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From left: Kim Minino, a UNMC telecommunications analyst, and nursing student Tayler Bonnichsen during a recent 60-mile walk in Chicago. Minino will receive the William M. Kizer Light of Wellness Award from the Wellness Council of the Midlands (WELCOM) for her various fitness activities. |
Like many parents, Minino found it hard to exercise between work and running children to school, sports and other activities.
“I always told myself that when my kids were grown, I would start working out,” Minino said. “But a few years after my kids had left home, I still wasn’t working out.”
So Minino started to increase her activity levels by doing some exercise at UNMC’s Center for Healthy Living.
But a couple of developments earlier this year motivated Minino to significantly step up her fitness activities to the point that she has earned the William M. Kizer Light of Wellness Award from the Wellness Council of the Midlands (WELCOM).
First, Minino started training to participate in a 60-mile walk for breast cancer in Chicago.
Coincidentally, shortly after Minino began training for her Chicago walk, UNMC rolled out its 1 Million Step Challenge.
Minino bought a pedometer and started logging all those steps she took during her training.
Being able to track her steps served as a motivator and prompted her to walk even more. Elevators were shunned in favor of stairs and on weekends she would average about 30,000 steps a day as she took long walks around Chalco Hills Lake or Lake Zorinsky.
“The pedometer put a nice twist on the walking,” Minino said. “It made it more fun because you were really able to see what you were doing.”
Minino logged 1 million steps about two months into UNMC’s yearlong challenge but that hasn’t slowed her down as she now eyes 2 million steps about three months into the challenge.
She netted large chunks of steps earlier this month when she completed the 60-mile walk in Chicago — a 3-day jaunt to raise money for breast cancer research. Minino averaged more than 55,000 steps a day during the walk.
Aside from the walking, Minino also has started participating in group weightlifting and spinning classes.
Her increased activity levels have left Minino feeling better and with a lot more energy, which she really notices while taking one of the UNMC campus’ many staircases.
“It used to take quite a bit out of me to go up a few flights of stairs,” Minino said. “But now I can whip right up a flight of stairs, and that’s good around here because there are plenty of stairs.”
The following is a list of UNMC employees who have recently reached one of the 250,000-step markers in the 1 Million Step Challenge. Send an e-mail to today@unmc.edu with your name, department and tell us what step milestone you reached and we’ll post it on the list.
250,000 steps
- Lenal Bottoms, alumni affairs
- Tami Jensen, orthopaedics
- Maggie Jones, orthopaedics
- Dana Meyer, orthopaedics
500,000 steps
- Jan Ortmann, benefits
- Valerie Shostrom, College of Public Health
- Patricia Tolliver, oral and maxillofacial surgery
- Diane Torrey, Eppley Institute
750,000 steps
- Jenelle Pomicter, biostatistics and epidemiology
- Mary Jo Ramirez, College of Pharmacy
1 million steps
- Mary Ann Bernal, pathology and microbiology
- Chuck Brown, public affairs
- Lori Cervantes, ophthalmology and visual sciences
- Michael Jacobsen, pharmacology and experimental neuroscience
- Kathy Minikus, health services research and administration
- Bill O’Neill, public affairs
- Dana Teeters, human resources