Day 49/50 – 45.1 km (total – 1097.6 km)

A little tighter than I remember! I was hoping to wear the snowpants as well, but they already had a split in them!

A little tighter than I remember! I was hoping to wear the snowpants as well, but they already had a split in them!

Yesterday’s highlight of a day off entailed transferring my laundry from the washer to the dryer and realizing I had forgotten to add detergent to both loads!  Oh well… I’m sure my running clothes are less stinky than they’ve been for the past two weeks.  We chatted with the couple who ran the laundromat and as we often to, explained what we were doing and why we were doing it.  Five minutes later, I pulled out my laptop and sat in front of it for an hour responding to emails and trying to stay on top of everything.

In chatting with students at schools, we try to convey how many hours are spent in front of screens by youth their age.  With elementary students, 45 hours a week can be sometimes hard to comprehend.  So in attempting to draw a parallel, I simply ask them to raise their hands if they like McDonalds.  A sea of arms spring into the air.  I then ask them if they think it would be healthy to eat McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday?  Even though they love their nuggets, they know it’s not healthy and they agree.  And so I try to draw the comparison that eating processed food 3 times a day is like spending 7 hours a day in front of screens – it’s just not healthy!

day50-blue

Crossing the Causeway. Officially back on Mainland!

We live in a digital age and it’s naïve to think that will ever change.  There are so many great things that have come from technology but, as with a lot of things in life, moderation is the key.  That’s not to sound preachy – but the weight of the teeter totter is being dominated by one end.  In general, we know that eating fast food every meal isn’t healthy.  We know that too much alcohol can be unhealthy.  We know that the occasional lottery ticket is fine, but spending every night playing Texas hold ‘em might pose a problem. Hopefully we can see that screen time isn’t a bad thing in and of itself – it could just use more balance with how much time we’re spending doing other things, like being outside!

day50-theroad

No snow on the shoulders… MUST be spring!

This morning, I ran 10 km with my fancy red ski jacket.  It was “wear red day” at Ferris View Elementary – a school we visited in North Sydney.  They generously donated money raised from today and so we say thanks!

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Take Me Outside is a charitable organization in Canada (Registration Number: 85069 5206 RR0001).