Stepping Up

I came to an epiphany yesterday - I am way healthier than when I started doing 10,000 steps a day last July. From April until then I had been doing 10,000 steps a couple of times a week, not every single day - it makes a big difference when you do it consistently.  Other than a couple of days when I was sick, traveling or otherwise occupied with family like at Christmas I have done 10,000 every single day.   That 10,000 steps is coming too easy these days so it is now time to step up my game.  I believe my metabolism changed and I need to increase the steps.  My new goal is 11,000 steps a day, realizing that some days it is difficult to do so the actual goal is 77,000 a week with 10,000 per day absolute minimum. Since January 1 I have only done 11,000 or over 13 days so it means on average I have to walk/spend on the treadmill an extra 5-10 minutes.  Totally achievable.  I am also going to try some situps each day as still have a very squidgy middle.  I reviewed last year's steps per week for the first three months of the year - stunned to see most weeks I was lucky to get to 30,000/40,000 steps so as with any goal this actually takes some work.

In other news I have been super busy booking travel this week.  We got a rather strange call from a cousin of hubby's early in the week when he was outside with the dog and I was off with a friend - no message left but instantly he thought that perhaps another of his elderly Aunts had passed away like the one a couple of weeks ago.  Instead we got another phone call the next day inviting us to an 80th Birthday party only 3 weeks away in Edmonton.  We talked it over and since we were unable to attend his other Aunt's funeral (both his late Dad's sisters) we were going to try and make it happen.  I checked airline points.  Due to the last minute nature of the trip they wanted double the miles required - not worth it.  I checked buying the flights and guess what - seat sale!  We didn't have enough hotel points for straight out nights but hubby had some Hilton points so only $40 is required for one night there and I had some expedia points (5 years worth) and paid $26 for another good airport hotel so a total of $66 for two nights in 3-4 star hotels.  Yes, they are at the airport but based on where we have to travel to see my Mother-in-law in a care facility and where the birthday party and our family is that was not an issue.  $80 for a car rental and we were done - all booked.  His cousin was surprised and extremely happy to hear we were coming and we will combine this trip into a couple of things.  1.  We will have supper with the 2 boys coming with us to Italy and go over everything with regard to the trip  2.  We will visit my Mother-in-law who has alzheimers and is in a care facilty  3.  We will get to see numerous relatives that we would have seen at the funeral a few weeks ago as it is the same side of the family  4.  We will see Stepdaughter's new apt with her boyfriend (same one on again off again for the last 6 years) as they officially signed a lease together March 1.  I also arranged Buddy sitting for that weekend.  Yes, we do spend a large portion of our income on travel but we live very frugally the rest of the time and I think it is worth it, especially at this point in our lives when we are both healthy and fit.  We haven't seen some of these relatives since a family funeral about five and a half years ago before we moved away from Alberta so will be so nice to reconnect - a birthday party is always nicer to attend than a funeral any day.

With regard to our big Europe trip I managed to buy tickets to the Eiffel Tower summit as they finally went on sale(prebooked summit tickets sell out) and also our high speed train tickets from Rome to Salerno.  There were slower trains at a cheaper price but we wanted the boys to experience the high speed train as that was something we both really enjoyed on our Spain trip.  The cost difference was not huge so we splurged.  Still working on Papal audience tickets but getting them in advance is not looking good.  The American Bishop will not help anyone who resides outside the USA even if they are American obtain tickets.  I have tried faxing the Vatican from a local business shop that we use regularly but can't tie their machine up - tried 4x yesterday, will try again this week but after that I am going to consider trying for tickets the Monday before the Wednesday audience - the Swiss guards hand out unreserved tickets between 2-3 days in advance in the evenings before so since we are staying near the Vatican this might be our best option.  FYI the Pope insists anyone who wants to attend may do so, with or without tickets.  Without a ticket though you must stand for around 3 hours - which I can't do as easily faint - so I can't see us going without tickets.  Those with tickets get chairs as long as they come early enough. For now I will book our other tours around the Wednesday mass on the off-chance we actually get to go. On one site people indicated that there were no seats available even if you went 3 hours ahead.  Has anyone reading this blog actually gotten to a Papal Audience?  Please comment your experience.

I took hubby to airport this morning at 4 am for his 530 am flight to Toronto....and tried to go back to sleep but not much luck there.  I purposefully planned not much for today knowing that that would likely happen.  Tomorrow I have to clean Mom's carpets in the condo and then we have to go shopping for a new ceiling fan as her last one seems to have a short.  There is no AC there so a ceiling fan is important once summer rolls around.

We are experiencing lovely sunny days here with the nights dropping just below zero with frosty mornings.  Buddy shall get a nice very long walk today.  Have a great Sunday people!