Walk it Off

I am once again inspired by Ivy over at The Happy Whisk who has been on a 28 reboot to feel better. Earlier this summer she also set herself a blogging challenge, which also encouraged me to do the same. So thank you Whisk for being such a good example (and an awesome Blogger buddy). The thing I'm realizing is that small, concrete goals are the way to go if I want to make something new stick. My brain likes to tell me (and I like to believe) that I can have a vague idea of what I want and just wing it. Only it doesn't work. I've learned that saying: "I'm going to blog more" doesn't actually lead to me blogging more, but saying (and planning): "I'm going to blog every day this month" is specific and short enough for me to accomplish.

So I am gearing up to start a reboot to feel better too. I've been on some lovely walks and bike rides this summer but not as many as I thought I would. My walks or bike rides are usually spontaneous and that spontaneity doesn't happen as often as I think. My thought that "I'm going to walk more this summer" hasn't really panned out because I never actually planned to do it.

So I dug this guy out of hiding and I am making a plan to walk.

When I lived in the city I walked everywhere - no distance was too far.  I wish I had my pedometer back then, because I am sure that I often did over 15,000 steps/day.  I've calculated that a 45 minute walk for me is about 5000 steps, and in Toronto I would actually walk for hours. I was super active but never even thought about it as exercise. I just loved to walk around and see stuff.

In the country I am far less active. Since I turned thirty, I've started to notice changes in my waistline based on that inactivity. They have "the talk" with kids about body changes at puberty, and I think they should have a second talk with the post-thirty crowd about how our bodies change too. My talk would have been a simple statement of fact: "You can no longer eat garbage, avoid activity, and magically stay at your current weight." Past me had it so great and she didn't even know it!

So I'm going to schedule activity (same time each day) and some activity goals (# of steps) so I actually have a goal I can accomplish. The magic number of walking seems to be 10,000 steps per day and according to the Sportline guidebook that came with my pedometer, getting to 10,000 steps should be done gradually based on your current steps per day. They suggested recording your step count for three days and then averaging it to find your "start point". Over the past three days I did just that.

Day 1: 4643 steps          Day 2: 4417 steps          Day 3: 7137 steps

Average/start point: 5400 steps

As someone whose start point is between 5001-7500, steps should be increased by 400/day in order to reach 10,000 gradually. The pedometer has a goal feature, so each day I am setting the goal to be 400 more steps than the day before. Here is my plan:

Day 01:           5800 steps

Day 02:           6200 steps
Day 03:           6600 steps
Day 04:          7000 steps

Day 05:           7400 steps

Day 06:           7800 steps

Day 07:            8200 steps

Day 08:            8600 steps

Day 09:            9000 steps
Day 10:            9400 steps
Day 11:            9800 steps
Day 12:          10200 steps

So in 12 days I should be up to 10,000 steps/day. Hopefully the gradual increase makes it easier for me to maintain. I don't have a treadmill so I'll often be relying on good weather, but I know from my outdoor challenge that even on the rainiest days there are pockets of time when the rain is light enough to get a walk in.

Here we go! :)