For the past five weeks, I’ve gotten up every Thursday morning and laced up my tennis shoes for a long day on my feet.  That’s because Thursdays are Park Parties!  From 8:30am until 3pm I’m on my feet setting up, making rounds at the party and tearing down.  In early July we held our second Park Party of the summer at Lamar Park in Wyoming.  As I was speed walking like a wild woman across the parking lot, our park contact stopped me and said, “Next time we do this you need a golf cart to ride in.  You sure walk a ton!”  I actually never really thought about all the walking I do each Thursday and how it’s probably a pretty good workout.  Afterall, each Thursday night I have sore legs and sore feet.

I decided to wear a pedometer two weeks ago to our Holland Park Party to test just how many steps I take on a Thursday afternoon.  I strapped on the pedometer when I got to the station that morning and was up for the challenge.  The hard part was trying to not peak at it until the party was done.  At 2pm, I eagerly looked at my waistband and it said 14,600 steps!  Holy cow!  That is more than the average person takes in an entire day.  I never thought that I was actually getting a workout each Thursday while working.

This leads me to my question, what are some things that you do where there are hidden health benefits?  Power shopping?  Chasing the kids around the playground?  Next time you’re doing these things, strap on a pedometer and see just how much you’re benefiting from it.