10,000 Steps

For a bit over two months I have been trying to increase my walking ability and stamina. With a bad leg I was told not to walk more than a mile a day. Meanwhile my brother delights in taking 8-9 nile day walks almost daily. [His last visit he walked all day... literally a marathon, covering almost 30 miles in one day of walking pleasure and discipline.] For years I have paid for pushing my limits with swelling etc. but this summer I have finally seen progress. After two years of occasionally walking home from church [about 2 miles] on nice spring, summer or fall Sundays, I have finally managed 2 weeks in a row to walk both to and home from church. Yes, there was the hour and a half gap between the two hikes, but still it made a total of 4 glorious miles in a day/morning! Best yet, no swelling or warning pain. My goal has been to work toward that magic number so often held up as a daily goal.... 10,000 steps per day. This week I have hit that goal THREE times!! Three times I have put one foot in front of the other ten thousand times in a single day.

Yesterday as I walked I thought about each step. If I can put one foot in front of the other ten thousand times in a single day working toward the goal of fitness [and maybe weight loss!] what else could I do over and over each day for a goal. How many times can I overlook a teenagers attitude, an adolescent's tone of voice? How many times can I let go of frustration or hurt? How many times can I speak in a quiet tone when tempted to snarl, snipe, or scold?

I once could barely walk 1000 steps in a single day. Now 5000 in a day is easy, 10,000 a regularly achievable goal. My overall health, energy and optimism have improved with my stamina for walking. What improvements would I see if I switched my "fitness" goals from walking to those parenting choices? Surely I can do it 1% as often? That would mean I might start making those new choices 10 times a day. Then maybe in some time making those new choices 50 times a day would be easy. Would 100 even be needed?

Perhaps if I made choices during my "parenting walk" with the same discipline that I put one foot in front of each other on my fitness walks... not only would my life be transformed, but my whole family's as well. Hmmmmmmm. Anyone for a walk??