It begins with a feeling of urgency to become more active. I work as a consultant which is basically a desk job, and unless I have meetings outside of the office, I pretty much sit on my ass (and stare at a screen) all day. Perhaps I've been indoctrinated by the 'sitting is the new smoking'-police that I'm starting to get worried now - but at least I don't have a standing desk (yet).
All my life I've never been a sporty kind of girl, and I tried to introduce exercise in my life in quite a few ways over the past decade or so... Here's a brief history of my failed attempts. In college, I joined the university gym and did some sporadic cardio. After graduation, I subscribed to a nearby fitness club with a friend, but instead of motivating each other to go, we often mutually agreed that today was simply not a good day to work out because of, well, most of the times because it was raining (also, the place was supercrowded and smelly). A few years ago, I attended Zumba classes for about a year which I quite liked, but then the course got cancelled. Ever since, I've been going out on runs on a very, very infrequent schedule which I also liked doing (even getting up at 6 AM to make some miles before work!) but somehow it turns out I'm not inclined to really pull through and make it a lasting habit.
However, one thing that I managed to improve throughout the past few years in terms of activeness is that I really started to enjoy walking. Walking to work instead of cycling, voluntarily skipping the bus or tram and just... move my feet. Even just going out for a walk without having somewhere to go! Crazy, I tell ya!
So... with the crisp fall month of October coming up, why not find out if it could work to introduce more walking as a low-key way to be active in everyday life and burn some more calories? The name 'walktober' is quite obvious and a quick Google search also showed a range of challenges and events taking place in cities from Portland to various locations in Australia... so yeah I realize I'm not entirely original :) But what the heck, let's do this thing! (Oh and by committing to this publicly, it's a lot harder for me to give up, ha-ha).
So... with the crisp fall month of October coming up, why not find out if it could work to introduce more walking as a low-key way to be active in everyday life and burn some more calories? The name 'walktober' is quite obvious and a quick Google search also showed a range of challenges and events taking place in cities from Portland to various locations in Australia... so yeah I realize I'm not entirely original :) But what the heck, let's do this thing! (Oh and by committing to this publicly, it's a lot harder for me to give up, ha-ha).
The Only Three and Supereasy Rules
- Walking is the default transportation mode. Other forms of transport are allowed, but cannot interfere with reaching The Goal.
- The Goal: reach an average of 10,000 steps per day by the end of the month.
- Monitor results and publish weekly updates.
Day Zero
Today, September 30th, was the first day I took my brand new Fitbit Charge wearable tracker thingy for a spin, and it was a perfectly average Wednesday to see how 'active' I am on a normal weekday. A brief outline of the day:
- Cycling the approximately 3 kilometers to work
- Short shopping round in the supermarket
- Work at the office, no external meetings (sitting down - I did play pool with my colleagues after lunch though!)
- Cycling the approximately 3 kilometers back home, including a quick stop at the post office to drop off a package
- Doing some chores around the house: laundry, watering my plants...
- No cooking because I had a second portion left from the pumpkin soup I made yesterday
- Writing this post (sitting down)
- Eat dinner, watching The Mindy Project and later on maybe watch a movie or read a book (sitting down)
See, perfectly average and boring. The result so far? My Fitbit tells me I set 4,686 steps, resulting in 3.35 kilometers, burned 1,701 calories and I climbed 8 stairs. Since a daily amount of 10,000 steps is apparently a good norm for an active lifestyle, it's clear that I'm still wayyyyy below that! But, frankly, I'm not disappointed and thought it would have been less.
Edit: by the end of the day, before going to bed, the number of steps for this day was 5,302.
Edit: by the end of the day, before going to bed, the number of steps for this day was 5,302.
Okay, enough rambling - time to start walking!
