I want to note here that the idea to average your steps, increase your daily average by 2,000 and then increase by 500 thereafter was not my original idea. Have you read the book The Step Diet? It is a great book explaining the power of walking to help lose weight. But again, weight loss is only a side effect of my real goal: to get back into shape.
However, I now have a problem with my wonderful book. It’s not interactive enough. I have been religiously wearing my pedometer for awhile now. I have been very good about increasing my daily average by 2,000 steps. Now, it wants me to increase by another 500.
So I tried reasoning with the book. I explained how an extra 2500 steps per day, over what I was doing three weeks ago was simply unreasonable. I gave very dramatic arguments pointing out that it shouldn’t count over the holidays. I also told the book how busy I am and that in addition to homeschooling I am a writer.
You would think a book that tells me how to include a walking regimen into my daily routine would be more sympathetic. You’d think it would offer helpful suggestions or at least tell me that it’s okay that I’m pathetically out of shape.
But the reality is no one cares whether or not I walk except for me! It’s only hurting me when I don’t walk enough. It’s only hurting me to make excuses. Therefore, I have a choice. I can make excuses or I can just be quiet and go take a little walk. If I walk up and down my block twice, I’m done. That hardly seems like too much—does it?
Forming Habits
Do you do this? Set a goal and find that once it gets a little hard, you give up too easily? This is how I got out of shape in the first place. I ‘excused’ my way out of keeping up with fitness. When I was in college I swam almost every day. Because I was in a habit, it didn’t matter so much if I wasn’t able to do it on occasion. It was a habit and if I was sick or had to study—I could skip it because I’d always return. That is the power of a habit.
But after college I was teaching. . .and so I dropped my daily work out to once or twice a week. Then I got pregnant and dropped my work out to once a week. Then I had a baby and was exhausted so I considered it my work out to do the laundry. Then I had two babies and my work out became the few steps I had to take to deposit dirty diapers into the trash. Then I had my third baby who was a very needy baby. I justified that since I was nursing. . .that was like a work out. Then I had twins and well, here we are 7 years later–out of shape.
The trick to forming habits is to stop making excuses. It’s okay if you have an off day where you don’t meet your minimum. It’s okay IF you don’t make excuses for it. IF you say that you’ll walk more tomorrow, but then you actually have to walk more tomorrow.
Forming habits, takes time. This is true irregardless of whether you’re forming good habits or bad ones. I didn’t get completely out of shape over night. I will not get back into shape quickly either. But one step at a time, in small increments, I am determined to change my daily habits so that fitness is part of my lifestyle. I hope you come back to join me!
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