Daily Steps–November 15-21, 2010

This past week was much better!  I actually worked out three days during the week doing Leslie Sansone’s 2-part walking videos on RealAge.  Two other days I wracked up the steps by volunteering at the elementary school hauling books back and forth in the media center.  The last two days were for rest, though I did manage to go through some papers on Sunday.

Clip Art by: Silhouettes Clip Art

November 15

• Steps: 5,235
• Miles: 1.5
• Kcal: 93

November 16

• Steps: 8,088
• Miles: 2.4
• Kcal: 104

November 17

• Steps: 6,747
• Miles: 2.0
• Kcal: 109

November 18

• Steps: 6,211
• Miles: 1.8
• Kcal: 55

November 19

• Steps: 5,228
• Miles: 1.5
• Kcal: 110

November 20

• Steps: 1,796
• Miles: 0.5
• Kcal: 7

November 21

• Steps: 2,508
• Miles: 0.7
• Kcal: 10

Totals for the week

• Steps: 35,813
• Miles: 10.4
• Kcal: 488

Daily Steps: November 8-14, 2010

November 8

• Steps: 3,575
• Miles: 1.0
• Kcal: 58

November 9

• Steps: 7,399
• Miles: 2.2
• Kcal: 97

November 10

• Steps: 2,871
• Miles: 0.8
• Kcal: 17

November 11

• Steps: 2,512
• Miles: 0.7
• Kcal: 12

November 12

• Steps: 3,456
• Miles: 1.0
• Kcal: 30

November 13

• Steps: 1,426
• Miles: 0.4
• Kcal: 2

November 14

• Steps: 1,658
• Miles: 0.4
• Kcal: 4

Totals for the week

• Steps: 22,897
• Miles: 6.5
• Kcal: 220

Daily Steps: November 1-7, 2010

This is my first daily steps post.  In the past week, I’ve learned 6,000 steps is not 3 miles…at least for me…it’s more like 2 miles.

November 1

• Steps: 4,365
• Miles: 1.3
• Kcal: 53

November 2

• Steps: 6,320
• Miles: 1.8
• Kcal: 74

November 3

• Steps: 1,959
• Miles: 0.5
• Kcal: 11

November 4

• Steps: 6,686
• Miles: 2.0
• Kcal: 66

November 5

• Steps: 4,134
• Miles: 1.2
• Kcal: 44

November 6

• Steps: 1,785
• Miles: 0.5
• Kcal: 11

November 7

• Steps: 3,005
• Miles: 0.9
• Kcal: 19

Totals for the week

• Steps: 28,254
• Miles: 8.2
• Kcal: 278

Well, the totals are not the best, but not bad considering it’s the first week.  Good to know basically where I’m starting from with my normal routine and work from there.  My goal is to eventually do 10,000 steps every other day, or 3-4 days a week, with the other days doing some other activities or resting.

How do you compare with your walking?  Do you have any goals related to health and/or fitness?

Staying Fit By Walking

I absolutely love Leslie Sansone’s walking video that I found through RealAge.  I admit that I’ve used it off and on, but it’s the one I always seem to go to and the only exercise video that I’ve been able to complete entirely from the very beginning!

Today I saw a post on RealAge’s twitter account that mentioned a walking challenge put on by Leslie Sansone called 21 Days Before Thanksgiving Challenge.  It starts today.

While I’m not quite up to keeping to a challenge, I have been wanting to keep track of my steps.  According to RealAge’s Twitter post, 3 miles equals about 6,000 steps.  So far today I’ve done 2,796 steps and I didn’t even start keeping track until I had already dropped one boy off at school!  I don’t think that is too bad considering I’m racking up the steps just doing what I do around the house or running errands.  Though I did complete another Leslie Sansone video.

What I like about the pedometer that I have is that it only counts actual steps…not the little micro steps you take while completing a task.  I should know!  I watched it while I was folding the laundry and filling up the dryer.  It only started counting my steps after continuous walking like when I was actually walking to other rooms to put the laundry away.

So I’m hoping to drop a little note either here, on Twitter, or Facebook to let you know how many steps I’ve done.  Perhaps I’ll create a post once a week to highlight the week’s results, but Twitter and Facebook my daily steps.

Orthodontist News

My 8-year-old son had his first consultation with the orthodontist today.  Normally it’s a little early to start going to the orthodontist, but in his case it’s right on time.

He was born with a cleft palate, which was fixed at 10 months old.  Even with that we still do not know if his teeth problems are due to the cleft palate, or if he is just unlucky enough to have these problems that need to be corrected so young.

He has several issues, some of which will not actually be fixed until phase 2 when he is a teenager.

Right now phase 1 will include:

• a spacer attached to bands around two of his top teeth that will be used to stretch his palate.  This is needed to fix the left side of his teeth, which have one type of a crossbite, where he has an underbite.  He could have this in for up to 6 months!
• a couple of weeks to a month after the spacer goes in, he’ll need to have some braces attached to the top four front teeth.  He has a few issues that this will need to correct.  The first is a gap in his front teeth.  The second is a different type of crossbite, where his teeth meet and not overlap.  The third issue is an adult tooth that we are waiting to come in that is coming in sideways will need to be turned around.

If more of his adult teeth come in during the treatment, then she said we could fit in a correction for them as well and not have to deal with it later.  He does have an area where we had a baby tooth pulled out (we had three teeth pulled in the back when he was 5 years old due to problems with them) and apparently there is an adult tooth missing where that baby tooth was that we didn’t know about until now.  She said that may not be a problem in his case and she can use that space.  He has a lot of teeth up top that are coming in on top of each other.

So now what are the next steps and how much is all this going to cost?

I didn’t want him to have to deal with the rest of 2nd grade and new braces all at the same time.  I’ve requested to have the spacer put in after he gets out of school for the summer so he has some time to get used to it and we can help him with cleaning around the appliance in his mouth.  Plus we’ll need to turn the spacer once a day for the first couple of weeks to slowly stretch out the palate and it’ll be easier to do with him at home.  We have to keep an eye on his palate and make sure it doesn’t tear where he had his surgery.  It shouldn’t be an issue because the doctor that performed the cleft palate surgery did a tremendous job with very little scar tissue, but she said to watch just in case.

He’ll be going in on May 31st for the records appointment.  That’s where they put a file together on him, take an extra x-ray, put bands around two of his teeth that the spacer will fit into, and make an impression of his teeth so they can have the spacer made.

Oh and they’ll need a $400 deposit that day to get everything started.

Depending on the insurance we have at the time, we should get it back.  The cost of phase 1 is $1500.  Our current insurance will pay for everything.  Assuming we have this insurance at the time.  We’ll have to see what happens in May!  Regardless, I’m not worried about the cost right now.  The important thing is that my son gets this taken care of before it’s more difficult to fix later.

At least they have a payment plan/financing if our insurance falls through in any way!

The spacer should be ready to put in around June 14th.  Everything else is a wait and see from there!  It’s really going to depend on how well his palate stretches and how quickly the remaining adult teeth come in.

Is anyone else dealing with braces with their children?

They’re Winners!

My oldest son is part of the Future Problem Solvers (FPS).  At his school there are four teams…three teams of four and one team of three.  My son was part of the 3-person team.

They had their first competition yesterday, which I proctored, where they had to take a scenario and follow six steps–that include a ton of writing–to come up with solutions to the problem.  Then they have to come up with a solution based on a futuristic scene.  They have two hours to complete the packet.

This year’s District Competition was about orphaned children (or street children) in Brazil.

Since he is in 6th grade, the teams are considered in the Junior category.  Our teams were competing against teams from a neighboring county, but within our district.  There is also a Middle category (7th & 8th grades), and a Senior category (9th through 12th grades).

Winners get to compete in the State Competition in April, though all teams get to go to State if they complete a written scenario that was done earlier.  There are other activities, such as team building exercises, that are scheduled for those kids that are not competing at the State level.

Out of our four teams, all four placed 1st through 4th beating the other county’s FPS teams!

The team in 1st place is considered the District Champion.  This team also won two years ago for our school (no one from our school competed last year).  They get to compete in the State Competition.

The team in 2nd place never had any students compete before and they also get to compete in the State Competition.

My son’s team came in 3rd place.  This was the first time these three had worked together.  The team my son was on in 4th grade came in 8th so this was a big step up for him!

The team in 4th place also never had any students compete before.

The coach also gets to take 2 students from the 3rd and 4th place teams to compete in the State Competition as individuals.  This means they will compete against the teams that won, but instead of working with their teams, they will have to complete everything on their own during the 2 hours.

My son is going to be one of the two competing as an individual!

He’s a little nervous about being able to complete the packet within the 2 hours by himself, and he says he has trouble with steps 2 and 6, but we’ll work with him so he’ll feel more comfortable before they go to State in April.

I’m crossing his fingers that he does well on his own.  It will be a big confidence booster for him…not that he really needs it.  He’s the most mature and laid-back 11-year-old I’ve known so far!

They don’t know the actual scenario until the 2 hours begin.  All they know in advance is a topic.  This allows them to begin researching to get general ideas for the competition.  However, during the competition:

• they are not allowed to have any notes from prior to the competition
• they cannot use computers (no research or typing their steps allowed)
• no discussing anything except with there team members (they cannot ask any questions outside of their groups…individuals have no one to ask questions).

So sometimes the research they do in advance is worthless depending on the scenario and what they can remember at the time of the competition.

These are some truly amazing children!  I would never be able to do what they do during competition!