My evil plan seems to be working.
Every year it seems like I start the newest 12 months with an admirable goal of exercising more, specifically walking. It seems, however, like I run into the same old problem: My goal is set to 10,000 steps a day, and at my age, I end up walking too much over a couple of days, I take a few days off, and then I never get back out there to walk a few more days.
This year I wanted to try something different. While it’s nice to be able to post a picture of your Apple Watch showing you walked 17,000 steps today as if somehow you were keeping up with the young bucks (when in fact you’re not and never will any more) my goal is now consistency. I needed to come up with a reasonable goal so I got out there walking every day.
I looked at all the data from my watch and it seemed like on days when I’m just sitting around the house, a normal day is 2,500 to 3,000 steps. Based on this, I set the goal at 5,500 steps because it was one of those numbers you mentally think “I can do that any day” and knowing once I actually put on my shoes and left the house, I would at a minimum walk at least 2 miles, which would give me 6,000 to 7,000 steps a day.
If…I put on my shoes and left the house.
I changed all the goals on my watch and phone to 5,500 on Jan. 6. That was important to me because seeing the number of steps turn from orange to green (and the confetti flying in the background) on my phone and watch when a goal is reached was important to me. It’s like my hound Maggie hearing “you’re a good dog.”
We all like praise.
Since then I’ve walked every day, and so far it appears I was right about if you put on your shoes and get outside, you’ll do more than the 5,500 steps. In the 10 straight days of walking, I’m averaging 8,100 steps a day, and 8,100 a day every day for 10 days beats the heck out of 3 days at 12,000 followed by a week of inactivity.
So at least for the last two weeks, the plan seems to be working, confirming another great truth in my life.
When it comes to exercise, sometimes you just have to lie to yourself 😊
