dying to know.

miss kitti said...

The fabulous prize is a foot-spa pack: Johnson's Magical Foot Soak, Udderly Perfect Foot Cream and a pumice stone. All very exciting.

Thanks for the love everyone. When I started the pedomothon, I really just thought it would be fun to participate and didn't think I could out-walk anyone. But with a combination of my shoe-person magic and a burst of energy, I did it (for one week anyway). Amazing even to me.

Erika said...

That's great Kitti! Way to go. Keep up the good work!

Natalie said...

So proud of you miss kitti. I found myself foundering on frozen twinkies for the past several weeks and am quite sure my steps to the fridge did not cancel out those fat calories. Keep up the good work.

Dorri said...

I am so proud of you!!! That is so great that you are pushing yourself. You are my hero.

Christian said...

"Get healthy hearts"? Where do I buy one of those? Oh, maybe I should just follow the example of Kitti instead!

Shawn said...

Good job, Kitti! I'm going to try to get some motivation from you.

Darin said...

Way to go Kitti!!! It's always easier when there is an awesome prize - especially a foot spa pack. Good luck!!!

miss kitti said...

Natalie, hang out with The Gracetress for long enough and she will reassure you that you're "smokin' hot". Totally true.

The unfortunate thing about the extra steps? The extra case of munchies I've been getting every night. I've had to set a whole new goal: no eating after 8pm. Let's see if I can rock that one.

Maudie Jane said...

Kitti, that is so cool, I'm so proud of you, way to get a movin'. My steps are a little bit limited lately with the sea monkey I am dragging around but I so want to get one of those thingies once I am free to exhaust myself at will.
Hooray for you, very inspiring!