I'm starting off with saying...
CONVENTIONAL WALKING ISN'T THE ULTIMATE IN PHYSICAL FITNESS LIKE SOME PEOPLE PUSH IT TO BE.
Yep I said it.
So let's get into why.....
So I have some time before I jet off to Australia and I was talking with my partner which somehow ended up with him gifting me a pretty cool smart tracking pedometer that allows me to track a slew of different physical activities, as well as, heart rate which is particularly useful considering I have challenges with tachycardia and MUST be careful and conscious about the stress I put my heart under regardless of my physical activity.
Now, pretty shocking perhaps to know, but I've never exclusively used a pedometer before or even greatly tracked any of my fitness progresses in terms of what my partner has been teaching me about how to conduct a proper experiment and what measurements I need to be focusing on.
So I get the pedometer in the mail, charge it, and almost instantly I become obsessed with tracking literally my "every step" from the moment I woke up to the moment I passed out simply to see if I was as active as I thought I was from one day to the next....
GUESS WHAT?
I wasn't.
Haha!!
NOT EVEN CLOSE!!
But now I know so
moving on...
Now anyone who knows me intimately knows I only do THE MOST SIMPLISTIC EXERCISES ON EARTH BECAUSE I'M NOT OUT TO LOOK LIKE AN INSTAGRAM BADASS. My energy is very limited from one day to the next and need to keep exercise related injury risks to an absolute minimal.
....and if we are going to take a moment to get super honest...
I don't even love exercising.
Sorry not sorry?
It's damn painful, but absolutely necessary to keeping my ass physically and mentally BALANCED
....so there we go.
Conventional walking.....
At a moderate to high intensity applied effort....meaning....I'm not just casually walking like someone strolling by a department store window sale, I'm hauling serious ass and going as fast as my little ass legs can possibly go without any obvious excessive risk of injuring myself (no running or silliness).
I challenged my ability but I didn't let my ego overrun my ass.
Throughout the whole month I took time off when I felt I needed it but only then.
Simple.
So here we go....500,000 steps in 31 days
WEEK 1!
The entire first week really was the hardest part. I got pains in my shins, my chest was tight every damn time I walked, super sore everywhere, and making it to the closest CVS store mentally felt like a serious challenge, especially considering the weather which was freezing cold in the mornings...I even made a video complaining about it for Day 2.
Anyway....I sucked it up and got through it.
Here were my numbers for the first week.
Not bad to start, but I still had a long month ahead of me.....I screwed up my errands on Tuesday and ended up walking enough to cover 2 separate days...but hey, it's not for nothing. Every little bit helps when it comes to exercising and working out in the real world.
Week 2
This was a little physically "easier" than Week 1, but my ego-driven determination to follow through the entire month was kicking into full gear. Making it the most likely time for me to get injured by simply being overly excited about something I'm getting into.
Yes, even too much "happiness, can have very NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES.
Life is wickedly weird.
Now unfortunately, this was the one week I encountered a small glitch with my tracker and the app didn't record a weekly total but I was able to screen grab most days and it didn't mess up my monthly or annual totals so the data was not completely lost and still usable for this particular experiment and goal.
Week 3
Confidence is growing and I'm already dropping several pounds and a pant size simply by challenging my body moderately everyday....again...this is walking outside and all around. Absolutely nothing extreme and according to some the absolutely best physical activity you can possibly do...pffff!
Anyway...
Week 4 - I found this week challenging because I had been kicking my ass the entire month and I just wanted to be finished! This was the time when my determination was actually at it's lowest, but again....persistence persevered and I finished the whole damn month.
And those last few days of March going into April...those were just as tough as the first few because I knew I wasn't going to stop at the end of the month........and I didn't.....
And there you go....More than 500,000 moments of movement for the month of March, and I'm currently working on April where I hope to hit ONE MILLION STEPS by May 1st!
Wish me luck and feel free to follow my progress and random bitch fits on my Facebook or Instagram and let me know about your moments of movement that keep your mental health optimized!
I'd love to hear from you! xx