At long Last, & So it Begins

Steps: 20,277 / 20,000

Weight: 159.2 /135lbs

Hydration: 2 / 2 gallons

Writing: 250/250 words

Veggies: 0/ 2 cups

How I’m Feeling: Still sick, but motivated and ALIVE.

Today, on the third day of my 20,000 step challenge, after a three day hiatus for the Fourth of July, I have FINALLY accomplished my goal. I would like to thank my dear friend Izzy, for taking a morning walk with me, and my dear husband Heber, for hijacking my goal and driving me to achieve it so that he couldn’t meet my goal before I did.

I feel AMAZING. I had 7,000 steps this morning by 9am. I walked very little all afternoon, had a pause for coffee, which drove a cleaning frenzy, followed by two nappy slumps. By 6pm, I was lagging on my goal, but Heber resigned to take a family walk which launched me into an evening of stepping my way to 20,000. By the time I got home, I was just over 1,000 steps away and preparing to walk circles in my yard to get there, but I decided to clean up first and what do you know…. 20,000 steps. It really does feel good.

I don’t know if or how I can make this goal tomorrow. The sheer amount of TIME it takes to make it 20,000 steps is outrageous, but I am so so so glad I am doing it. It feels right and good and valuable.

When I started this summer, I set out to build discipline. I have been struggling every day since. How do I become disciplined? How do I force myself to say yes to the things I want and no to the things I don’t? It turns out, the answer is movement. Physical movement, people. All I needed to get a kick start was to move my body forward.

Any athlete could have told me this, but I wouldn’t have believed them because athletes are super-human psychos, or so I thought. I didn’t know what it meant to move my body, how that would feel in my brain.

But here I am bragging as though I am already an olympic athlete. Today was the first day I met my goal. It feels good, really good, but I have tomorrow too, and the day after that and the day after that, and all these days I have to meet my goal, or at least strive for it. The first accomplishment feels great, but all it is is the first accomplishment. It’s quite possibly the easiest step. The hardest step is showing up each day after and trying again.

I will do it, though. See you tomorrow!

Rina