Fun With Fitness

Writing, as I’ve mentioned before, is a pretty sedentary career. I know, because I’ve gained some weight over the past few years, as I focus more on my writing and book midwife work.

So for my birthday in September, I told my son I was interested in getting a fitness tracker, and he gifted me one. You know, the watch-like devices you see people wearing on their wrists?

I’m enjoying it so far. Especially while I was on vacation.

While we were in Colorado visiting ElvenTiger, we did a LOT of walking. The standard goal for these types of trackers is to hit 10,000 steps per day. That was easy to do out there. Some days we accomplished 17,000 or more without thinking about it.

Coming back home and back to my work, it’s been a bit harder. 10K steps takes some time – like, a couple of hours of walking! That’s a chunk out of the day, particularly on weekdays, when I’m trying to get work done.

I’m also not much for exercise for its own sake. In the suburbs and city of Denver, there were so many places to walk to and so many sights to see. Out here in rural Maine, there aren’t really that many destinations within walking distance, and although the area is undeniably pretty, well, I grew up here, so I’m kind of used to it.

Also, winter is coming. Yes, really. And I don’t like to be cold. Or wet and cold, especially. Bleah.

So my challenge for myself is to fit more walking into my everyday life. We have a treadmill in the basement, and I plan to avail myself of it in cold and icy weather. The cool thing about using the treadmill is that I can multitask. I can listen to podcasts while I walk, and accomplish some learning as well as exercise. That’ll hopefully keep my interest.

Also, enlisting other friends and family members (four-legged as well as humans) to walk with me makes things more fun. Aine dog and I took a lovely long walk this week.

I need to manage my time more carefully, so I can get plenty of movement in each day.

I’m loving having this new tool – the fitness tracker itself – to help me stay on target with my exercise goals. We’ll see how it goes in the months to come. Wish me luck!