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“Grandma, my homework assignment is to jog for a half mile. How far is a mile? Could we drive with the car to see?” My granddaughter flashed a winsome grin at me and to the car I headed. (She would have gone but was in the throes of of studying for finals so we decided to “divide and conquer.”) Five minutes later, I discovered that it was .4 miles to drive around the block. So I told her to jog around the block, plus up and down our own street an extra time and she’d be good to go. She took a break from her studies, and trotted around the block with grandma following at a brisk walk. It made a nice “brain freshener” to help her get back to the books and excellent exercise for this baby boomer metabolism to help stave off high blood pressure and stay healthy. And YAY, she did GREAT on those tests! All that hard work definitely paid off. 🙂
As I drove around the block, though, I remember thinking I really should break down and get a pedometer or a Fitbit. We don’t HAVE to know how far my senior mom and I have walked, but it could be fun occasionally. They have apps for my iPhone like Pedometer Free – which really is free and was recommended on one of my senior mom’s fave resources, the Dr. Oz show, but you have to have the location setting turned on. Since I generally keep that setting turned off for security reasons AND because it drains my cell phone battery too fast, I’ve not gotten any of those apps.
When I was researching information for this week’s post, I discovered a fun online Maps Pedometer. While it’s not quite as convenient as those cute pedometer watches you wear, it is easy and seems to be quite accurate (I think it is connected with Google maps 😉 ). I checked it out with the route I drove for my granddaughter’s project. Once I got the “hang” of moving the little red dots, it worked great and gave an exact measurement of 0.4282 mile. 🙂
So if you have a grandchild who needs to track their P.E. projects or a senior mom who loves to compete against herself or just want to add some spice to your Sandwich Generation fun AND physical grandkid and baby boomer-senior citizen activities, you might want to check it out. Of course, as always when online, use caution as you research it but it does seem to be a handy dandy and fun little tool. 🙂
Kaye
Updated 2017 – I have since added location services and switched to an ios app, Pedometer++ which I love! A great encouragement to walk extra. 🙂
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