No, I haven’t forgotten about my step challenge. I just haven’t had a chance to post yet. I write a lot of my blog posts on the go (in the airport, on the train, etc) but the step one requires a little more thought, because I have numbers to crunch. So I’ve been trying to squeeze in the time and….
Look, that’s really bs. I didn’t write the post because I didn’t want to look at the numbers. When I set this goal, I thought that 3,000,000 steps was doable: enough of a challenge to motivate me, but not too much that I wouldn’t be successful. Now, three months down, and each month I’m falling further behind. I’m really not sure I’m going to make it.
March was supposed to be my bounce-back month. I had a new job, and I was breaking free of my old routines. But I started the month very, very, very (very) sick with this icky flu that kept me pretty much in bed, except when I was working, because how can you call in sick your first week at a new job??? Once I was feeling better, I thought I would jump back into my routine, but it didn’t really happen.
My current job is a lot more sedentary than my old job. In my old job, I could easily do 6,000-8,000 steps a day before I even got to exercise. So if I only ran two or three days a week, I was still good, most of the time. My new job is a lot more of sitting on the phone, working at a desk, for days at a time. I have to learn new habits. Like I really want to get up and move in the middle of the day. But so far, something always interferes and I end up working 12-13 hours straight.
OK, enough dilly-dallying. Here are the (pathetic) stats:
I walked 142,777 steps. That is just over 64 miles. I only ran 8 miles the whole month. The rest was walking, but to be fair, most of it was fast walking. As I was getting better, running wasn’t an option. I mean, my lungs were filled with fluid, so running would have been foolish.
March 19 was my best day, with 11,665 steps. I met my 8,000 step goal 8 days and 3 days I had over 10,000 steps.
So lets look at the quarter. Here is a quick chart that shows my declining progression:
Month | Goal | Jan | Feb | Mar |
---|---|---|---|---|
Steps: | 250,000 | 234,863 | 192,816 | 142,777 |
Miles: | 115 | 107 | 87 | 64 |
In three months, I should have gone a total of 750,000 steps. I’m almost 180,000 steps behind. It seems like a very big deal. So now I have to decide what I’m going to do about it. Do I give up? Do I adjust my goal to something more reasonable. To I fight harder to make up the difference? I’m not sure what I’m going to do, other than try harder in April and see how it goes. I don’t know if I do have it in me, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel yet.
I think this is one of those times where you have to love yourself, accept that sometimes the best laid plans are hijacked by circumstances beyond our control, and go on from there. Look at your accomplishment this year compared to last, or five years ago. Sounds an awful lot like success to me! Not the success you were hoping for, but the success you obtained!
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But I still want those 3,000,000 steps. Wah! 🙂
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I really like what you’re doing here. there seems to be a positive vibe! what to do as you do and show others how. Good luck! 🙂
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